The nature of my coursework involved studying environmental issues in Pittsburgh and how they scale up to regional, national, and global extents. Understanding the local impact of problems such as air pollution and storm water mismanagement allowed me to intuitively analyze these issues at larger geographic settings while being conscious of the changes that occur at these increasing scales.
Jake Doughman
Environmental Science
Global Studies Coursework
Coursework Descriptions
I owe my inspiration to pursue the global studies certificate to my high school global studies teacher. She showed me how my environmentally conscious mind can be applied to present day problems and how to articulate my thoughts and ideas into effective writing. Introduction to Global Studies was the continuation of this class for me and helped me establish a framework for thinking about issues of global scale. The course had a reoccurring theme of globalization, the unavoidable process of increasing globalism in our ever more connected world, that was used a lens to look at global issues such as terrorism and population dynamics. This time the challenge for me was to deeply consider issues I had never thought about before. Global crime, proliferation of weapons, financial crisis: I had no well-defined opinion on these prior to this course. Through our repeated questioning of the implications of globalization on each of these issues, I learned how the complexity of the histories and the powers involved demands a wide-frame of reference. Not only does globalization amplify the effects and responses of a global issue, but it creates unique challenges for the local, national, and international agencies responsible for correcting it.
My particular interests within the course were the environmental politics and population and migration sections. They are the most important issues to me and are the most connected global issues. Environmental impact is multiplied by each additional actor, creating a “tragedy of the commons” type scenario. As global population is being driven forward rapidly, our ability to compensate for the finite and already over-exploited natural resources decreases just as fast. Our global food system, is one of the most profound examples. Balancing agricultural land with urban and suburban developments leaves little room the most important land type: natural environments. The wetlands, oceans, forests, and plains either become converted to industrial agriculture plots or the dumping sites for the byproducts of this food mechanization. The significance of this is that all people need to eat, and how secure their food systems are greatly determines the severity of the other issues they are faced with.
This course introduced me to the science of climate change, where different elements of the global environment interact and respond to human-driven changes. What I learned from lecture and model building in lab served as the basis of my understanding for many of my other climate change-related courses. Having the scientific knowledge on Earth’s climate processes has allowed me to realize the impacts of our cities and our developments analytically. I think the fault in accepting climate change as a reality is that for many cities, regions, and counties is that its impacts are not yet fully apparent. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania most of my life where the weather never gets too hot or too cold, there’s ample precipitation, and the climate is temperate and regular. If I never would have looked beyond my backyard I would have had no reason to believe that the climate is being altered by my actions. This too is the case for many people and will likely continue to be for some time. Conversely, there is the other half of the world who is and has been experiencing the severe flooding, famine or species endangerment thanks to collective human actions. Climate change requires a global perspective that considers the scaling up of each individual’s local actions to the world setting. This course taught me that the atmosphere, oceans, and climates are not isolated systems confined by political boundaries.
I did not fully realize how powerful spatial analysis could be in studying most, if not all, subjects when I first became acquainted with GIS. Now that I’ve practiced using GIS in other courses such as Geomorphology and Remote Sensing, both my appreciation of and skill in the program has grown immensely. My professor for both of these courses has repeatedly emphasized how lucky my generation is for having an abundance of information readily available thanks to online databases and new advancements to data gathering methods (e.g. remote sensing). If there is one, almost unquestionable benefit to globalization, it is this. Datasets covering the entire Earth surface are available to download and use for analysis at any given moment. This resource is incredibly powerful in understanding the extent and magnitude of global issues, such as population dynamics or climate change. I can’t imagine a field where spatial analysis cannot be implemented and I look forward to bringing my experience with GIS to whichever field that I apply.
Considering how society perceives and approaches environmental issues was the focus of this course. Discovering different perspectives from both independent research and class discussion challenged the opinions and ideas that I previously formulated on my own. This course taught me to accept that each person assigns different values to the environment and that knowing what these values are facilitates solutions with the best chance at widespread support. The course identified three systems: economic, scientific, and moral/ethical. Each person values different aspects of the environment and seeks to use, influence and/or protect it based on which system they embody in their actions. Right or wrong, the way someone views the environment implicates which system should be used to approach them in terms of protecting the environment. This insight can be used, for example, to decide how a government could appeal to its citizens to buy local produce (e.g. reduced transportation costs, freshness, community building, etc.).
Embodying a global environmental perspective requires the consideration of different ideas and beliefs about the natural world. Using literature as a means to illuminate these different perspectives gives insight into both the minds of the writers and their characters. This course explored contemporary works of literature with narratives related to the environment through actions of both real and imagined characters. I found the literature that held the environment as an auxiliary factor in the plot to be the most interesting. How is the environment regarded by individuals who don’t have the same values and knowledge that I do because of my academic experience? I’ve had this question in the back of my mind for a while, seeing people careless dispose of their waste or only think about climate change on those odd days when the temperature goes above 70 degrees in February. Having exposure to unfamiliar attitudes through literature, even if they are fictional, allowed look past my convictions and consider new ways to approach people with different environmental values. This course tied in strongly with Society and the Environment where I was able to hear real, non-fictional perspectives from my classmates that differed from my own. Even if I still don’t agree with them, I realized that I should at least know the kind of challenges I will face with purveying environmentally conscious decisions.
Ecology is the interaction between the different circles of life and the environment. It can take the perspective of a single species in a well-defined niche or that of an entire rainforest looking at the biodiversity of its flora and fauna. It is a science of changing scales, where history has taught us that there are consequences for not considering the connectedness between them. For example, a species of toad was introduced in Australia to control an insect species that was responsible for crop destruction. The toad more than took care of the pest, and crop production rebounded. But without natural predators, the toad population flourished and became the new menace. The toad solution backfired because it did not regard the larger ecosystem outside that of the cropland. This example can be applied to countless other failed attempts to control the ecology of an area. Similarly, it applies to human populations as well, where instead of, say, predator-prey relations there are cross-cultural, religious, and socioeconomic considerations that reveal how encompassing of a potential solution is being applied.
Other Relevant Courses
This was one of the most challenging and immersive courses that I took within my major and this certificate program. Every class period was an open discussion prompted by opinion pieces, research articles, federal laws and regulations, documentaries, and lectures given by the instructor. As a guest instructor, Emily Collins, took a different approach to standard power point lectures and encouraged the students to talk about the topic at hand in class. I was fascinated with the ethical framework that we applied to the environmental problems we studied. Never before have I taken a class where the sentimental, principled, and collective value of the environment were discussed and used in the decision-making process. I took to speaking in class and writing about this ethical framework naturally and enjoyed every lecture. This didn’t mean that the course was easy for me or the other students however. We attempted to decipher legalese in environmental law and had to devise detailed and feasible plans for cooperative businesses. The students, including myself, were unfamiliar with and challenged by the freedom we had in these assignments, but ultimately gained so much more than what we would have got out of a standard lecture-based course.
As a journalism-style writing intensive course, the instructor, Don Hopey, took the class on numerous tours and hosted guest speakers all related to water quality issues in Pittsburgh. Don Hopey is a writer for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and thanks to his connections was able to take us to the city’s municipal water treatment and sewage plants as well as bring in speakers from the Sierra Club and the Clean Rivers Campaign. The exciting part about this class was that the issues were all present-day challenges that the city was facing, such as a storm water management mandate from the EPA. We learned how to ask important questions during tours and lectures, and how to write concisely for articles. Though the nature of this course was focused on local water issues, understanding how government, business, organization, and community actors within a single city approached sustainable solutions to these problems was valuable knowledge.