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Study undergraduate online with La Trobe University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

Writing, Culture and Ecology

Climate Change Economics and Policy

Human Relationships with Animals and the Environment

International Politics of Climate Change

Looting the Planet: Histories of Colonialism, Capital and Climate

Global Environments

Principles of Environmental and Resource Economics

Sustainability, Resilience, and Collapse: From Past Societies to the End of Civilisation

Culture and Environment: Anthropological Approaches to Environmental Issues

Water Management

This subject provides students with the knowledge and critical thinking skills required to analyse and address questions concerning how humans interact with animals (anthrozoology) and how they interact with the natural environment (ecopsychology). Throughout the subject, students are provided with a broad overview of relevant theories and methods of scientific inquiry. There is an emphasis on developing practical solutions to challenging social issues such as the use of animals, land and water in food production, conservation of endangered species and companion animal breeding and training. Online learning materials are used to provide information about contemporary issues, with tutorials providing many opportunities for students to engage in discussion, debate and further analysis.

This subject introduces you to the concept of sustainability, and a systems approach to understanding the complex interactions between the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability. The subject attracts students from a range of fields, bringing a multidisciplinary team perspective to the researching, analysis and problem-solving aspects of creating positive change for sustainability. In teams, you are required to critically evaluate the stakeholder management and sustainability efforts of large business corporations across the world. This subject provides you with the opportunity to enhance, demonstrate and document work-ready skills appropriate to your chosen career path.

Sustainability

Issues of sustainability and resilience are prominent today in light of accelerating climate deterioration, rising populations, and declining resources. But these issues are not new, and numerous past societies have faced these crises before. In this subject you will learn about past societies that failed to adapt, or failed to innovate, resulting in their collapse. And, you will also learn about past societies that innovated and adapted successfully to their often challenging environments - resulting in sustainable and/or resilient societies that thrived for centuries despite significant challenges, including past climate change.  This subject explores the success or failure of past societies within their respective social environmental systems - including how those systems were impacted by climate change in the past, and how future climate deterioration might impact our own society, or even bring about its end.This is a level 2 subject, please consider the subject level and prerequisites before enrolling.

Climate change politics encompasses a web of complex and inter-related transnational processes that impact on all aspects of global affairs. POL3IPC is an asynchronous online subject (i.e. there are no scheduled classes) in which students are led through an iterative weekly journey examining international climate politics across numerous different International Relations issue domains.A range of perspectives on climate governance and justice are represented in the POL3IPC material. The first half of the subject examines international governance of climate change mitigation and adaptation, focusing on international legal regimes, the global economy and post-carbon transitions, climate security, geoengineering governance, and sea level rise and state sovereignty. The second half of the subject examines the international justice dimensions of climate change, focusing on economic, gender and inter-generational justice, First Nations Peoples and climate governance, eco-centric governance models, and the global climate movement.While POL3IPC focuses on the international level specifically, students are encouraged to see climate change as ultimately about them, their place in the world, and their capacity to exercise empowered agency in global climate politics.

This subject provides an overview of the legal and regulatory frameworks to protect and manage the Australian environment at the Federal, state and local level. It introduces students to the scope and sources of Australian environmental law, the regulatory tools utilised and broad based environmental law principles. The environmental management and regulatory challenges in relation to waste and pollution management, biodiversity protection and climate change and energy are examined. Environmental planning, impact assessment and development approval, dispute resolution, enforcement and compliance are considered through readings and seminar case studies.

Environmental Law

This subject asks how writing has shaped relationships between &#39;culture&#39; and &#39;nature&#39; from the beginning of the Anthropocene in the late 1700s to the present. You will explore key literary scenes that have dramatically reimagined &#39;nature&#39;, &#39;the environment&#39;, and the future of life: from the poetry of untameable nature produced alongside the mass urbanisation of the Industrial Revolution; to the mode of ecological polemic that coincides with the rise of environmentalism as a political movement in the 1960s and 70s; to Indigenous story-telling as a caring for country through the violence of settler colonization; to writing in our present moment, with an awareness of what to many seems a foreshortened future. Literature has not always been a benign force in the relationships between people and the more-than-human world; what role does it have in understanding and storying the present and future of that relationship?This is a level 3 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

Globalisation is a process by which distant regions are increasingly linked, shaping our lives, and impacting on the fate of nations. We often think of globalisation primarily in terms of industry, trade and technology, but in this introductory level subject you will use the UN Sustainable Development Goals to take a broader view.  We will explore some of the world&#39;s most pressing current problems, including but not limited to poverty and conflict, environmental degradation, gender equity, racism and access to health and well being. Case studies from a range of contexts, including Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Indigenous communities in Australia and the Pacific, will be examined.This is a level 1 subject. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

Globalisation and Development

The climate crisis and inequality are two of the most urgent problems facing the world today. But how did we get to this point? How are these problems connected? And why are they such difficult problems to solve? In ‘Looting the Planet’ you will examine the deep historical links between the development of capitalism, the building of empires, ecological destruction and the unequal distribution of wealth. You will look beyond European history, to the Global South, Asia, Africa and the Americas, to develop a global understanding of these issues.Beginning in the Mongol Empire, you will study a range of case studies across time and place: the colonisation of the Americas; India and the British Empire; the Scramble for Africa; the Sino-Japanese War (otherwise known as WW2); and the Cold War and the ideology of ‘development’. You will debate key concepts in environmental histories: the relationship between humans and the natural world, the impact empires and nation-states have had on both human and natural history, and the complex interdependent systems that underpin these interactions.This is a Level 2 subject. This subject includes live sessions in the form of either in-person or Zoom tutorials with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

In this subject, students will examine the challenge of climate change that affects contemporary local and global societies from a multi-disciplinary approach. Students are introduced to the basic principles of the scientific, economic and sociological approaches that underpin the current debate. Through a problem-based approach, students develop a recognition and understanding of the causes and impact of climate change and the responses of science, society and business to this. This subject addresses La Trobe&#39;s Sustainability Thinking Essential. Sustainability Thinking entails deep appreciation of how our actions and choices affect the natural, economic, social, political and cultural systems-now and in the future.

Climate, Sustainability and Society

Environmental issues such as climate change, population growth, consumption, globalisation and loss of biodiversity are increasingly impacting all human societies. Considering the diversity of human environmental knowledge, beliefs and behaviours, anthropology has an important contribution to make in understanding these issues in terms of theory, empirical research and proposed solutions. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary ethnographic case studies from industrial, rural and small scale societies to illustrate the diversity of human responses to environmental change this subject will familiarise you with the main theoretical and methodological currents in environmental anthropology. You will gain knowledge of a range of social scientific frameworks for thinking about human - environment interactions as well as the various applied contexts where social scientists are involved in efforts to address environmental issues.This is a level 3 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling. This subject includes live sessions with the expectation of students attendance and participation.

La Trobe University Undergraduate Sustainability Subjects | Open Universities Australia

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