MG3000/ENVE3000: Borrowing the Earth from Our Children

This Honors Seminar will provide the student with hands-on experience in activities that we as individuals can do to promote sustainable urban development and mitigate climate change. Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and it threatens the lives and  elfare of all the people of the earth. But there are ways of dealing with the problem and, because for the first time in history more than half of all people are living in cities rather than in the countryside, the focus of this course will be on activities in and around the city of Cincinnati.

The title of the Seminar and our philosophy for it are derived from a quote by Wendell Berry who said, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.” Furthermore, climate change and environmental sustainability are really two  ides of the same coin, where sustainability means the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. So it is that just as your experiential activities focus on climate change mitigation through outreach to the local community, you will also be learning how we as individuals can contribute to sustainable urban development. Additional activities will include seminars from community leaders, field trips, reflections, and group discussions.

• Spring 2020