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

Sustainable Resource Management

Introduction to Sustainable Development

Sustainability, Ecology and Communities

Leadership in Sustainability

Sustainable Urban Communities

Marine Protected Area Management

Natural Resource Economics

Geographies of Food Security

Urban Geographies

Political Ecologies of Development

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.

Human Relationships with Animals and the Environment

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.

International Politics of Climate Change

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 overarching 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, asynchronous activities and synchronous seminars.

Environmental Law

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

Ancient Gondwana evolved over forty millennia into several continents including Australia. Since European settlement, the human impact on land, massive species extinction, and climate change, pose threats to the continent&#39;s fragile ecology. You will consider Australia&#39;s early geological history; Indigenous land use; competing ideas of land use among early settlers; and how various forms of land use shaped, and changed the environment. We also explore how Australian environments shaped humans. You will examine settlement as an artefact of colonialism and Empire, and how environmental thinking impacted on Australia and shaped its participation in global environmental movements. You will research environmental history in local and global contexts. This is a level 3 subject. Please consider the subject pre-requisites before enrolling. This subject is fully online but includes live sessions with optional student attendance and participation.

Environmental History: Gondwana to Global Warming

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.

Looting the Planet: Histories of Colonialism, Capital and Climate

By 2050, the world will be faced with the challenge of providing water, food and a sustainable environment for an estimated 9 billion human inhabitants. Securing our environmental well-being and sustaining global and local food and water supplies are three of the most critical problems current and future generations face. Patterns of food production, land use, consumption and the globalisation of food systems as well as processes of urbanisation and climate change have implications for community health, cultural practices, and economic well-being. This subject examines the role of food production and consumption in securing land and water resources and providing for healthy communities. Case studies, drawn from Latin America, Asia, and Australia, will explore the policy, sociocultural practices, and economies of food production and consumption, emphasising, as well, the role of water security and sustainable development. Students will explore, critique, and develop strategies, policies, techniques and actions for addressing the interconnected challenges of securing food, water and the environment.

Food, Water and Environment

The majority of humankind now live in cities, and these cities are bigger and more complex than in any previous historical epoch. The twenty-first century is the Asia-Pacific era and the cities of the region are the urban imaginaries and techno-industrial engines of the world. A critical understanding of these cities, from LA to Vancouver, Tokyo to Seoul, Beijing to Shanghai, Delhi to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Singapore, Bangkok to Manila, also informs the spatial, built form, technological and cultural possibilities of Australian cities. In this subject students explore urban challenges and innovation in contemporary cities of the Asia-Pacific. It is designed to be of interest to all social science students but with immediate utility to international development and planning students. It has a strong emphasis on evaluating policy and programs for making mega-urban regions sustainable and liveable in the twenty-first century.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.

Asia-Pacific Cities

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

This subject introduces you to key ideas within the Environmental Humanities and their importance in helping us understand and address the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. The subject begins with the Anthropocene – the era in which humans have become a geological force. We look at the relationships between nature and culture and their representation through processes that embed understandings of power and control, and learn the importance of the humanities in addressing issues of social and environmental justice. We then apply these ideas to four different case studies that focus on the themes of earth, wind, water and fire. We will consider the extraction of resources and people in Central and South America, including the Amazon, and look at the power of the monsoon in Asia: what does it mean for the region and the planet that half the world&#39;s population depends on the rains these winds bring? We will study the rising seas of the Pacific and the region&#39;s history of colonisation and decolonisation. Finally, we will look at Australian Aboriginal use of fire in land management, and consider the legacies of the Black Saturday and Black Summer fires the entanglement between humans and nature in those conflagrations. Throughout the subject we consider different forms of knowledge in order to identify ways to address the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. This is a Level 1 Subject and includes live sessions with the expectation of student attendance and participation.

Global Environments

La Trobe University Sustainability Short courses | Open Universities Australia

Course results for La Trobe University Sustainability Short courses

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