Most environmental issues have many sides including scientific, social, political, and economic, and comprise multiple players and stakeholders promoting divergent points of view. This course is designed to explore these elements in detail. Current national, regional and local problems will be brought to the class by a number of guest speakers in order to help students critically analyze the roots of the problems and possible solutions. The problems discussed will include such issues as environmental scope, biodiversity decline, climate changes, air and water quality, population and consumption per capita, biotechnology and genetically altered foods.