Topics [ week 1 | week 2 | week 3-4 | week 5 ]

Week 1 - Monday, June 19
9:00-10:15am Introduction to the course

• ·           Brief in-class survey; review of the course syllabus, class schedule, assignments, and field trip to Alaska

10:30-11:50am Guest lecture and slide show: Amy Gulick

• ·           What are the issues surrounding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

READINGS FOR TUESDAY:

NRC Chapters 2 and 3 (available on eres)
Walt Whitman: "O Pioneers!" and "Song of the Redwood-Tree" (available on eres)
Selection from Thoreau: from The Maine Woods, Walking and from Walden. (available on eres)
Wallace Stegner: The Wilderness Letter and The Geography of Hope
One poem by Robinson Jeffers: The Purse-Seine (available on eres)
US Fish and Wildlife Service web-pages for Local Cultures

 

Tuesday, June 20th
9:00-10:15am Overview of North Slope people and Environment (lecture notes)

• ·           The people of the North Slope
• ·           The North Slope environment

10:30-11:50am Wilderness literature

• ·           Discussion of Whitman and Jeffers poems; essay selections from Thoreau and Stegner

READINGS FOR WEDNESDAY:

George Schaller's essay (in Banerjee p 62-69)
Roger Kaye Book Chapter: The 1956 Sheenjek Expedition (download)
Kaufmann book chapter: Arctic Refuge, Yukon Park (handout)
William Cronon essay: The Trouble with Wilderness or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature (online)
US Fish and Wildlife Service web-pages for Refuge History and Refuge Purposes

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Essay #1 (due Monday June 26 – wilderness essay question)

 

Wednesday June 21st
9:00am - 10:15am The political history of the Refuge (lecture notes)

• ·          timeline of key events, key legislation, and key people

10:30-11:15am Discussion: Wilderness Values, Then and Now

11:15-11:50am: Research Journals Discussion

READING FOR THURSDAY:

Gibbs 2001: Oil and the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (eres)
USGS Fact Sheets FS-028-01 and FS-045-02
Review http://anwr.org web-site

Skim “ANWR and the Alaska Economy: An Economic Impact Assessment,” available at http://www.akrdc.org/issues/oilgas/anwr0902.pdf .  This is a report sponsored in part by the Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc.  

For a look into the type of issue currently in the news, read “Step lightly: Location of footprint is important,” Anchorage Daily News Editorial, June 14, 2006, available at http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/7856566p-7750338c.html (scroll down to the second editorial).
Skim NRC Chapter 4
William Meadows essay (in Banerjee p 122-127)
 

Additional recommended reading

Oil in troubled waters, Economist, Apr 28th 2005
Conoco deals ANWR drilling a blow, by Lisa Sanders, Jan 5, 2005
ANWR oil should be shared, three say, Anchorage Daily News, July 8, 2005
Anchorage Daily News ANWR page

Richard Fineberg's Arctic Refuge Numbers Game, original and update

 

Thursday, June 22nd
9:00am-10:15 Petroleum Geology, in general and for the North Slope: Dan Morgan's lecture notes

10:15-11:50am The economic paradigm: weighing costs and benefits; Lecture by Jon Karpoff

READINGS FOR FRIDAY:

Peter Mathiessen essay (in Banerjee, p.40-57)
John Muir, selections (about 20 pages), (eres)
Gary Snyder, two poems, (eres)
Susan Kollin, (pages 1-16 optional), read from page 17 on in selections from Nature's State, (eres)
Jeffers, two poems and a two-page essay, (eres)

 

Friday, June 23rd
9:00am-10:45 Wilderness Literature Discussion

11:00-11:50am round-table discussion with special guest Tom Campion

READINGS FOR MONDAY:

Barry Lopez, selections from Arctic Dreams (about 30 pages), (eres)
John Haines, 2 essays, (eres)
Edward Abbey, 4 pages (eres)
"The Last New Land" (on eres) read the Susan Zwinger essay (pages 717-728); Ted Kerasote essay is optional
Aldo Leopold, two very short (two-page) essays

 

Week 2
June 26-30: lectures and discussion from 9-11:50am in MGH 258

Monday, June 26th
9:00am-11:15am Wilderness Literature

11:15-11:35am Research Journals planning

11:35-11:50am Field Trip planning: review of gear list and logistics

READINGS FOR TUESDAY:

NRC Summary and Chapter 1, skim NRC Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 (eres)

 

Tuesday, June 27th
9:00-11:50am: Guest lecture: Gordon Orians -- the National Research Council's report on Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope

READINGS FOR WEDNESDAY:

Field trip description (coming soon), gear list, Fairbanks agenda,
Selections from the Arctic Climate Impacts Assessment

 

Wednesday, June 28th
9:00-9:30am climate change primer

9:30-10:15 Arctic Climate Change, guest lecture by Dr. Jim Overland, NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

10:30-11:00 Pre-trip logistics

11:00-11:50am round-table discussion with special guest Rich Berkowitz, board member for Arctic Power

READINGS for Thursday:

A famous bet over whether the earth is running out of resources is summarized here.

A fun New York Times Magazine article on the same bet was written by John Tierney: "Betting the Planet," The New York Times Magazine, December 2, 1990

A well-known example of a community that consumed itself into oblivion is discussed in "The Lessons of Easter Island," excerpted from Clive Ponting's A Green History of the World:  The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations.

Fran Mauer and Debbie Miller essays (in Banerjee, p. 82-89 and 132-141)

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Essay #2 (due Monday July 3rd essay question TBA)

 

Thursday June 29th

9:00-10:15am Oil Prices: what do they mean? Discussion led by Jon Karpoff

10:30-11:50am ANWR Politics: discussion with Senator Patty Murray’s legislative staff member Kimberly Panicek

READINGS for Friday: TBA

 

Friday June 30th
9:00-10:15am TBA

10:30-11:50am Telling stories with photography, guest lecture by Natalie Fobes

 

Weeks 3-4
July 3-14 -- in Fairbanks and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (see Field Trip)

READING:

Frigid Embrace: Politics, economics, and environment in Alaska, by Stephen Haycox

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: keep a daily research journal to be used in the final presentation design project and turned in at the end of the quarter

 

Week 5:
July 17-19, Seattle

Monday, July 17
9:00am-10:00am coffee and bagels homecoming, brief review of Alaska Field Trip activities

10:15-11:50am in class final presentation design activities

READING: David Sibley essay (in Banerjee, p. 102-109)

WRITING ASSIGNMENT: essay #3 (due in class Tuesday, essay question TBA)

 

Tuesday, July 18
9:00-10:30am Guest presentation TBA

10:30-11:50am