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Environment: Issues and Challenges (EIC)

Home/ Environment: Issues and Challenges (EIC)
Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core NSGA1AEC201 4

Course coordinator and team:- Dr. Anees

Course coordinator email: mmanees@aud.ac.in

Course Details:

Summary: This course will discuss some of the contemporary concerns on the environment, ranging from biodiversity conservation, wildlife protection, growing demands on water and its pollution and access, energy, pollution, population, health and climate change. It will orient the early beginners of social sciences to these environmental issues, identify and highlight day to day environmental problems.

Discussions and debates on the on-going issues will provide basic knowledge of the environment and its related concerns. It will further help in connecting everyday environmental phenomena to macro-level development and challenges, and to familiarise broader conceptual framework of environment.

Objectives:

The course has been designed to introduce students the concept and importance of various ecosystems; to highlight contemporary issues related to degradation of natural resource bases and un-sustainable development/consumption patterns, and their impacts on health, climate and society across socio-economic hierarchies.

Expected learning outcomes:

Students will be sensitised to the impacts of ongoing economic model, lifestyle and personal choices on the environment. It also suggests a way forward to change the ways in which humans interact with the environment. The course will introduce students towards 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) of no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequality, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace and justice, strong institutions, and partnerships to achieve the goal.

Overall structure (course organisation, rationale of organisation; outline of each module):

In consonance the outline/syllabus proposed by the University Grant Commission the course has been structured to present an interdisciplinary perspective on environment and ecosystems highlighting contemporary concerns on water, agriculture system as also population, health and justice, waste management, climate change.

Contents (brief note on each module; indicative reading list with core and supplementary readings)

Unit 1. Introduction to environmental studies

Readings:

  • Lele, S (2006), ‘Thinking about ecological sustainability’, Seminar, 564.
  • Marten, G. (2001), Human Ecology: Basic Concepts for Sustainable Development, Earthscan [Chapters 1, 5, 6 & 9]
  • McNeill, John R. (2000) Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century.
  • Rangarajan, M (edited) (2007) Introduction in Environmental Issues in India: A Reader. Pearson p xxi- xxvii
  • Documentary: Who Killed the Honey Bee? BBC 4 documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEY9tcZS_eY&t=40s

Unit 2. Ecosystems

Readings:

  • Aggarwal A and Saberwal V (2007) South Asian Pastoralism: The Environmental Question. in Environmental Issues in India, A Reader ed. Mahesh Rangarajan, Pearson Longman
  • CSE (2017) Environmental Reader for Universities: selected chapters. Centre of Science & Environment. Delhi
  • Gadgil, M., & Guha, R. 1993. This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India. Univ. of California Press.
  • Gopal Brij (undated) Wetland Conservation for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Policy Brief National Institute of Ecology, Delhi
  • IGNOU & WWF (2015) Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996 in National Environmental Law and Policy. Pp 19-37
  • IGNOU & WWF (2015) The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006 in National Environmental Law and Policy. Pp 38-55
  • Odum, E. P., Odum, H.T. & Andrews, J. (1971) Fundamentals of Ecology. Philadelphia: Saunders
  • Documentary: Forest Rights: Jung, Jungle, Aur Jangle Ke Logon Ka by Purabi Bose https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DeJeLwGhY
  • Documentary: Rolgol, A documentary from Kutch by Karan Dilip Worah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiDCqroau1g
  • Selected portions- Suttie, J. M.; Reynolds, S. G.; C. Batello. 2005. Grasslands of the world. Rome: FAO

Unit 3. Biodiversity and its conservation

Readings

  • CSE (2017) Environmental Reader for Universities: selected chapters. Centre of Science & Environment. Delhi
  • Groom, Martha J., Gary K. Meffe and Carl Ronald Carroll. Principles of Conservation Biology. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates, 2006
  • Savyasaachi (1994), ‘The Tiger and the Honey-bee’, Seminar 423: 30-35.
  • Documentary: Call of Life (mass extinction) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMfAtAoYXg

Unit 4. Renewable and Non-renewable Natural Resources: uses and abuses

Readings

  • Cheryl Colopy, Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia’s Water Crisis, Delhi, 2012 (chapters 3, 15 and 16).
  • CSE (2017) Environmental Reader for Universities: selected chapters. Centre of Science & Environment. Delhi
  • McCully, P. 1996. Rivers no more: the environmental effects of dams (pp. 29--‐64). Zed

Books.

Unit 5. Environmental Pollution

Readings

Unit 6. Environmental policy and practice: Climate change policy

Readings

  • CSE (2017) Environmental Reader for Universities: selected chapters. Centre of Science & Environment. Delhi
  • Patwardhan A (2007) Global warming in India in Rangarajan, M (edited) (2007) Introduction in Environmental Issues in India: A Reade. Pearson. pp 550-558
  • Dubash, Navroz K. (2009) Climate Politics in India. Policy Brief. Centre for Policy Research. New Delhi
  • Documentary: 11th Hour
  • Documentary: An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXUY4B0_eRo

Unit 7. Environmental Justice and Movements

Readings

  • Baviskar, Amita (2006), ‘Red in Tooth and Claw? Looking for Class in Struggles over Nature’ in Raka Ray & Mary F. Katzenstein (eds.), Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power and Politics, OUP, 2006.
  • Jacob Kopas, Erin York, Xiaomeng Jin, S.P. Harish, Ryan Kennedy, Shiran Victoria Shen, Johannes Urpelainen, (2020) Environmental Justice in India: Incidence of Air Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants, Ecological Economics, 176, 106711, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106711
  • Karan, P. P. “Environmental Movements in India.” Geographical Review 84, no. 1 (1994): 32–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/215779.
  • S. Ravi Rajan. Environmental Justice. Oct 2014.117-121. http://doi.org/10.1089/env.2014.7501
  • Gadgil, M., & Guha, R. (2008). ‘Ecological Conflict and the Environmental Movement in India’ in Mahesh Rangarajan (ed.). Environmental Issues in India: A reader, New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. (pp.385-428)
  • On the Fence: Chipko Movement Re-visited (Documentary, 30 minutes)
  • Documentary: Drowned Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnSsK-ZHTg

Unit 8. Human Population and the environment

Readings

  • C.M. Lakshmana (2013) Population, development, and environment in India, Chinese Journal of Population Resources and Environment, 11:4, 367-374, DOI: 10.1080/10042857.2013.874517
  • Article: India's population: 1.37 billion and not counting, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/india-s-population-1-37-billion- and-not-counting-69013
  • Documentary: Human Population and the Environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft7J-PGDWSw
  • de Sherbinin A, Carr D, Cassels S, Jiang L. Population and Environment. Annu Rev Environ Resour. 2007; 32:345-373. doi: 10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041306.100243. PMID: 20011237; PMCID: PMC2792934.
  • Hunter, Lori M., Population and Environment: A Complex Relationship. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2000. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB5045.html.
  • Article: Population growth, environmental degradation and climate change https://www.un.org/en/desa/population-growth-environmental-degradation-and- climate-change
  • Lokhandwala S, Gautam P. Indirect impact of COVID-19 on environment: A brief study in Indian context. Environ Res. 2020 Sep;188:109807. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109807. Epub 2020 Jun 18. PMID: 32574854; PMCID: PMC7299871.
  • Cohen JE. Population growth and earth's human carrying capacity. Science. 1995 Jul 21;269 (5222):341-6. doi: 10.1126/science.7618100. PMID: 7618100.

Unit 9. Field Work

Pedagogy:

Instructional strategies:

Interactive classroom lectures along with screening of documentaries and visits to field areas.

  • Special needs (facilities, requirements in terms of software, studio, lab, clinic, library, classroom/others instructional space; any other – please specify):
  • Classroom equipped with good audio-visual system.
  • Expertise in AUD faculty or outside
  • AUD has faculties who have experience in teaching and research in associated fields.
  • Linkages with external agencies (e.g., with field-based organizations, hospital; any others)
  • Individual experts and institutions involved in conservation and alternative development including natural agriculture, water conservation and others
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