Geography 5234: Human Impacts on the Environment
Course Syllabus

Course Description:  Human alteration of the physical environment is a central theme in geography and will be the focus of this graduate seminar.  The increasing complexity, frequency, and magnitude of human impacts on the environment have begun to draw considerable attention from scientists, policy-makers, and the general public.  The structure, specific topics, and reading material in this course may vary. During one semester, the course took a historical and regional approach to investigate past and present human modification of North American landscapes, focusing especially on eastern forests.  Another semester we employed a systematic approach by looking at human impacts on hydrology, soil and landforms, climate and atmosphere, and biotic patterns.

The emphasis will be on the effects of human activities on environmental patterns and processes, but we will also consider the social and cultural causes of human action. Human impacts have varied not only across space, but also through time, so we will explore the effects of changes in population, technology, and culture, on the nature and extent of human impacts on the landscape. Geographic variation in impacts, such as between developed and underdeveloped nations, arid and humid environments, islands and continents, and is an overarching theme.

 

Examples of past reading material:

 

- Flannery, Tim.  2002. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Peoples. Grove Press. 432 pp.

- Whitney, G.G. 1996. From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain: A History of Environmental Change in Temperate North America from 1500 to the Present.  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
- Goudie, A. 2000. The Human Impact on the Natural Environment, 5th Ed. 586 pp. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
- Additional reading from relevant scientific literature.

Course format and student responsibilities: This course will be based on reading and discussion rather than lectures.  Students will lead discussions (in turn) during most class meetings, and will explore relevant individual topics of their choosing, write a term paper of moderate length, and present their findings near the end of the term.  There may be occasional short writing assignments or other tasks, and a field trip or group field project may be required. 

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites, but this course assumes a basic knowledge of earth processes and ecology (such as from introductory physical geography or other environmental science courses). Students should see me if they have concerns about their preparation.

Grading: