We would, it seems, be well advised to shift course, if only for our own, species-centric reasons. And, according to the I.P.B.E.S., there is still time for “transformative changes” in the “production and consumption of energy, food, feed, fibre and water.” Regrettably, though, all signs point to more of the same. In 2018, carbon-dioxide emissions from the energy sector rose to a new high of thirty-six billion tons. Also in 2018, nearly thirty million acres of tropical forest were lost—an area the size of Pennsylvania. As the Web site InsideClimate News noted, this destruction occurred “even as more corporations and countries made commitments to preserve tropical forests.” As long as we continue to tear through the biosphere, expect the losses to continue to mount. ♦

Habitat destruction and overfishing are, for now, the main causes of biodiversity declines, according to the I.P.B.E.S., but climate change is emerging as a “direct driver” and is “increasingly exacerbating the impact of other drivers.” Its effects, the report notes, “are accelerating.” Watson wrote last week, in the Guardian, that “we cannot solve the threats of human-induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither.”

“66 per cent of the ocean area is experiencing increasing cumulative impacts, and over 85 per cent of wetlands (area) has been lost.” Approximately half the world’s coral cover is gone. In the past ten years alone, at least seventy-five million acres of “primary or recovering forest” have been destroyed

The U.N.-backed I.P.B.E.S. is to flora and fauna what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to the atmosphere. Based in Bonn, it is funded by a hundred and thirty-two member nations, including the United States. More than three hundred experts contributed to its latest assessment, which runs to more than fifteen hundred pages.

On the order of a million species are now facing extinction, “many within decades.”

The melomys, found on a single low-lying island between Australia and Papua New Guinea, appears to have been done in by climate change, which has shrunk its habitat and brought ever more damaging flooding. Then, in April, Chinese state media reported that the last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle had died. “Her species might die with her,” the Washington Post noted.

grown inured to “last of” stories, which appear with the unsurprising regularity of seasonal dessert recipes.

they concluded that he was the last of his kind, Achatinella apexfulva. A few days after he went, presumably gently, into that good night, the department posted a eulogy under the heading “farewell to a beloved snail . . . and a species.” “Unfortunately, he is survived by none,” it observed.

He was born in captivity, in Honolulu, and had spent his unassuming life oozing around his terrarium, consuming fungi

Hawaiian tree snail named George.

WCOnline For more information on hours,location and services, please visit http://wc.syr.edu. This is a free resource to all students andhighly recommended for every assignment you work on in this class

101 HB Crouse Hall, on the Quad

documented extenuating circumstances

ork not ready at the start of class will be considered late and penalized 25% for each 24hours before submission

mprovement and development from earlier versions

o have a physical notebook available for classes when phones and laptops cannot be used

You may have your phone and/or laptop on hand during class, but you should use them only foraccessing our readings, class resources, or for finding outside materials pertinent to our discussionsand activities.

your email within two days, please do follow up—my delay is likely inadvertent and I will welcomea reminder

If for some reason I have not responded to

this guide to emailing your professor

Note: You’re welcome todrop in without an appointment, but there is a chance someone has snuck in before you, so it’s bestto check with me beforehand.

at least three possible meeting timesfor me to choose amon

visit during my student hours.

The equivalent of 3 or more weeks of absences will be grounds for failing thecourse

1. Be awake and attentive to the conversation for the full duration of the class;2. Prepare assigned work before class begins;3. Bring assigned texts & other needed materials to class

(I cannot overstatehow valuable good questions are to a thriving class, and how desperately I wish more studentswere courageous in asking them

The smaller assignments and readings you do in preparation are asimportant as any polished assignment you turn in for a grade

Writing and reading are interdependent practices, and you will move between the tworegularly throughout the course.

They will prompt thought as you agree or disagree or qualify those ideas.

to annotate readings, keep a record of ideas andresponses, jot down observations, take notes on class discussions, experiment with different stylesand organizational choices, and engage in a variety of drafting and revision activities.

used to distinguish humans from non-human animals—language, culture,politics, tool-use, ritual, self-awareness, mourning, arithmetic

Though it may seem unthinkable, yourfriends and family may actually survive three hours each week without direct updates as to yourwhereabouts and doings. They probably won’t call the police to report you missing. They will nodoubt pine for your witty banter, but that longing will only make your post-class updates all thesweeter this semester

aking and consulting notes

The Animal

critical inquiry, analysis, and research as situated processes; conduct and evaluateprimary and secondary research on civic discourses across genres; and ethically participate in civicdiscourse as a form of rhetorical action and social practice

Writing, Ethics, and Civic Discourses”

reflect on and enact rhetorical choices that attend to ethical considerations in conducting andrepresenting research across a range of contexts

the role genreplays in determining research forms and practices

with sources, and critical dialogue

methods, processes, and contexts shape research and writing

a variety of forms including but not limited to presentations, reviews,proposals, essayistic arguments, and multimedia and Web-based projects.