Since a great deal of "nature writing" in the textbooks I had to choose from is elegaic, I provided a variety of sources for students to read, many of which provided business- and hard science-minded perspectives. We didn't just look at belletristic essays. We hit science-laden articles and a variety of articles that look at diverse quality of living concerns and geopolitical concerns. To stave off the negativity of some texts we read, such as Howard Kuntsler's fine but somewhat dated diatribe The Geography of Nowhere, I made an effort to inject the course with more positive-minded readings.
In that vein and because I miss teaching that course, I offer an article from Sierra about the really interesting research happening at various universities. The author discusses creating petrol from from cow manure, microscopic refineries, climate scrubbers, wicked strong batteries, optical-circuit technology, and electric vehicles.
Click HERE if you're interested in reading "The Latest from the Labs" by Edward Humes.
3 comments:
Number of words I had to look up on dictionary.com: 2
p.s. I do know what elegy means but I didn't recognize elegaic/elegiac as deriving from it
p.p.s I've never heard of belletristic before. That's a good one.
As far as an actual comment goes, have you read SuperFreakonomics? I just finished that from the library and there is a section on a couple of cheap geoengineering possiblities as part of the whole bit on global warming/global cooling/climate change thingy that would seem to fit into your theme here.
I've been thinking about checking out Freakonomics for a while now.
Elegaically yours,
Quintilian
Your course can and should be a senior seminar, so those who are less belletristically inclined get to have some fun. And those whose blinders do not admit light emitted from any non-belletristic text need to see the light. So it's win-win.
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