[Plsugs] FW: Spring 2012 Courses

[Tanya Quist]

An upper division elective for PLS majors...

LAS/GEO 480 and 580 ---- Spring term 2012 ----  Tuesdays 10:00 to 12:30

Instructor: Sylvia Tesh, PhD

Almost 20 percent of the Brazilian Amazon has now been cut down and despite
the alarm of most Brazilians and of environmentalists across the globe,
deforestation continues. Why is this happening and what can be done about
it? This seminar examines the wide variety of causal explanations and policy
proposals offered by Latin American and North American geographers,
ecologists, economists, political scientists, historians, anthropologists,
journalists and environmental activists. In this thicket of information we
will pay close attention to such things as the authors' theoretical
assumptions (explicit and implicit); the ways they frame their information,
and the possible effects of their analyses on the deforestation dilemma.

Undergrads will be graded on class participation, five short papers and
(your choice) either a final exam or a final paper.

Some questions the course addresses: 

Why save the Amazon? For whom? For what?
Who is cutting down the trees?
What Brazilian laws aim to protect the Amazon forest?  What limits their
effect?
Would it work to pay people to leave trees standing? 
How strong are Brazilian environmental organizations? Can foreign
environmentalists affect Brazilian policymakers?
How big a role does Amazon deforestation play in global climate change?
Are hydroelectric dams, mining, paved roads, and petrochemical plants in the
Amazon forest OK if they reduce poverty in Brazil even though they increase
deforestation?




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