Environmental Science and Politics: First Class

Today I had the first meeting of my Environmental Science and Politics course (ERST-POST 2100H).  More students than ever are signed up: 109.  It must be scheduling the lecture at 9 am on Monday morning -- where else would anyone want to be?  Or perhaps it's the approaching tidal wave of regressive policies of the Trump administration -- I expect over the next few months environmental science and politics will be in the news as never before.

The majority of my students are in either environmental science or environmental studies, with a few in other fields, including ecological restoration, biology, politics, and Indigenous environmental studies.

Today I introduced some of the key themes of the course, explaining the complexity of the links between science and politics.  I framed my explanation in terms of the shortcomings of the "rational" model of science and policy: that scientists explain, and society responds.  As I'll be explaining throughout the term, there's ever so much more going on here.

And here are my slides from today's class.  Even Trump makes an appearance (sigh).