Environment and Society in a Changing World

Geographic Perspectives on Sustainability and Human-Environment Systems

Credit: Ariel view of a flooded neighborhood near New Orleans by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Schofield is Public Domain

Resource Description

What factors lead to a natural disaster? What causes a famine? Why do cities flood? According to a recent article in The Atlantic, Houston's flooding during the 2017 Hurricane Harvey was primarily caused by impervious pavement which prevents the absorption of water into the land. This example illustrates how nature and society are interlinked, which is the main focus of Geography 30, Penn State's introductory course to nature-society geography. In addition to examining the linkages between human development and natural hazards, this course will also explore human society's connection to food systems, climate change, urbanization and biodiversity. The course will also cover topics of ethics and decision making in order to help students evaluate the tradeoffs of these interconnections.

Course Number

GEOG 30N

License

Badge icon for Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Online Resource

View the entire resource online here: Environment and Society in a Changing World

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Download the resource's source files here: .zip (5.49 MB)

Jenn Baka

Jenn Baka

"I am an energy geographer interested in understanding the interconnected political and biophysical processes shaping and shaped by systems of energy provision. Motivated by growing up in the former coal region of northeast Pennsylvania, my main research objective is to evaluate the distribution of costs and benefits resulting from energy provision and to design strategies for reducing the all too often unequal distribution of these flows. Long an advocate of interdisciplinary research and mixed method approaches, my research draws upon and helps to advance the fields of political ecology, resource geography, environmental governance, energy studies and industrial ecology.

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