Natural resources

Examines the ecological processes of the coastal environment. Investigates the causes of coastal ecosystem degradation and strategies to restore the ecosystem balance or prevent further coastal ecosystem health degradation. Prerequisites: Chemistry 1A-B and Social Ecology E8. Concurrent with CEE267.

Lecture, three hours. Examination of contemporary water problems worldwide, with particular attention to the competing demands for water in the western U.S., and water demand by the poor in developing countries. History and analysis of U.S. water policies at local, state, and federal levels.

Lecture, three hours. Explores the interaction of social choice and physical constraint in shaping the earth’s human carrying capacity, including ramifications for local, regional, or global environmental issues. Prerequisite: Planning, Policy, and Design 4.

Lecture, three hours. Natural disasters are natural processes that adversely affect humans. By examining these processes students develop a basic understanding of Earth’s physical environment. Topics include: tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, severe weather, flooding, climate change, mass extinctions and impacts with space objects.

Lecture, three hours. Overview of scientific underpinnings of global environmental change and human health consequences. Provides students with an understanding of the fundamental dependency of human health on global environmental integrity. Encourages disciplinary cross-fertilization through interaction of students in environmental, health, and policy sciences. Prerequisite: at least one upper-division course in environmental science, public health, environmental policy, and/or environmental management, or consent of instructor.

Lecture, three hours. Examines factors involved in shaping public health and environmental policy. Topics include the role of science in public health policy, the function of governmental regulatory agencies, citizen participation, and economic and sociopolitical aspects of controlling infectious diseases and regulating carcinogens.

Lecture, three hours. Understanding the impact of the nuclear age on the environment and human health through the interrelated developments of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The early years of weapon development, catastrophic environmental pollution, perils of nuclear power in the U.S. and Russia.

Lecture, three hours. Focuses on processes of exposure to environmental toxins/agents and their impact to human health and the environment. Media transport, exposure assessment, susceptibility, behavior, and health effect of several toxins are discussed. Public Health Sciences and Public Health Policy majors have first consideration for enrollment.

The sequence begins in fall by addressing water from an scientific and engineering perspective (global issues, land-sea interactions and urban water), then moves in winter to an historical case study of the Himalayan watershed and its impact on Asia’s water, and culminates in spring quarter by exploring water policy with the overall theme of water as a contested resource across space, time, and peoples. Wherever possible, examples are drawn from the local environment.

Introduction to the analysis of human population including fertility, mortality dispersion, sex distribution. Attention is focused on the effects of these variables on, e.g., over-population, social disorganization, and the stability of social institutions.