Pathfinder: Environmental Modernism

3 units

As committed environmentalists, one of our greatest fears is that not enough people take climate change seriously. To ward off that fear, we assess the state of the world in the most dramatically pessimistic ways to indicate the seriousness of our situation and our personal commitment to environmentalism. Highlighting (much less admiring) human progress in areas where solid evidence of its flourishing exists, seems blasphemous, dismissive of evident, copious human suffering and natural systems abuse. However, the absence of acknowledging human progress reinforces social fear and a sense of danger. The resulting panic leads to a preferencing of solutions which appear in harmony with nature, limiting our understanding and trust of viable alternative solutions using our best social, economic and technological powers. As antidote to this cycle, in this course we will explore the precepts of environmental modernism, the reconciliation of environmental preservation with human development.