Environmental Policy, Citizen Action, and Equity

Catalog description

This course introduces students to the institutions of environmental policy making and various forms of action that citizens and organized groups have deployed to influence those institutions to generate positive environmental outcomes, including environmental protection as well as redress for environmental racism and other environmental injustices. While the focus of the course will be on environmental policy making institutions and action in the United States, it will also examine some variation in environmental institutions across countries as well as global institutions (such as the Inter-government Panel on Climate Change) and citizen action within these institutions. Students will learn about various environmental problems and challenges that societies currently face, and will leave the class with hope that there are many actions citizens can take to address environmental challenges, from the local to the global level.