8/12/2019 ENVR 610 630 Poster 4

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THE McGILL SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENT

OFFERS TWO GRADUATE COURSES ON LIVING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

ENVR 610 Foundations of Environmental Policy;

and

ENVR 630 - Civilization and Environment

FALL 2014

Human activity is overwhelming and degrading natural systemson local and global scales and this process is accelerating. (Thisera is now being called the Anthropocenethe age ofmankind.) These activities have dramatic negative implicationsfor the future of humans and other forms of life. It is likely thatone or more major collapses are already underway and thatthey are likely irreversible. Yet our responses at the personaland institutional level remain almost nonexistent, fragmented,and mainly ineffective. We lack a coherent way toconceptualize the issues and to evaluate the success and/orfailure of responses. Although our institutions and economicsystems as currently constituted are at direct odds withconservation and sustaining the essential elements of the

biosphere, there is much that can be done, from the personal tothe global scale.

Our aim in ENVR 610 and 630 is to understand how humanactivity and belief systems affect the environment, to anticipateand understand collapses or unraveling of planetary systems,and to fashion alternative philosophies and structures that arerespectful of life on the earth. 610 concentrates on the causesof the decline in Earths life support systems such as

population and consumption growth and the rise of the fossilfuel era. 630 is concerned with exploring how thought systemssuch as law, governance, ethics, and economics and finance aresystematically misleading due to the fact that they are notreconciled with contemporary science, nor suited to thecircumstances of the Anthropocene.

These courses will comprise lectures, discussions, papers, and presentations. Students are encouraged to takethese courses to broaden their perspectives for their research. These seminars are under the direction of Peter G.Brown (Geography), Mark Goldberg (Medicine), Tom Naylor (Economics), and Steve Quilley (WaterlooInstitute of Complexity and Innovation) and others. Enrollment in both courses is capped.

ENVR 610 is offered from 2:35 to 5:25 on Mondays. ENVR 630, subtitled From the Big Bang to theAnthropocene, is offered on Wednesdays from 2:35 to 5:25, and is open over the internet to a limited number

of students from York University and the University of Vermont who are part of the Economics for theAnthropocene project.

For more information about registering for the courses and other matters contact peter.g.brown@mcgill.ca ; witha cc to: mark.goldberg@mcgill.ca . Permission of the instructors is a pre-requisite for ENVR 630.

Erik Johansson, Stockholm, Sweden Photographer and Retouch Artist

Website:erikjohanssonphoto.com/work/vertical-turn

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