Imagining Sustainable Futures

In 1987, the UN-sponsored Brundtland Report defined sustainability as meet[ing] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Implicit in this statement is the necessity of envisioning potential futures in order to guide our actions in the present. In this class, we explore how artists, filmmakers, and writers of all stripes have taken up the challenge of picturing possible worlds that ripple out from decisions we make today. Together we will encounter a variety of imaginative works in which human relationships with the environment are significantly, sometimes radically, transformed. Although our focus is on concerted critical analysis of these fictive futures, we will also assess their implications for the present and respond with creative visions of our own. This course fulfills the requirement for a critical course in the Environmental Communication concentration.