Text: Students will use links to the World Wide Web found on the Course Website (click on study guide) and Course Documents on Blackboard.  Students will not be required to buy a textbook.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: We live at an extraordinary moment in the history of our species and the natural history of our planet. We are the first generation of living beings (at least on Earth!) to see Universe and know something of our origins in deep time.   As we are learning the story of our ancestry, we find that our activity is endangering the life systems of the planet.  We have become an evolutionary and a geological force with consequences for all other life forms on the planet and for the course of evolution itself.

Five massive extinctions have been recorded in the fossil record. We are living in the time of the Sixth Extinction - unprecedented because it is being caused by a single species.  Attempts to reverse the trends of the last century will be the task of the citizens of the twenty-first century.  Students will study the origin of the Universe, Earth, Life, and Humanity in order that we may better understand our place in the natural world.  We will examine our unique vision, our unique impact, and our unique responsibilities.  We will search for and learn what measures should be taken in order to maintain the life systems of the planet, so to allow all species the opportunity to participate in the great community of existence.