Environmental Justice and Advocacy

Catalog description

The course introduces students to the relationship between human societies and the larger natural environment of which they are a part. Environmental justice is one of the most important and active sites of environmental scholarship and activism both locally and globally. As a social movement, environmental justice seeks fair treatment of all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, national origin, and education level with respect to environment politics, policies, and their implementation. In this course, students examine issues of human rights and ecological health in the contemporary world and they review programs that have been developed to address selected health conditions, such as childhood asthma reduction, lead poisoning prevention, waste recycling, clean-up and restoration of contaminated sites, sustainable/organic agriculture, clean energy programs and cancer and health disparities research.