1 - 10 of 93 results for: EESS

For non-majors and majors in earth science or environmental science. The major ocean ecosystems and how they function both naturally and under the influence of human activities. Emphasis is on the dominant organisms of each ecosystem and how they interact with each other and their physical and chemical environment. The types of ecosystems discussed include coral reefs, deep-sea hydrothermal vents, coastal upwelling systems, blue-water oceans, estuaries, and near-shore dead zones. Lectures, multimedia presentations, and group activities.

Southeast Alaska is often described as America's "last frontier," embodying a physical reality of the "pristine" that was once revered by the early romantics and founders of the modern conservation movement throughout Western North America. Although endowed with more designated Wilderness land than any other state, Alaska remains a working landscape: a mixed cash-subsistence economy where communities rely upon the harvest and export of natural resources. Here, ecosystem services remain tangible, and people living in communities that are unconnected by roads confront questions of sustainability on a daily basis. This field-based course introduces students to the global questions of land use change and sustainable resource management in the American West through the place-based exploration of Southeast Alaska. Focused on four key social-ecological challenges -- fisheries, forestry, tourism, and energy -- the coupled human-natural systems of Southeast Alaska provide a unique lens for students to interpret broader resource management and conservation issues. The curriculum balances field explorations and classroom lectures with community exploration in which students will engage with fishermen, hatchery workers, forest managers, loggers, mill owners, tour operators, tourists, city officials, citizens, and Native elders. Students will catch their own salmon, walk through old-growth and logged forests, kayak next to glacial moraines, and witness the impacts of human activities, both local and global, on the social-ecological systems around them. In the context of rapidly changing ecosystems, students will confront the historical, ecological, and economic complexities of environmental stewardship in this region. By embedding their experiences within frameworks of land change science, land-ocean interactions, ecosystem ecology, and natural resource management and economics, students will leave this course ready to apply what they have learned to the global challenges of sustainability and conservation that pervade systems far beyond Alaska and extend throughout the American West. This course is co-sponsored by the Bill Lane Center for the American West and takes place in Sitka, Alaska. Students must arrange for their arrival in Seattle, WA on September 2; students will return to Stanford as a group (flight covered by the program) on September 20.

This course aims to understand the environmental and human rights implications of our modern globalized food system-from farm, to factory, to international commerce, and finally, to fork. Focus will be on the labor and environmental conditions of industrial agriculture, working conditions and environmental consequences of processing factories, the implications of international food commerce, the modern obesity crisis, and emerging solutions that aim to correct these problems.

The ecologically and geologically diverse Rocky Mountain area is being strongly impacted by changing land use patterns, global and regional environmental change, and societal demands for energy and natural resources. This field program emphasizes coupled environmental and geological problems in the Rocky Mountains, covering a broad range of topics including the geologic origin of the American West from three billion years ago to the present; paleoclimatology and the glacial history of this mountainous region; the long- and short-term carbon cycle and global climate change; and environmental issues in the American West related to changing land-use patterns and increased demand for its abundant natural resources. These broad topics are integrated into a coherent field-study as we examine earth/ environmental science-related questions in three different settings: 1) the three-billion-year-old rocks and the modern glaciers of the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming; 2) the sediments in the adjacent Wind River basin that host abundant gas and oil reserves and also contain the long-term climate history of this region; and 3) the volcanic center of Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous region of Teton National Park, and the economic and environmental problems associated with gold mining and extraction of oil and gas in areas adjoining these national parks. Students will complete six assignments based upon field exercises, working in small groups to analyze data and prepare reports and maps. Lectures will be held in the field prior to and after fieldwork. Note: This course involves one week of backpacking in the Wind Rivers and hiking while staying in cabins near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Students must arrive in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, September 3. (Hotel lodging will be provided for the night of September 3, and thereafter students will travel as a Sophomore College group.) We will return to campus on Saturday, September 21.

Preference to freshmen. How and why do greenhouse gases cause climate to change? How will a changing climate affect humans and natural ecosystems? What can we do to prevent climate change and better adapt to the climate change that does occur? This course will focusing on developing quantitative understanding of these issues rooted in both the physical and social sciences. Exercises will be based on simple quantitative observations and calculations; algebra only, no calculus.

Preference to freshmen. The isolation of polar explorers under the harshest conditions on Earth, and the chronicles of their explorations and hardships dating to the 1500s for the Arctic and the 1700s for the Antarctic. Focus is on scientific and geographic achievements. Sources include The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard who in 1911 participated in a midwinter Antarctic sledging trip to recover emperor penguin eggs. Class jointly authors essay on themes from such literature. Optional field trip into the high Sierra in December. (Dunbar)

Preference to freshman. Focus is on the complex climate challenges posed by the substantial benefits of energy consumption, including the critical tension between the enormous global demand for increased human well-being and the negative climate consequences of large-scale emissions of carbon dioxide. Topics include: Earth¿s energy balance; detection and attribution of climate change; the climate response to enhanced greenhouse forcing; impacts of climate change on natural and human systems; and proposed methods for curbing further climate change. Sources include peer-reviewed scientific papers, current research results, and portrayal of scientific findings by the mass media and social networks.

Further discussion of the complex climate challenges posed by the substantial benefits of energy consumption, including the critical tension between the enormous global demand for increased human well-being and the negative climate consequences of large-scale emissions of carbon dioxide. Discussions of topics of student interest, including peer-reviewed scientific papers, current research results, and portrayal of scientific findings by the mass media and social networks. Focus is on student engagement in on-campus and off-campus activities. Prerequisite: EESS 41N or EARTHSYS 41N or consent of instructor.

Further discussion of the complex climate challenges posed by the substantial benefits of energy consumption, including the critical tension between the enormous global demand for increased human well-being and the negative climate consequences of large-scale emissions of carbon dioxide. Discussions explore topics of student interest, including peer-reviewed scientific papers, current research results, and portrayal of scientific findings by the mass media and social networks. Focus is on student engagement in on-campus and off-campus activities.May be repeat for credit