ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

The course is delivered to all first-year students of the Master Degree in Environmental Humanities.
It helps understanding the "fingerprint" of humans on the environment, how anthropogenic activities (i.e. policy and plans, infrastructural interventions, emissions of hazardous substances, waste disposal, etc.) can generate impacts (positive and negative, reverse-irreversible, short-to-long term, continous-discontinous, etc.) on the quality and functioning of the environment.

The goal is to enable students to address environmental issues related to anthropogenic impacts in a multidisciplinary perspective to generate a dialogue between experts in environmental sciences and environmental humanities.
Knowledge and understanding
The student will acquire the knowledge and understanding of human impacts on the structure, functioning and quality of the environment, and their spatial-temporal distribution. She/he will be instructed to carry out appropriate search in the scientific literature as well as in the web.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The student will acquire the ability to identify and assess the occurrence of human impacts in the environment by learning both qualitative and quantitative assessment methodologies.
Autonomy of judgment
The student will acquire independent judgment capability on the evaluation of exposure-effects-risks from human environmental impacts by an integrated knowledge on sources, propagation, and magnitudo of the impacts.
Communication skills
The student will acquire adequate skills, e.g. appropriate terminology for oral and written communication, on the occurrence of anthropogenic environmental impacts.

Advanced reading, speaking and writing knowledge of English (B2).
Basic knowledge of natural sciences, e.g. biology, chemistry and physics, are desirable but not mandatory.

This course introduces students to the investigation of environmental impacts generated by humans over space and time in the context of the Anthropocene. It will start with the basic knowledge allowing the understanding of terminology and concepts typical of environmental science, e.g. chemical substances, materials and energy fluxes, the water cycle, ecological/chemical footprints, environmental sustainability, etc.. Then, major environmental alterations triggered by human activities will be described (e.g. chemical pollution of waters, air and soil contamination, bioaccumulation of dangerous substances greenhouse effect, etc.) and methodologies/methods to identify and quantify the environmental impacts will be presented. The conceptual and quantitative relationships between impact and risk assessment and management for human health and ecosystems will be illustrated. Special attention will be addressed to impacts from climate change and to the Lagoon of Venice as case study.
The regulatory approach (e.g. EIA, SEA, etc.) to environmental impact assessment will be presented and discussed.
All course' topics will be accompanied by internet search keywords.




The content will include environmental humanities, a cross-disciplinary field that explores the role that humanistic knowledge, in close conversation with the natural and social sciences, can play in interpreting and transforming a world challenged by an unprecedented climate and environmental crisis. We will survey the history of the field, its main debates and key terminology (anthropocene, ecocriticism, nature/culture, posthuman, etc.). We will explore the different political interpretations of ecology, forms of activism and public impact, examples of intellectual and artistic intervention. We will overview the main themes (climate change, human and hon-humans relations, the nexus between migration and environmental changes, global tourism, western and non-western approaches to ecology, etc) and draw from a wide range of materials (literature, visual and performing arts, film, political writing, digital culture, etc.). We will critically examine the implications, benefits, and challenges of bringing widely different disciplines and discourses (climate science and anthropology, philosophy and biology) within the same framework. Most of our examples will be drawn from the cultural history and present condition of Venice and its unique ecosystem, showing how this microcosm encapsulates most of the global issues at stake.
In summary, we will be addressing the role of the imagination in facing the planetary environmental crisis.

Slides presented by the teacher and made available in the Moodle platform.
Scientific papers and technical reports provided by the teacher.

Written examination.
Written exam will consist of 4 open questions concerning course subjects, to be answered in 2 hours.

Classroom lectures including interaction with students e.g. case studies discussion and journal club.

English

written