* When they are available, notes from lectures will be posted here, in 6-to-a-page PDF and in PPT. (Note that the PPTs are often very large files, so start with the PDFs.) Post-midterm: Monday Oct 29 (Tom Hinckley on resources and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Oct 31 was the midterm. Friday Nov 2 (Dan Morgan on petroleum geology): PDF, PPT. Monday Nov 5 (Tom Hinckley on air pollution): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Nov 7 (Jane Koenig on local air pollution): PDF, PPT. Friday Nov 9 (Yoram Bauman on pollution and Rachel Carson): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Nov 14 (Dan Jaffe on international pollution transport): PDF, PPT. Friday Nov 16 (Yoram Bauman on pollution taxes and cap-and-trade): PDF, PPT. Monday Nov 19 (Tom Hinckley on conservation biology): PDF, PPT. On Wednesday Nov 21, we had a panel on Global to Regional Conservation and Sustainability, featuring Michael Case of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), David Secord of the Wilburforce Foundation, and Jen Watkins of Conservation Northwest. Friday Nov 23 was a holiday. Monday Nov 26 (Tom Hinckley on international programs in China): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Nov 28 we had a panel on Local Conservation and Sustainability, featuring Doug Schindler of Moutains to Sound Greenway, Michelle Connor of Cascade Land Conservancy, and Kathy Fletcher of People for Puget Sound.

* Pre-midterm: Wednesday Sept 26 (intro): PDF, PPT. Friday Sept 26 (intro): PDF, PPT. Monday Oct 1 (Tom Hinckley on cycles): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Oct 3 (Tom Hinckley on cycles): PDF, PPT. Friday Oct 5 (Jeremy Littell on climate change): PDF, PPT. (Note that the PPT may not show up well on PCs because it was created on a Mac and there are compatibility issues.) Monday Oct 8 (Yoram Bauman on the optimism/pessimism): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Oct 10 (Yoram Bauman and Rina Hauptfeld on the tragedy of the commons): PDF, PPT. Friday Oct 12 (Yoram Bauman on the invisible hand): PDF, PPT. Monday Oct 15 (Devon Pena on environmental justice, note that you are only responsible for the first slide---which was as far as the speaker got---but you might find the other slides interesting): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Oct 17 (Yoram Bauman on cost-benefit analysis): PDF, PPT. Friday Oct 19 (Stephen Gardiner on environmental ethics, note that you need a UW NetID to access these files): PDF, PPT. Monday Oct 22 (Tom Hinckley on population dynamics): PDF, PPT. Wednesday Oct 24 (Yoram Bauman on IPAT): PDF, PPT. Friday Oct 26 (Susie Cassels on population and demography): PDF, PPT.

* Old announcements are below, with the most recent announcements at the top.

* Final exam grades are now posted on the grade looker-upper below. Please note that grades for memos and posters and outside seminar #2 and clicker scores have not been entered yet---stay tuned and thanks for your patience. (Grades are due Monday morning.) Also, here's the final exam and a draft answer key. Your score totals were double-checked to prevent the mistakes that occurred with some of your midterms, but you are of course welcome to pick up your finals at any time during winter quarter.

* The final exam is Wednesday Dec 12 8:30-10:20 in our lecture hall (Gowen 301). All you need to bring is a writing implement. Here are some final exam review questions. All class material from lectures, guest speakers, discussions and activities in section, and readings are fair game for the exam. This is a comprehensive final exam, but there will be an emphasis on material covered since the midterm. The questions below focus primarily on material covered since the midterm, so you should also look at the midterm review questions and at the midterm exam itself.

* Office hours: Yoram has his usual office hours Monday 10:30-12:20 in MGH 274E or MGH 278. Claire Beyer has office hours Monday 3-5pm and Tuesday 11:30-1:30 in the coffeeshop of Gould Hall. Jason Scullion has office hours Tuesday 1:30-3pm in MGH 274.

* Regarding the clickers: You might want to hang on to them for use in future classes, but if you really want to unload yours then here are three options. Option #1 is to show up in the 5 minutes before and/or after the ENVIR 100 class during winter quarter (MWF 12:30-1:20 in JHN 102, starting Monday Dec 7) and try to sell your clicker. Option #2 is to bring your clicker to the final exam on Wednesday and write down your clicker number, your name, and your email address on a piece of paper that we'll have there. We'll take your clicker and your info, do our best to sell the clicker for $20 next quarter, and email you back with info about collecting either your $20 or your unsold clicker. Option #3 is for you to become an enterpreneur and set up an online marketplace that would make everybody's life easier. (And who knows, you could be the next amazon.com :)

* You can use the grade looker-upper to see your scores: Use the login "sea" and the password "otter" and then enter your student ID on the next page. If you didn't get your midterm back, you can get it in your next quiz section. Here is the midterm exam, and here is a draft answer key (note that this is just a draft, meaning that we may have changed how we did the grading), and here is the midterm review sheet. The average (mean) was 78.5, and the median (half of the scores above, half of the scores below) was 80. If you have questions about the exam or the grading, please come see a member of the teaching team during office hours. Please total up your points to make sure we've given you all the points you deserve.

* Plugs for upcoming events: Here's some information on a student-focused climate change workshop that you might be interested. It's in Los Angeles in February, 2008, and there's info online about scholarships and internships.

* Yoram's office has been moved one door down, so instead of MGH 278 my office hours &etc will now be in MGH 274E.

* PDFs and PPTs from lectures are available (along with old announcements) at Lecture PDFs and old announcements.

* Class on Wednesday and Friday is meeting in the MGH commons for the poster symposiums. We really want your attendance (for the poster symposia on Wednesday and Friday, and for course evaluations on Monday so we can get your ideas for improving the class), so clicker attendance scores for those days will count triple in terms of making up for missed clicker points since the midterm.

* More good news about printing: Odegaard Library has a 2nd-floor printer that gives you an additional printing option: Take your poster on a flash drive to the Catalyst desk on the 2nd floor of Odegaard, and after forking over just $17 and waiting just 20 minutes you can get a 32x40 color poster! My understanding is that the hours of the Catalyst desk are the same as the library hours , except that the Catalyst desk is also closed between 2am and 7am. Please note, however, that it is still your responsibility to bring your completed poster in on-time to your poster symposium, and since printer break-downs and other last-minute problems are possible I would still recommend finishing at least 24 hours in advance. (PS. Just FYI, the difference between this printer and the one described on the webpage (which involved a printer in the copy center on the 1st floor of Odegaard, costs $25, and takes 24 hours) is that the printer on the 1st floor produces a glossy laminated-style poster, and the printer on the 2nd floor doesn't. Either style is fine for your poster.)

* More details about the poster: Here is the poster grading rubric; also, everyone should know by Friday Nov 30 if you're presenting on Wednesday Dec 5 or Friday Dec 7. (Class on both days will be in the MGH foyer; you have to show up and bring your clicker on both days to get full clicker credit for these two days.) Good news: The Odegaard print shop says that they only need 24 hours (not 72 hours) to print your poster! Bad news: In addition to printing your poster, you need to spend about $6 on a 40x32 posterboard or foam core that you can thumbtack your poster to. (We will provide the thumbtacks.) To save money and resources, we recommend that Friday groups try to purchase posterboards for $3 from Wednesday groups at the end of class Wednesday. Wednesday groups and unlucky Friday groups can purchase posterboards on the lower level of the UBookstore; make sure to follow the sign to the measuring counter before going to the check-out counter.

* FYI, Yoram is looking into options for re-selling clickers if you're so inclined. (The bookstore does not buy them back.) The clickers are used in other classes, but if you want to sell yours we will do our best to match up supply and demand.

* Three items about posters. First, don't forget that for a template you can use the revised otter poster, which also includes this references page. Second, the Natural Science librarians are interesed in displaying your posters around the library during January, so stay tuned for details. (Of course, you'd be able to opt out, and the display would not include grades or anything else other than your poster.) Third, you might find the Library collaboration studios useful: they're big computer screens that multiple people can view at once. (As an additional option, I think that if you bring one or more laptops you can even work simultaneously on the same document. It is not necessary to have a laptop, this is just an option.) Suzzallo Library has a collaboration studio near the reference area that is first-come-first-serve---enter the library from Red Square, go down the hall and turn left shortly after you go down the small flight of stairs---and Odegaard has two collaboration studios that you can reserve ahead of time: from the library home page, click on "Services >> Reserve a Study Room", then on "Odegaard >> Collaboration Studios."

* For Monday Dec 3, the short-and-sweet reading is Martin 2007 ("Big growth, big fight over water"). Here are some questions: (1) How might the west and east side of the Cascades differ with respect to water use? (2) Are there also water shortages on the west side? (3) How do we plan for these water shortages? Think about consumption, our Mediterranean-maritime climate [i.e., winter wet, summer dry], sources of stored water, and climate change...

* On Friday Nov 30, we will have a panel on UW Campus Conservation and Sustainability, featuring Cara Simon of the UW Capital Projects Office and Stephanie Harrington of the UW College of the Environment and UW Carbon Accounting. Your required reading assignment is to visit the websites of our two panelists. You should be able to identify their mission statements and one current action, activity, or recent success. It will be difficult to record three participants and there will likely be few if any Powerpoint slides, so if you miss this lecture it will be hard to catch up.

* Your memos are due at the start of quiz section on either Tuesday Nov 27 or Thursday Nov 29. Here is the memo grading rubric, which also contains the memo assignment. (You can also find the assignment and other details in the section on Assignments and Due Dates.) Make sure to read the assignment!

* Next quiz section you'll get more time to work on your posters, and the final quiz section will focus on reviewing for the final exam, which is comprehensive. (A list of review questions will be posted on Thursday Nov 29.)

* Here's information about WWF opportunities, and here's a cool Seattle Times article about an example of ex-situ conservation: a Norwegian seed bank.

* On Monday Nov 26, we will have examples of UW student research activities in China. Your required reading is to visit websites for UW Worldwide and Research in Yangjuan and answer the following questions: (1) What is the SU--UW undergraduate exchange program? (2) What are some of the different kinds of research being conducted in Yangjuan? (3) Where is Yangjuan? (4) Where is Jiuzhaigou National Park?

* On Wednesday Nov 21, we will have a panel on Global to Regional Conservation and Sustainability, featuring Michael Case of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), David Secord of the Wilburforce Foundation, and Jen Watkins of Conservation Northwest. Your required reading assignment is to visit the websites of our three panelists. You should be able to identify their mission statements (often listed in an "About Us" webpage) and one current action, activity, or recent success. For the WWF, focus specifically on what they mean by action, flagship species, and priority ecoregions.

* Readings for the remainder of class are not on EReserve but are instead linked directly from the class webpage. (You may need to enter your UW NetID to access some of these links. If clicking on the link doesn't open PDFs, try right-clicking and choosing "File--Save Link As..." or "File-Save Target As...".) For Monday Nov 19, your required reading is Meine et al. 2006 ("'A mission-driven discipline': the growth of conservation biology.") When reading this article, try to trace the history of ideas about conservation, resource management and ecology over time and how ideas and approaches have changed over time. Is conservation biology a fad, as one critique suggested, or will it continue into the future? What issues does it currently focus on? For Monday Nov 19, you also have the following optional reading: Soule 1985 ("What is conservation biology? A new synthetic discipline addresses the dynamics and problems of perturbed species, communities, and ecosystems").

* For Wednesday (Nov 14), read Jafee et al. 2007, which you can also get here---you may need to enter your UW NetID. This article is short but challenging. Note the number and diversity of authors and consider these questions: (1) Where was this air mass sampled? (2) What was measured? (3)How long did it take to get from Asia to the US? (4) What increased as a result of the arrival of this air mass?

And these

broader thought question: (5) If air pollutants and other substances are coming from outside of US borders, should we abandon our own attempts to regulate air pollution (and if so why) should we impose global regulations (and if so how)? This week's readings are still in the folder on E-Reserve called "Pollution (Nov 5 - 16)". For Friday, read Sightline 2007. Think about which of the three policies you favor (or maybe you don't like any of them) and think about the political aspects of passing this sort of climate policy.

* Quiz section this week (Thursday Nov 8 and Tuesday Nov 13): Your next quiz section will be outdoors in the Union Bay Natural Area (UBNA). You will get a short tour of the UBNA, an introduction to restoration ecology, and a hands-on project in which you get to use shovels and clippers to help remove invasive species and plant native trees! If the weather is truly miserably we'll cut short the outdoor section, but you should come prepared for it to be wet, cold, and muddy. So dress appropriately and consider bringing a change of clothes. In particular: (1) Wear appropriate footwear i.e., hiking boots or tennis shoes, NOT high heals and NOT slip-on shoes; (2) Wear appropriate clothes i.e., jeans or other work clothes, raincoats, warm layers, an umbrella, etc.; (3) Bring an extra pair of socks to change into afterwards in case your feet get wet, and consider bringing other spare items, e.g., an extra pair of shoes. In short: Be prepared for rain or shine, and think ahead about what you will need in order to have a good experience during the class period and during the rest of the day. Quiz section location (important!): The UBNA quiz sections will meet in the E5 parking lot that is behind the soccer field: . PLEASE look carefully at the map! (To get to the E5 parking lot, head down to the big parking lots on Montlake, then go past them, past the soccer field, and over a small bridge that is apparently called the University slough bridge.) Class will start 5 minutes late (i.e., either 9:35 or 12:35) to give everyone time to get to the parking lot. If you show up late, head into the UBNA (which is behind the parking lot) and look for your class. We will also end class 5 minutes early in order to give you time to get back to upper campus.

* This readings for this week are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Pollution (Nov 5 - 16)". For Monday, read Nature (2007), Pollution Probe (2006), and BC (2004). Questions for Nature (2007): Why might increasing ground-level ozone have a positive effect on global warming (i.e., cause it to increase)? What is the difference between google and blackle.com? Questions for Pollution Probe (2006): (1) How does acid rain form? (2) How does it impact terrestrial, aquatic and the built environment including human health? (3) Eliminating or reducing SO₂ and NO_x have benefits in addition to their direct impacts on air pollution and acid rain; what are these? (4) What is the Sudbury success story? Questions for the BC (2004): (1) What are point and non-point sources of pollution? (2) what are the sources of ground level ozone and what is its impact on health and the environment? (3) Do pollutants change form once they get into the air? (4) What are the environmental benefits that resulted from the use of recycled vs. virgin fiber in the printing of this primer? Optional readings here include Law and Stohl (2007) and Karnosky et al. (2007). For Wednesday, read UW (2006) and think about: (1) What factors of IPAT produced the result that "the air over Puget Sound is cleaner today than it was 40 years ago"? (2) According to the material on page 6, what is the single largest air pollution source in summer and in winter? (3) What happened to Seattle's streetcars? For Friday, read Carson (1962) and Rosenberg (2006). Think about their perspectives on DDT and how they relate to environmental justice. A more thorough article by Rosenberg is in the optional readings (Rosenberg 2004) if you're interested.

* We have decided to make a one-week extension in the due date for the 2nd outside seminar. Regardless of what you see elsewhere, then, your 2nd outside seminar is due by the start of quiz section on either Thursday Nov 15 or Tuesday Nov 20.

* The next quiz section (Thursday Nov 1 or Tuesday Nov 6) will feature a library tutorial to help you research your memos and posters. You'll also have time to work on your memos and posters (and to critique a revision of my sea otter poster, which also includes this references page :), so if you can put some thought into it before quiz section you'll be able to get more out of it. Also, here's the library page for ENVIR 100. And if you're having trouble getting off-campus access to online resources from the UW Library, the Libraries Proxy Bookmarklet might help.

* A thoughtful critique of the class was posted recently on this GoPost page, so I encourage all of you to read it and add your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to disagree with each other (or with me), but also please be respectful of other people and other views.

* Tom Hinckely and I are in the process of hiring TAs for the next offering of this class, in winter quarter 2008, so if you have any rants or raves about your TA, this would be a good time to share them with us so that we can continue to make the class better. (You are also encouraged to share your thoughts on other aspects of the class: lectures, guest lectures, readings, etc.) If you don't want to just send me an email, you can use UMail to send us anonymous feedback, but please note that since we won't know who you are we won't be able to send out an individual response. Also, please keep in mind that your TAs are full-time students and that this class is their half-time job. So I encourage you to understand their constraints and to view things like rapid email responses as going above and beyond the call of duty rather than as just par for the course.

* Here are some midterm review questions; the midterm is this coming Wednesday. You are also encouraged to take a look at questions from midterms and finals from previous quarters, with the caveat that there is not 100% overlap between previous quarters and this quarter. Fair game for the midterm exam is anything through Friday Oct 26.

* Upcoming due dates (with a 10% per day late penalty): Those of you who are representing countries in the Global Town Hall will be giving your oral presentations on either Thursday Oct 18 or Tuesday Oct 23; those of you in the Local Town Hall have your first outside seminar due on that same day. (Those of you in the Global Town Hall have your first outside seminar due on either Thursday Oct 25 or Tuesday Oct 30, the same day that Local Town Hall folks will be giving their oral presentations.) The midterm exam is Wednesday Oct 31. Your second outside seminar is due by the start of quiz section on either Thursday Nov 8 or Tuesday Nov 13. Details are in the section on Assignments and Due Dates.

* This readings for this coming week are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Resources (Oct 29 - Nov 2)". Here are some questions for the readings for Monday: For the Koh and Wilcove article: (1) What is palm oil used for? (2) What dilemma (s) is presented in this article? (3) What solution do the authors propose? (4) How do palm-oil plantations and villages improve/impact some of the ecosystem services and constituents of well-being shown in the Figure on page 881 of the article by Fred Powledge? (5) How might the partnership between the oil-palm companies and NGOs work? Questions for the Powledge article: (1) How do the 1992 UN meeting in Rio de Janeiro and the 2005 MEA reports relate? (2) Why was the report(s) from the MEA taken so lightly? (3) What were the two assumptions used in the MEA assessment? (4) Walter V. Reid received his Ph.D. from the UW (go dawgs!) (5) What did the Economist say and did Reid agree? (6) Understand the figure in the upper left corner of page 882! (7) Be able to list the positives and negatives of the MEA. For Friday, read Deffeyes (2001); understand the graph on page 6; think about what "the impending world oil shortage" means for human quality of life, both in terms of economics and in terms of environmental quality; and think about the economic incentives that would be (and are being!) generated by rising oil prices.

* This readings for this week are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Population (Oct 22-26)". For Monday Oct 22, read Ripple and Beschta (2004). If this reading interests you, there are a bunch of optional readings you should check out at the bottom of the E-Reserve folder: Binkley et al, Hollenbeck and Ripple, Kaufman et al., and three different articles by Ripple and Beschta. Here are some questions to think about: What is a trophic cascade? What is the difference between extirpation and extinction? What happened when wolves were re-introduced into Yellowstone National Park? Are there lessons for other places in North America? For Wednesday Oct 24, read McKibben (1998). Think about how many children your grandparents had, how many children your parents have, and how many children you might want to have. (We'll do a clicker exercise about this in class.) Also think about how McKibben's approach to population issues compares and contrasts with Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", which is also on this week's reading list because it's worth reading again. For Friday Oct 26, check out the NOVA (2004) website, which is very quick and fun, and read the first 2 pages of Lutz et al. 2001, paying particular attention to the graphs. Combine these two readings to draw a graph of human population levels (actual and projected) from the year 0 to the year 2100. If you're interested in learning more, the optional readings on E-Reserve include a cool interactive website from a Paris museum (Musee de l'Homme 1997, note that it's 10 years old and so a bit out-of-date in places), short and sweet articles by Rosenblatt and Cohen, and a longer but fascinating article by Lee.

* This readings for this week are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Ethics (Oct 15-19)". For Monday Oct 15, read the excerpt from Devon Pena's book. (He's a UW anthropologist and will be our guest lecturer on Monday.) Note that the excerpts are in 3 files to keep the individual file sizes small. For Wednesday Oct 17 read Solow (1991) and think about how you would answer his challenge to "invent for yourself how you are going to explain to the Chinese that... even living at their standard of living they shouldn't burn [their] coal, because the CO2 might conceivably damage somebody in 50 or 100 years." For Friday Oct 19 the reading is the Des Jardins article chosen by Stephen Gardiner, a UW environmental philosopher who will be our guest speaker.

* There have been lots of questions about the op-eds and what they're supposed to look like. On the assignment page you can find a newly expanded list of pointers and ideas, so please check that out. Also, to get a sense of the wide range of possible approaches, you can look at the op-eds written by ENVIR 100 students from Spring 2007 on the GoPost boards here, here, and here. Please note that these are ungraded op-eds and that some of them are good and some of them are less good. Also, if you haven't already done so, you should read this UW information on Academic Honesty. Plagiarism isn't just turning in someone else's paper; it can also be using another writer's words without proper citation, or even turning in the same paper to two different classes without getting prior approval from both instructors. (Since this is Selfishness Week, please be aware that it is in your own best interest to read and understand the information linked above.) To summarize: Take a look at past op-eds to get a sense of what they can look like, but research and write your op-ed from scratch. One good approach might be to avoid looking at the op-eds about your own stakeholder role; another might be to try to include one or more citations that are recent, i.e., within the last six months. In any case, do not copy or plagiarize the work of others, and please email your TA if you have questions.

* Your TA should have sent you the grading criteria for the op-eds and outside seminars, but you can also get them from the link above. Your op-eds are due Tuesday by 5pm on GoPost, and if for some reason you can't get access to GoPost then email your op-ed to your TA. Upcoming due dates (with a 10% per day late penalty): Your poster proposals are due at the beginning of quiz section on either Thursday Oct 11 or Tuesday Oct 16. (Your TA may also ask you to post these on GoPost.) Your op-eds are due on GoPost by 5pm on Tuesday October 16. (Your TA may also ask you to turn in a paper copy during your next meeting after that time.) Those of you who are representing countries in the Global Town Hall will be giving your oral presentations on either Thursday Oct 18 or Tuesday Oct 23; those of you in the Local Town Hall have your first outside seminar due on either Thursday Oct 18 or Tuesday Oct 23. Details are in the section on Assignments and Due Dates.

* I want to encourage all of you to make use of the office hours and other resources you have for this class. (See Help! and Basics for details.) As you hopefully learned from the sea otter poster, a fresh perspective can provide valuable feedback---the next version of the sea otter poster will be much better. So don't hesitate to come to Yoram's office hours on Monday (or any of the other office hours) to try out your oral presentation, bring by a draft of your op-ed, etc. In short: Be selfish and take advantage of us!

* Two plugs for possible outside seminars and one plug for an outdoors learning opportunity: Elizabeth Kolbert's talk on the UW Common Book (Field Notes from a Catastrophe), Wednesday Oct 17, 7pm (with a resource fair at 6pm), Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. And you can take a college class outside with the Wild Rockies Field Institute (WRFI). WRFI offers field-based, academic courses for 300-level credit in departments such as Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Forestry, Geography, Science, and Native American Studies. These courses are taught entirely outside and in the backcountry in places like Montana, Utah, Alaska, Canada and Mexico. Credit is offered through the University of Montana and is transferable to other universities.Click the links for details.

* The readings for this week are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Social Sciences (Oct 8-12)". For Monday Oct 8, read the first three articles (NY Times 2007a, NY Times 2007b, Economist 1997) and think about how the authors of these articles would respond to the other articles, e.g., what would the author of the Economist article say about the situation in China? For Wednesday Oct 10, read Hardin 1968, which is short but difficult; try to follow his main points, try to understand the overgrazing example, and think about whether you agree with his argument about the UN Declaration of Human Rights. For Friday Oct 12, read Read (1958) and Economist (2006) and think about how Read and Hardin would respond to the Economist (2006) article.

* The quote about truth and lies from Monday's class actually goes back at least 150 years and probably more: "If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, 'a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.'" From "Spurgeon, C. H. (1859) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2003. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. University of Washington. 8 October 2007.

* The next quiz section (Thurs 10/4 or Tues 10/9) will involve a 20-minute outdoor scavenger hunt of sorts, so bring a raincoat or other appropriate attire. (If it's raining really hard we'll do an indoor activity.) In this quiz section you will also get to pick a poster topic for you to work on in groups of 3---this is your chance to learn about something that you're really interested in, so spend a few minutes thinking about possible topics. This brainstorm sheet (based on a slide from Friday's lecture) might help, and recall that you cannot do a poster that is about sea otters or that is directly related to climate change. Details on the memo/poster can be found in the Assignment section below.

* Friday we will have a guest lecture on climate change from Jeremy Littell of the UW Climate Impacts Group. The reading for Friday Oct 5 is the IPCC article (2007d, FAQ) article available in the folder on E-Reserve called "Natural Sciences (Oct 1-5)". Please read all of the italicized blurbs that provide short responses to the FAQs, and then read the detailed responses to the following FAQs: 1.3 ("What is the greenhouse effect?"), 3.1 ("How are temperatures on earth changing?"), 5.1 ("Is sea level rising?"), 6.1 ("What caused the ice ages...?"), 8.1 ("How reliable are the models...?"), 9.1 ("Can individual extreme events be explained by greenhouse warming?"), and 10.2 ("How likely are major or abrupt climate changes?"). And of course you have the option to read additional materials about climate change, either from this FAQ document or from other documents from the IPCC or elsewhere, many of which are in the folder on E-Reserve called "Climate change"; these are not required readings, but we are very lucky to have the latest IPCC reports, which came out earlier this year. Another optional reading is this article from the UW Daily about some reseach being done by our guest speaker.

* Week 2: The reading for Monday Oct 1 and Wednesday Oct 3 is the Carpenter et al. article available in the folder on

E-Reserve called "Natural Sciences (Oct 1-5)". (The Service et al. article is optional, as are the other articles listed, which are mostly ones that we've used in the past but are not requiring for this quarter.) For lecture on Monday Oct 1 you should be prepared to address these issues: (1) Why does it take many disciplines to understand these two lake systems? (2) How do the authors define system? For lecture on Wednesday Oct 3 you should be prepared to address these issues: (3) Describe the two lake districts (where are they, how are they similar, how are they different?) (4) Take each lake district and describe their time lines. (For example: When were they logged? When was the course woody debris or habitat removed? Why is this important?). (5) What happens to these two systems in the future if the present trends continue? (6) What are the external drivers?

* There is no textbook for this class, but you must go to the bookstore to purchase a Turning Point radio-frequency "clicker" for use during lectures. (They look like this and are sold at the textbook counter in the bookstore. If you can buy an appropriate clicker that works from somewhere else--e.g., another student, or somewhere on the web--that's fine too.) You must register your clicker here. Failure to register your clicker before class on Wednesday Oct 3 will negatively affect your grade.

* Week 1: The reading for the first quiz section (either Thursday Sept 27 or Tuesday Oct 2) is the Wolfs article on the scientific method, available in the folder on E-Reserve called "Introduction (Sept 26-28)".

* Week 1: The readings for lecture on Friday Sept 28 are the "Grand Challenges" and King County readings available in the folder on E-Reserve called "Introduction (Sept 26-28)". For the NAS "Grand Challenges" reading, make sure you understand the environmental challenges listed. For the King County website, do the following: (1) Identify what in your opinion are 4-6 major environmental issues that are highlighted on this page (see statements like sustain, recover, restore, plan, noxious, invasive, etc.). (2) See if you can categorize those issues under the different listings from the NAS "Grand Challenges" reading. (3) Define the following terms: stewardship, ‘green' building, biosolids, watershed. (4) Explain what the Cedar River Watershed is.

* Week 1: The outside seminar options mentioned in class on Wednesday were the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) Freedom to Roam seminar series (Tuesday evenings, Oct 9 - Dec 4), the UW Climate Impacts Group weekly seminars (Thursdays 1:30-3:00), and the Oct 17 Common Book lecture by Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. For a full listing of these and other events, see the calendars linked from the outside seminar assignment page

From Winter 2008

* Grades for the midterm (here's the exam and draft answer key), outside seminar #1, town hall, and clickers-to-date are now posted in the Grade Looker-Upper. Enter login "sea" and password "otter" and then enter your student ID (don't forget the 0 if you have one at the beginning of your ID) to see your grades. If your clicker ID is missing and you don't see many clicker points, you probably haven't registered your ID as discussed at the beginning of the quarter. (Read here for details, and register your clicker now to get 80% partial credit.) Questions about grades should be directed first to your TA, and then if necessary to Yoram. Note to Environmental Studies Majors: You must get at least a 2.0 for this class to count towards the major. If you don't get a 2.0 you will need to retake the class. The next opportunity to take ENVIR 100 will be the upcoming summer quarter.

* This coming Thursday your draft poster is due (part of the memo/poster assignment). Here's the library page for ENVIR 100. And if you're having trouble getting off-campus access to online resources from the UW Library, the Libraries Proxy Bookmarklet might help.

* This coming Thursday Feb 21, your second outside seminar is due. Also due is a paragraph on your memo and poster (part of the memo/poster assignment). You can also pick up your midterm if you haven't already. (Grades will be posted in the Grade Looker-Upper below early next week.) Also, here's the library page for ENVIR 100. And if you're having trouble getting off-campus access to online resources from the UW Library, the Libraries Proxy Bookmarklet might help.

* Claire Beyer will not be having office hours on Tuesday Jan 22 because she'll be out of town on a class trip. Yoram Bauman will have substitute/extra office hours Friday Jan 18 2:30-4:20pm and Tuesday Jan 22 9:30-11:20am in MGH 274F.

* Your first outside seminar is due this Thursday, so check out the assignment and the calendar of Program on the Environment events as well as other events on-campus and off-campus.

* Last Wednesday (Jan 16) the clicker software didn't work as hoped, so everybody gets full credit for that day.

* Here is a midterm review sheet (there is no answer key) that should give you a good sense of the type and scope of questions that will appear on the midterm, which is Wednesday the 13th. You can also look at past midterms and finals on the class website (in the section on Grades, at the very bottom of the webpage) All class material from lectures, guest speakers, discussions and activities in section, and readings are fair game for the exam.

* Here is the grading rubric for the Town Hall, coming up on Feb 7 and 14. Global group, here is the prompt that you must respond to: Read these notes from the 2007 Bali conference. From the point of view of your stakeholder, respond to some of these policy proposals. Answer these questions: If the world community were to create a carbon cap and trade program, how would you be affected? Would you support it or oppose it? Do you agree more with the position of the American government or the European Union? What additional or alternate policies might you suggest? * Local group, here is the prompt that you must respond to: Read Governor Gregoire's policy brief. From the point of view of your stakeholder, respond to some of the policies she sets out. If the Governor were to implement a carbon cap and trade program, how would you be affected? Would you support it or oppose it? What additional or alternate policies might you suggest?

* Professor Marcia Baker (here's her lecture PDF) had two points from her lecture that she wanted to clarify: (1) "In talking about feedbacks I only mentioned positive ones. Of course there are negative feedbacks too, but it turns out in the climate system they are smaller so the net feedback is positive." (2) "I used the word 'thermals' instead of the more correct 'convection', but 'convection' includes the rising of warm moist air to form convective clouds (the ones that produce our precipitation), so it was misleading to just talk about hang gliding, etc. (i.e., to mention only the rising of dry air)."

* This coming Thursday your memo is due (part of the memo/poster assignment). Here's the library page for ENVIR 100. And if you're having trouble getting off-campus access to online resources from the UW Library, the Libraries Proxy Bookmarklet might help.

Fall quarter syllabus is here.

E-Reserve is linked from here. If you are off-campus, look for the "off-campus login" button towards the upper-right of your browser. The E-Reserve folders contain the required readings as well as optional reading, which are located below the line that says "articles below are not required reading". The optional readings are exactly that: optional. (Basically they are readings we've used in past quarters, or readings we thought about using but decided not to. If you're curious, take a look; but these readings will not be fair game for the exam or otherwise be in any way required reading for the course. Translation: optional means optional.)