Environmental justice is a worldwide social movement arising from the unequal distribution of the environmental consequences and benefits of public policies and natural resource use in global society. In this course, we will look beyond the traditional focus on industrial pollution, waste sites and the US "not in my backyard" movement to the wider issues of who decides how our natural environment is used, who benefits and who is placed at risk. Local autonomy and democratic process are central issues, as we look at environmental equity in the international setting. We will examine a range of cases, from our own backyard to the rain forests of Mexico and beyond, to see how processes at different scales interact to produce the geography of difference and how environmental questions intersect with social justice. These issues include sustainable development, eco-tourism, bio-prospecting, intellectual property, transgenic crops in the developing world and more. Students will be introduced to current methods of engaged research, combining local ethnographic approaches with methods such as landscape ecology and regional analysis, to address crucial social and environmental issues of our time. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: midterm, short written essays, and final project. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: none (expected: 25).

Hour: NIGH