Sustainable Development and the Environment Minor

Meet the Faculty

The program starts from the premise that the world faces two interlocking moral crises; 1) the need to provide a decent quality of life for all the world’s inhabitants and 2) the need to protect the earth’s natural systems upon which all life depends. In all likelihood, the earth cannot physically tolerate the spread of the pattern of “development” present in the now developed countries. Indeed, many vital ecosystems are already overstressed and near collapse.

It is necessary, therefore, to develop an alternative path to economic and human development that is consistent with, rather than contrary to, the laws of nature. This would be a development strategy that is both regenerative and sustainable.

This program explores both theoretical and actual development strategies that are ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable.

Students who complete this minor will gain an understanding of:

• the basic principles of environmental protection and sustainability;
• the emergence and consequences of globalization;
• the increasing role of international cooperation in managing environmental problems;
• the political economy of transnational corporations;
• the range of both positive and negative behaviors of transnational corporations in developing countries, and the ability to evaluate the environmental consequences of those behaviors and recent attempts to measure and evaluate sustainable development, including indicators of corporate practice.