207-301 Global Environment and Sustainability

The subject challenges the student to take on the perspective of different stakeholders in issues relating to the environment and sustainable production systems in both a regional and a global context. The student will become part of a global classroom as a member of a group formed from students from several international universities and facilitated by local classroom discussions, postings to discussion forums and chat rooms on the internet. Compressed video technology is used to present the global seminar, held every two to three weeks, in which students from all universities play an active role. Subject content is presented via case studies developed by the participating universities (currently Cornell, Uppsala, Wageningen, Zamorano and EARTH) in topical areas of environment and sustainable production systems.

Content will vary depending on the institution involved but will cover issues such as:

• global warming and climate change;

• biodiversity prospecting and global trade;

• population demographics;

• water quality and quantity;

• waste management; and

• genetically modified foods and food security.

The assessment tasks are a project report of 3000 words (25%), a seminar on the project report (15%)and a 1000-word reflection paper on each case study (40%) and postings to discussion forums (20%).