CONN 309 | Science and Politics of Environmental Problems

This course engages scientific and social scientific disciplinary approaches to environmental issues. While environmental issues reflect certain empirical realities about our physical world, they come to our attention through human contests over values. This course uses environmental science to understand the factors behind and consequences of a wide range of issues like pollution, climate change and declining biodiversity. It also employs social science to understand the relationship of human behaviors to environmental conditions and the important role governments play. The class analyzes the values, incentives, and strategies of political actors affecting environmental policy and the institutional contexts in which they operate. After building a foundation in scientific and social scientific approaches and understandings, the course carefully considers alternative scenarios for environmental solutions.