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GEOG 139

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

3 credits.

Explores the global and local nature of environmental problems, including issues of climate change, food, energy, globalization, deforestation, biodiversity loss, resource access, environmental justice, and population. Considers how we should analyze and act on environmental problems as we confront the apparently daunting scale of such issues. What appear to be single global environmental issues are actually composed of many smaller, context-specific, and place-dependent problems or conflicts. Through an interdisciplinary and geographic perspective, these issues can be understood and addressed at the scale of our lived lives.

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Social & Behavioral Science Breadth - Social Science Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain the scientific basis of climate change, population growth, desertification, deforestation, water quality and quantity impairments, and the environmental challenges of agriculture and energy production. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Critically assess the causal factors and drivers associated with global environmental issues. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Explain the political context in which environmental issues are framed as global problems. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Identify potential solutions to global environmental issues, and obstacles to their implementation. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Describe your own relationship to global environmental issues and how global environmental issues manifest locally. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Explain the scientific basis of climate change, population growth, desertification, deforestation, water quality and quantity impairments, and the environmental challenges of agriculture and energy production. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Critically assess the causal factors and drivers associated with global environmental issues. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Explain the political context in which environmental issues are framed as global problems. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Identify potential solutions to global environmental issues, and obstacles to their implementation. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Describe your own relationship to global environmental issues and how global environmental issues manifest locally. Audience: Undergraduate

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