ENV 276: Denial, Faith, and Reason

Taught by Dirk Philipsen; Fall 2019

Overview

ENV 276 is the alternative gateway course for the Certificate, offered in the spring. This course seeks to answer three guiding questions:

What is sustainability? What would it look like to live "sustainably?" Why should we care?

This course focuses on reading about and discussing the concept of sustainability and how it relates to our lives. It delves into the role that denial, faith, and reason have in debates about sustainability and sustainable development, which is rooted in an exploration of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Lastly, it assesses what steps we must take to put society on a path towards living sustainably.

See the syllabus

Written Work

In this course, I was captivated by our discussion of money. I have always known that big businesses and our habits of consumerism were a sustainability roadblock, but I didn’t grasp the scope of the problem until this class. Capitalism seems to be at the heart of the issue, since it encourages people to focus on profit instead of the well-being of themselves and the planet. They put money and materials over things that are proven to make them happy, like social relationships. This pattern is at the heart of the connection between wellness and sustainability, something I am deeply interested in exploring.

I chose to focus on this issue for my two final course assignments. The first is an op-ed highlighting how focusing on well-being and social cohesion would contribute to a more sustainable society. The second is a creative project carrying the theme of the op-ed, for which I chose to tell a story.

Op-Ed

People Over Profit: Why Work and Wellness Don't Work Together and What to Do About It

"In contemporary America, people’s minds are set on money. Success is marked by nice cars and big houses. The go-to introduction question is “What do you do?”. Political decisions are catered to the interests of corporate and PAC donors. Money influences everything from growth to power to wellbeing to personal value, an idea that some of us have internalized by our 7th birthday."

Final Presentation

Tell a story...where money is not the measure of everything

"Asa loves motorcycles, skating, Minecraft, and anything to do with the ocean. He’s a dreamer, always thinking up ideas for epic transformations of his backyard, new words to describe the way fish move, or creative plans to trick his parents into giving him more dessert. One summer night as we sat around my grandparents’ dinner table, I was curious about what a kid like Asa could think up for his future. I asked him what he wants to be when he grows up. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I want a million billion dollars.”

Read the full piece

Personal Contribution

For one of our assignments, we had to make a personal contribution to the sustainability cause and reflect on it throughout the semester. I realized how much plastic I was using in the morning at breakfast and chose to focus on reducing my use of plastics. I made breakfast in my dorm instead of buying it, carried reusable utensils and a mug with me, and signed up for the Reusable To-go Container Program at the end of the semester. This aspect of the class was very meaningful because it encouraged us to think about what we could do in our everyday lives to contribute more to the solution instead of the problem. Personally, it also reminded me to be disciplined with my sustainability actions and not let myself be lax in other areas, like driving or food choices, since I was making an effort to reduce waste.