The environment is absolutely integral to the way all societies work. All throughout history, societies have used the environment and through these anthropogenic dependencies, we have created a need for sustainable practices.  In Society and the Environment, we learned about how we got to the current of state we’re in by dissecting the social, economic, and political motives behind societies use of the environment.

This class holds a great importance to me because it is where I learned of the correlations between health and education of the environment, individuals, and cultures.  As the decline of the earth happens, so does decline cultural tendencies within societies and their overall health.  It’s absolutely necessary to understand these processes globally in order to better understand the patterns.  This concept is called eco-cultural health; the exemplification of how nature and culture interact, allowing for the coevolution of both without compromising either the critical ecological processes or cultural vibrancies.  A prime example of this, globally, is located in the inner grasslands of Mongolia.  In essence, an important cultural and sustainable practice in these grasslands was the nomadic lifestyle herders kept to, but when a large influx of farmers transformed this land into agricultural land, it ruined the symbiotic nature of culture and nature, and in turn deeply affecting the health of millions of Mongolians for the worse.  The continuation of their ecological and nomadic way of life preserved their land (nature), their culture, and therefore the health of their people and now, there is little hope of the improvement for these people.

Additionally, I learned a great deal about what would become a passion of mine— eco-art education.  Eco-art education is the practice that believes when the arts education is integrated with environmental education, it can develop awareness and appreciation at a young age that as the students grow older, can create a larger engagement with environmental issues.  I interned with the Frick Environmental Center teaching young children about their own personal connection with nature, and often did so through art.  Watching the development of these children, even over the course of a year, was extremely uplifting and encouraging.

Society and the Environmental Content Area Final Paper

Ecosystems Ecology was an introduction class to the guiding principles of ecosystem ecology and associated applications to environmental change. We explored the physical environment, different levels of ecology including human ecology.

By understanding these crucial processes, one can apply it to the real world and the ways in which our communities need to incorporate the ecology of our earth into our everyday practices.

Urban Sociology explored the impacts of both culture and ecology on urban environments.  Urban environments are a mashup of neighborhoods, factories, marketplaces and transportation, along with a multitude of other intersections.  It is the prime example of looking at the ways sustainability are in play in societies that are a mix of culture, socioeconomic status, ethnic, racial, professional, and social communities. This class considered this approach when dissecting the sustainability and sociological issues in urban environments, primarily by use of ethnographies.

Warming of the climate system is now evident from observations of increases in surface air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of glaciers and ice caps, and shrinking Arctic sea ice extent.  This class explored the anthropogenic causes for such, rising greenhouse gas levels and its effects, and the governmental, corporate, and individual actions taken to mitigate them.  Now more than ever, our knowledge of the Earth’s climate system and past systems is a matter of urgency, in order to protect our home.  We explored the origins, evolutions, and structures of the Earth’s energy balance, global, synoptic, and mesoscale atmospheric circulation patterns, and surface and deep ocean currents.

These issues are absolutely crucial in understanding climate change and the policy needed to address the urgent issues at hand.  I specifically looked at the reasons for rising sea levels and the socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental impacts of it.

Global Environmental Politics focuses on global environmental politics and comparative environmental policy, and the impact of international systems and treaties on global environmental issues. The effects of interest groups, political parties, and governmental structures on environmental policy-making were explored domestically.  Specifically we considered environmental movements and their history, game theory, policy-making, and other changes in light of the increasingly urgent state of the planet.

Global Environmental Politics focuses on global environmental politics and comparative environmental policy, and the impact of international systems and treaties on global environmental issues. The effects of interest groups, political parties, and governmental structures on environmental policy-making were explored domestically.  Specifically we considered environmental movements and their history, game theory, policy-making, and other changes in light of the increasingly urgent state of the planet.