Film: The River
how people see the land:
- acted without thinking
about the consequences
- until a law was passed in
1970 requiring environmental impact statement
- at the time of the film
(1937) they believed they could control the river
- film is looking at
environmental destruction and how we can fix it
- farming leading to loss
of topsoil
- cutting down trees leads
to floods
- dikes alongside the river
for 1000 miles led to the water backing up and worse flooding further
upstream
before 1930 attitude--the land is
there for us to exploit
at the time of the film--we need to fix the problems we have caused
today we are more interested in understanding and using how the natural
system used to work
what do we think is our relationship to the natural world? How
has that changed?
What do we set as the goal:
- fix problems we have caused
- restore the natural state
of the ecosystem
- modify nature to what suits
us--for example space
solar power
- reduce our impact on the
natural world
- sustainability--not leaving
the world worse for future generations
- there are deeper issues
than just saying technology can fix the problems
- that takes us back to
controlling nature
- do we want to live in an
increasingly artificial world
- or do we want to still
experience a world that is natural--not human controlled
- if we do we need to get
out of the mindset we can fix everything
Goals of this course
- Understand that there
are different approaches to
history--comparision
between two books
- Show how attitudes toward the
environment have changed over
time--Nash for philosophy and public opinion, Hays for politics
- Explain the historical
background of current environmental
issues
- Analyze the
philosophical assumptions held by the
participants in environment controversies
History isn't just the history of
human civilization
do the two books fit together?
more about the rest of the world
both books are about how humans have changed the environment and
wilderness has declined
make more explicit the links between the historical details and the big
ideas
The overall plot of the course:
1.
humans have changed the world environmentally (at first seen as a
good thing, conquering nature)
2. how did we come to see that as
sometimes a problem? (but people will only care about the environment
when they can afford it)
3. what do you do about
environmental probems?
4. we don't necessarily know or
agree on how
what assumptions am I making you may not agree with?
- technological progress has
led to environmental problems
- technological progress does
not necessarily equal human progress (technology may not always be
taking us in the right direction)
- we individually have
responsibility to do something about environmental problems. This
might include:
- support organizations
trying to do good
- carpool, buy hybrid cars,
use public transportation, recycle...
- might you be willing to
choose a smaller house with a smaller yard, a smaller car??
- have opinions about
environmental controversies and look for candidates to vote for who
share those opinions
- volunteer to help
organizations that work for the environment and environmental education
- are we willing to give up
some of our luxuries for the greater good?
Watch out--we don't agree on what
the goals are. Different possible goals:
- he who dies with the most
toys wins--progress is always good and we should do everything we can do
- use technology to solve
environmental problems (technological fix), but this isn't necessarily
an easy solution
- we need to be responsible
about using our technology for the good, think about choices and their
consequences
- human values are more
important than technology and we need to stop technology from going too
far