Readings/films to be covered on the final exam:
C. Wright Mills’ “The Promise”: his introduction to The Sociological Imagination. I attached this in the files
John Bellamy Foster’s contrasting of the Four Laws of Ecology vs. the Four Laws of Capitalist Production Here is the link https://climateandcapitalism.com/2012/04/02/four-laws/
The film Ice on Fire (2019, dir. Connors), https://www.kanopy.com/en/csicuny/video/5898807
The assigned readings on the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, which are linked under CONTENT for the week of March 13-19 (there are two articles and two films — you can choose one of the films) https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26spill.html?ref=oembed https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/climate/deepwater-horizon-anniversary.html?ref=oembed https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-the-spill/ or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbl7QeqfE-Q&t=3s
The three articles and three documentaries on natural disasters that are linked for the week of March 27-April 3. I attached articles in file
Listed for the asynchronous class replacement for April 8 — the article about the rebuilding of Paradise, CA and my 39 minute lecture https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/05/california-camp-fire-rebuilding-paradise-housing https://www.theqcabin.com/ Link to my REQUIRED 39-minute lecture on this topic:
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/eaeUA6emAhnw95DtVf2BfH4ayAoFdYbdqopZlPDyNpZ7T5Hh9MFl4zotRcHF7PGY.zxJlUHkUxd9OfTWR
Passcode: a0*Gmp58
The two articles and one documentary on Superstorm Sandy, posted at the bottom of the list of items under CONTENT two article in files under sandy and ocean
Some major topics/points to focus:
What is the point of the sociological imagination? What is it meant to help us do? What three questions do we ask in order to attain the sociological imagination?
What are Bellamy Foster’s Four Laws of Ecology, Four Laws of Capitalism, and how do they relate to each other? What would an example of each law be? (Try to actually understand these examples.)
What does the film Ice on Fire tell us about the effects of climate change? What methods of carbon capture does it discuss? In particular, what does the film argue about urban gardening/farming, oyster farming, and seaweed farming?
What was the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe? How were the companies British Petroleum, Transocean, and Halliburton involved? What role did each of them play? What was the Deepwater Horizon? What was the Macondo? What caused the catastrophe? How long did the oil spill continue? What were the effects of BP’s clean-up efforts with oil dispersants? Who suffered as a result and how? What were some of the legal issues involved?
We talked about two broad categories of climate change related natural disasters yesterday — those that are related to sea level rise (namely storms and flooding) and those related to superheating (this also is the cause of sea level rise, but we focused here on heat waves, wildland fires, and heat related health stressors).
Understand what the article about riding out Hurrican Andrew in a motel and the article about expanding our classification system for hurricanes reveal about how we underestimate natural forces.
What is the overall purpose of David Wallace-Wells’ articles and what are some of the major points it makes?
What are the major points you learned from the two mini-documentaries on heat waves and flooding?
The two major texts on the Paradise, CA fire are the book by Lizzie Johnson and the Frontline documentary. Both are very informative and, in my opinion, quite moving. Please approach this topic like an environmental sociologist. You need to understand the basic why’s — what role(s) did climate change, Pacific Gas and Electric, and town planning have in the disaster that unfolded? What was new or unique about this wildland fire, even against a backdrop where California experiences so many wildland fires every year now? In what ways were the people of Paradise adequately or inadequately prepared for a disaster like the Camp Fire? What was the human and social toll of the fire for the community of Paradise? What changes occurred following the fire?
The final section of the course concerned Superstorm/Hurrican Sandy and its impact, much closer to our own homes in New York. What made Sandy both so imactful and so surprising on Staten Island? What was its effect in the tri-state area? As above, what was its human and social toll, for the city, for the borough? in Brooklyn and Queens (Coney Island, the Rockaways)? What have we learned about preparing for any future storm(s)? About protecting the city from flood surges?
What do the concepts of sustainability and resilience mean?
What does planning, prevention, and preparation mean with respect to natural disasters?
Please remember that all short answer or essay questions should be answered paragraph-style, with complete sentences, not with bulleted points, and please don’t hesitate to spell out what you mean, to complete all your thoughts, and to offer examples and then to explain them.
