HSEM2073H: Radical Environmentalism in the United States

Our current climate crisis calls for a rethinking of the way humans interact with the environment, but such efforts are not new. This course examines how different groups of people understood and responded to environmental degradation in North America, from the l8th century through the 21st. The focus will be on those who made urgent calls for a change in human behavior toward nature, from Indigenous peoples past and present to ecocentrist groups like Greenpeace and Earth First! Topics include protests against ecological damage and loss, experiments in minimalism, the call for wilderness preservation and national parks, environmental racism and the environmental justice movement, and various forms of environmental activism. Students will develop historically informed positions about an array of ecological experiments, activists, organizations, viewpoints that preceded and shaped current forms of environmentalism.

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