Spring Course SWS 2008 - Land and Life: The Challenge of Human Existence - Web-Based

This 3 credit web-based course will be taught by Dr. Teri Balser.

The class will be a general education exploration of human use of terrestrial resources across time - from past to present, and into the future. We will address how use of soil and land resources changes as human societies develop (hunter gatherer, agrarian, industrial, knowledge-based), and investigate the modern threats and opportunities for our major terrestrial resources (soil, mineral, and biological) around the world. We will consider current issues such as the impact of climate change and the growing global population on our existence. Finally we will discuss the feasibility and possibilities of various solutions to resource depletion - for example GMOs, terraforming Mars, biofuels, and intensification of land use. Students will leave the course better able to discuss constraints and trade-offs associated with social development, and the basis for many of our current natural resource crises. They will be able to describe and evaluate various solutions for addressing the long-term sustainability of human existence and terrestrial resource use.