Course Objectives

The principal aims of this course are to

• Develop an understanding of sustainability ethics as they apply to chemistry.
• Define green chemistry and place its birth and expansion in a historical context.
• Identify the grand challenges of green chemistry and consider what it will take to solve them.
• introduce the principles of green chemistry, present examples and establish the arguments for our need to recognize green criteria in the practice of chemistry.
• Present examples of successful green technologies.
• Explain the meaning and importance of persistent and/or bioaccumulative pollutants.
• Explain the meaning and importance of endocrine disruptors, which present major environmental and health threats.
• Explain the history of certain pollutants and their impact on human health.
• Define and present examples of alternative approaches to pest control other than toxic chemical pesticides.
• Present case studies of large industries where there is an established need for green processes and place those needs in a historical context by analyzing how and why the pollution has occurred.
• Identify how the future can be different (this section will focus on the organochlorines) identify reagents, reactions and technologies that should be and realistically could be targeted for replacement by green alternatives.
• Introduce leaders of the new field of green chemistry, related sectors of public health, or sustainability science reflect on motives and forces that underlie our adoption and commitment to technologies that are obviously or potentially harmful to the environment.
• Develop understanding of the importance of pollution and wastefulness in modern cultures by reflecting on the big chemistry, big technology issues such as energy use and the protection of the atmosphere, waterways and land.

Back To Top

Books for the Course

There are three primary books for the course, all available through Amazon.com. For our online courses, we plan to work with publishers to explore ways to make significant materials more easily available electronically.

1. "Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice," Paul T. Anastas and John C. Warner, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1998.
2. "Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story," Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peterson Myers.
3. "Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution," Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, University of California Press, 2002.
4. "Green Chemistry" by T.J. Collins, Macmillan Encyclopedia of Chemistry, Volume 2, Simon and Schuster Macmillan, New York, 1997, pp. 691-697.
5. "The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age," Hans Jonas, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984.
6. "Endocrine Disruption: Biological bases for health effects in wildlife and humans," David O. Norris and James A. Carr, Eds; Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006
7. "Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy," Joe Thornton, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000.
8. "The Many Faces of Chlorine. Point Counterpoint Debate" by Terrence J. Collins and C. (Kip) T. Howlett, Chemistry and Engineering News, October 18, 2004, pp. 40-45.
9. "Endocrine Disruptors: Effects on Male and Female Reproductive Systems," Rajesh K. Katz, Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1999.
10. "Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect," David W. Orr, Island Press, Washington, DC, 1994.
11. "First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy," Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1994.
12. "Casarett and Doull's Toxicology: The basic science of poisons," 6th Edn. Curtis D. Klassen, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2001.
13. "The biological chemistry of lead," Hilary Arnold Godwin, Current Opinions in Chemical Biology, 2001, 5, 223-227.
14. "Environmental Toxicology: Biological and Health Effects of Pollutants," 2nd Edn. Ming-Ho Yu, CRC Press, Boca Raton 2005.
15. "Raising Healthy Children in a Toxic World: 101 Smart Solutions for Every Family," Philip J. Landigran, Herbert Needleman, Mary M. Landrigan, Rodale Organic Style Book, Emmaus, PA, 2001.
16. "10 Years after Rio: Concepts on the Contributions of Chemistry to a Sustainable Development," Marco Eissen, J¸rgen O. Metzger, Eberhard Schmidt and Uwe Schneidewind, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2002, 41, 414-436.
17. "Silent Spring Revisited," Gino J. Marco, Robert M. Hollingworth, William Durham, Eds.; ACS: Washington DC, 1987.
18. "The Heavy Metals: Chemistry, Environmental Impact and Health Effects," J. E. Ferguson; Pergamon Press: Oxford, 1990.
19. "Chemistry of the Elements," N. N. Greenwood and A. Earnshaw; Pergamon Press: Oxford, 1984.
20. "Hormonal Chaos: The Scientific and Social Origins of the Environmental Endocrine Hypothesis," Sheldon Krimsky, Lynn Goldman, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

Back To Top

Proper Practice in this Course

In this course you are encouraged to discuss your work with your peers and to seek help from others in understanding the exercises and course material. Whether you are taking this course on your own or through your university, you can do this face to face, via email or Facebook, or through the online communication tools we will be developing for those registered for this and other courses.

Grades for online courses are determined by how well you do on the examinations, tests and quizzes provided as part of the courseware. Each course has a final exam, each lesson has a test and each module has a quiz. If you are taking this course for credit through a university, you should work out any questions you have about other course requirements with your professor or learning institution. You cannot advance to the next level of the course without passing each quiz, test and exam.

Back To Top