Ocean Conservation

Ocean Conservation

To be ~1,050 words, or 3 double-spaced pages;
1. Summarize 3 major subjects covered in the unit (~250 words each), drawing upon material
from both lectures and 3 different readings or videos in lecture, and reflect on how these relate to
the
broader themes of the course (read ‘Overview’ below)
I will give you the link to the video and reading in the lecture and the lecture PDF and lecture
notes. Please do not use sources other than those I give to you.
2. Overview
This course examines struggles over conservation and development in a global context, in
relation to the vast and growing inequalities in wealth, power, and resource consumption that
exist within and between countries. A basic premise is that efforts to conserve healthy environmental conditions for humans and for other species – including significant space for
relatively self- organizing ecosystems – cannot be understood in an historic or political economic
vacuum; that is, without attention to the unevenness of development. There is some attention to
the colonial roots of the modern world system and approaches to conservation, but the primary
focus is on
Examines struggles between conservation and economic development in a North-South context,
setting the transformation of natural ecosystems and impoverishment of biodiversity in a political
economic context that includes disparities in wealth, consumption, and ‘ecological footprints’.
Prerequisites: Third or fourth year status at the University. Two full courses in Geography or
equivalent, or enrollment in the Minor in Environment and Culture, in any of the Global
Development Studies modules, or permission of the instructor.
the dramatic economic growth and intensifying global market integration since the Second World
War.
A central aim is to provide a foundation for assessing pivotal political economic processes (and
associated ways of conceiving ‘development’) that have driven the relentless transformation of
self-organizing ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity. Another core aim is to critically examine
the wide variety of responses that fall under the broad banner of environmentalism, and why
much of what gets defined as conservation has been critiqued by social movements,
organizations, and scholars, who are arguing – and struggling – for more fundamental changes.
Particular emphasis here on the environmental justice movement, or what some refer to as the
‘environmentalism of the poor.’ In the end, the course seeks to provide a basis for analyzing
urgent environmental problems and thinking constructively about what socially just forms of environmentalism could entail. While the array of contemporary environmentalisms might be
broadly seen to reflect a ‘reform’ (working within the status quo) versus ‘radical’ (working to
challenge it) binary, the course also seeks to spark thinking about ways they might intersect.