GEO 210 - Society and Environment

1. Physical environment, ecosystems, resource use, pollution & climate fluctuations
2. Causes and consequences of the population explosion & world hunger including the role of farming & sustainability
3. History of the environmental movement and modern environmentalism
4. Fundamentals of critical thinking as a skill and a process as it pertains to environmental and social issues
5. Critical thinking skills and reasoned arguments

1. Describe the concept of natural resources, their origin and their geographic patterns. (1,2)
2. Describe and use elements and aspects of the critical thinking process, including the examination of complex and conflicting ideas about the environment. (1-5)
3. Relate the causes and consequences of habitat degradation and pollution including modern and historical human activities. (1-5)
4. Describe and model the essential steps and concepts of critical thinking while evaluating environmental data and data sources, including socio-economic and temporal constraints, biases, implications and consequences. (1-5)
5. Analyze rehabilitation and mediation measures including environmentalism, recycling, composting and ecotourism. (2-5)
6. Explain sustainability and predict the impact of pollution and exploitation of resources on modern lifestyles and future populations. (2-5)
7. Apply critical thinking skills when assessing technical, social and individual issues in environment-society interactions. (2-5)
8. Explain how open-mindedness to new ideas is crucial to the development of critical thinking skills and that closure is not always achieved in intellectual discourse. (4-5)