COMMRC 1149 - ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
The primary purpose of this course is to introduce upper division undergraduates to some of the most important rhetorical resources utilized by various participants in contemporary American environmental controversies. The first unit of the course is devoted to various historical and contemporary cross-cultural conceptions of the natural world and the place of humans within what to those in our culture is called the natural 'environment.' In this unit we compare briefly European, Asian and native-American conceptions and the various rhetorics used in each in the attempt to persuade those with differing views. The second unit quickly reviews the development of American environmental rhetorics from the early European settlement of the new world, through the colonial period, the early national era and into the late 19th century, by which time many of the signal concepts and rhetorical resources which continue to inform 21st century American discourse on wildness, nature, environment and ecology were first elaborated. Unit three examines some of the most significant and contention environmental disputes of the 20th century; including wilderness preservation, the human causes of the great 'dust bowl' devastation of farmland in the 1930s, the sudden relevance of the old science of 'ecology,' the huge influence of Rachel Carson's rhetorical masterpiece, silent spring, exposing the dangers of wide scale use of the pesticide DDT, and the growth of new movements against nuclear, chemical, and biological contamination as well as air, water, oceanic, solid waste, and many other forms of pollution, including even the at first ridiculed dangers of noise and light pollution. Unit four then looks at the environmental movement as it becomes truly global, beginning symbolically with the first 'earth day' activities, protests and teach-ins in 1970, which have continued annually to this day. Unit five will look at the acrimonious 1980s dispute between the new 'deep ecology' movement and the more mainstream environmental lobbying organizations like the sierra club, the nature conservancy etc. which focus primarily on lobbying congress for environmental reforms, rather than advocating a complete revolution in the way each individual human lives. Unit six will then treat some of the many enormous new environmental challenges of the 21st century, from still unrestrained global warming, to ozone depletion, to the depletion of fish stocks, to deforestation and desertification, to increasing human population, to widespread species extinctions, to the depletion of natural resources, from oil, to arable land, and even potable water, and so forth. Students should leave the course with a rigorous understanding of where contemporary environmental rhetorical resources come from and how they continue to operate in all manner of contemporary environmental and ecological controversies.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis

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