Hong Kong is fraught with many environmental challenges nowadays, ranging from environmental pollution to nature conservation. These challenges have brought about conflicts between different camps and caused significant difficulties in governance. This course will guide students to critically analyze these environmental challenges through a theoretical framework built upon the latest understanding of the politics of policy making and considerations in ethics, technology and economics. The course will demonstrate the use of the theoretical framework through the analysis of real Hong Kong cases, interactive tutorials, field trips, video watching and assignments. Through these various learning activities, students are expected to acquire the relevant knowledge and develop skills in critical analysis, data collection, field observation and capability in policy evaluation and problem solving.
The course will provide a comprehensive introduction to major environmental problems in Hong Kong. Students will gain the basic scientific knowledge of these issues and master a theoretical framework for analyzing these problems built upon the science of pollution and the dynamics and complexity of environmental governance. Furthermore, students will also learn the techniques to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of different solutions. All these will make our students environmentally conscious and responsible citizens locally and globally.