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We’ll watch a film in class on Wednesday about climate change.
There are many more films relevant to some of the topics that we’ve discussed in class than can possibly be shown in a quarter. But I do want to encourage you to broaden what you know, and film is a convenient medium for doing that.
I’ve given extra credit to various people for critiquing talks that they saw on campus or for taking extra steps to judge some of what we’ve read about, e.g. by extending the work we did on carbon footprints. There is a 5 point limit on extra credit, so it’s possible to do more than one small activity.
One option is to watch a film and write a short critique. The more you write, and the higher the quality, the more credit you receive. This would be an even more valuable activity (and therefore worth more credit), if you watched a film with friends and discussed it afterward.
Here is a list of documentary films on various environmental themes. Ethics is amenable to learning through the film medium because learning to think philosophically is not just about amassing knowledge but about identifying and thinking through problems and observing how others frame ethical problems. There are no doubt more films that I haven’t thought of. I’d love to hear your additional suggestions!
About our energy economy:
Who Killed the Electric Car?
About climate change:
An Inconvenient Truth
About food:
The Future of Food
Super Size Me
King Corn
About industrialization and natural environments:
Manufactured Landscapes
Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi
About the connection between natural and social environments:
Darwin’s Nightmare
The section of our syllabus that addresses the ethical problems raised by climate change does not begin until next week. 
However, this week, there are plenty of educational and political activities on campus relevant to the topic. The event calendar is HERE, and the week starts off with opening remarks by President Destler today at 4 in the Innovation Center. Following those remarks will be a panel addressing the question “What can one person do?”
Any of these events is eligible for extra credit. To get extra credit, attend the event, then write a short summary saying what happened and what they point of the activity was, as well as a brief reaction. How does this issue relate to ethics? Was an ethical point communicated well? What do you think the event organizers were trying to achieve? Did they succeed? The more time you put into an extra credit activity, the more credit you can receive.
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