Conversations

Updated 8/26/2025

ENVS 198/498: Conversations Toward a Sustainable Future
Fall 2025: Monday, 12:10-1:00 pm in 211 SCSC and sometimes Merrick 301

Instructor: Dr. John Krygier
Office: Schimmel-Conrades Science Center 206
Office Hours: Appointment here or email for other times
jbkrygier@owu.edu | http://krygier.owu.edu

ENVS 198/498 meet together, Monday at noon:10 in 211 SCSC. 198 is for new ENVS majors. 498 is for graduating majors. We attend the Sustainability Task Force meeting three times during the semester, same time as class, in 301 Merrick.

Course Description: A combined cornerstone (198) / capstone (498) course that allows new Environmental Studies and Environmental Science majors and graduating seniors to engage with each other. Seniors will present work completed at OWU and reflect on the experiences gained in internships, field study, research, and other theory-to-practice opportunities. Seniors will interact with and mentor new majors to shape their plans for future work in their majors at OWU. Freshmen/sophomores will also engage with other E&S faculty, campus staff (B&G, AVI), City of Delaware employees, regional NGOs, and other environmental professionals. Occasional readings, videos, and/or recorded presentations on environmental issues will be assigned for discussion. ENVS 198 and 498 are required of all ENVS majors.

Course texts: None! Readings will be assigned.

Sharing your work with Instructor: this is how you turn stuff in

• • Go to your OWU Drive account
  • Create a new folder with the course and your last name
    • +New button (upper left) >> then Folder
    • Mark Hollis’s folder would be: ENVS 198 Hollis
      • or ENVS 498 Hollis if you are in 498 class instead
    • Share that folder with Dr. Krygier (Editor)
    • When done with your work, put in shared folder and email instructor.

Index: To Stuff Below…

Groups For Fall ’25 (here)

Individual Class Work and Plans (here)

Articles for Discussion Meetings (here)

Schedule – Updates Likely!

Week 1

Monday, August 18: No class meeting

Week 2

Monday, Aug. 25: Introduction: Introduction and overview of course

Content Aggregator: Naked Capitalism and Science for Everyone (Academic Mixtape)

Assign: Each group get grouped + intros & contacts + chekhout 5 articles (see (here)). Each group selects and presents (get conversation going) one or two articles (starting next week).

Oh my: Is true?

Executive Function

Week 2

Monday, Sept. 1: Conversations about…

Present/Discuss: Discussion of readings in small groups, then among entire class
Idea of the Day: Do Insects Feel Pain?
Assign: Start your class document (see below)
Listen: The Armed

Week 3

Monday, Sept. 8: Conversations about…

Present/Discuss: Discussion of readings in small groups, then among entire class
Idea of the Day: Enshitification & Attention Economy
Assign: The readings your group will present (in two weeks)
Listen: Nÿland

Week 4

Monday, Sept. 15: ENVS Faculty Showcase with Jimmy John’s Sandwiches

Week 5

Monday, Sept. 22: STF Meeting 1 @ 301 Merrick

Week 6

Monday, Sept. 29: Conversations about…

Present/Discuss: Discussion of readings in small groups, then among entire class
Idea of the Day: ChatGPT as a Narcissus Mirror
Assign: The readings your group will present (next week)
Listen: øjeRum

ENVS 198: Due: 198  document (share with Krygier & mentor)
ENVS 498: Due: 498 document (share with Krygier & mentees)

Week 7

Monday, Oct. 6: Salamander Swamp Walk

Idea of the Day: AI prompt “a philosophical bit about salamanders or amphibians in general”
Assign: The readings your group will present (next week)
Listen: KALIYUGA EXPRESS

Week 8

Monday, Oct. 13: STF Meeting 2 @ 301 Merrick

Week 9

Monday, Oct. 20: Presentations

ENVS 198: Due: Read and commented on drafts of 498 documents
ENVS 498: Due: Read and commented on drafts of  198 documents

Week 10

Monday, Oct. 27: Presentations

Week 11

Monday, Nov. 3: STF Meeting 3 @ 301 Merrick

Week 12

Monday, Nov. 10: TBA (JBK away)

Week 13

Monday, Nov. 17: Presentations

Week 14: Thanksgiving

Monday, Nov. 24: No class meeting

Week 15

Monday, Dec. 1: Presentations

ENVS 198: Due: revised, final Freshman/Sophomore E&S Plans for the Future Document
ENVS 498: Due: revised, final Senior E&S Achievement & Assessment Document

Groups Fall 2025

Group	ENVS 498: Seniors	ENVS 198: Fresh/Sophomores	Articles
Fried Egg Jellyfish	Ashley Bahrey Max Huntington	Faith Fox Reghan Gist Charley Holbrooks Jenny Koob	(here)
Chicken Turtles	Jacob DeMaggio Hazel Jolliff	McKinley Maia Elaina Massaro Rio Obenauf Lilly Ogrodowski	(here)
Screaming Hairy Armadillos	Rheigna Gullatte Lily Bechina	Muzhda Azizi Chad Camp Lanie Carey Sky Thompson London Brooks	(here)
Sarcastic Fringeheads	Maddy Howard George Naples	Annabelle Paver Caden Poss Kylie Redman Asa Rivers	(here)
Boops Boops	Haley Roberts Pacey Schtucka	Audrey Schmaltz Lexi Stratton Aria Sweeney Kathleen Terwilliger	(here)
Tasselled Wobbegongs	Aryaka Tickoo Rene Villanueva-Henkle	Ariana Njoroge Hektor Stephens Clara Thompson Emma Dahlstrom	(here)

Individual Class Work & Plans

Seniors (498) will produce a reflective and critical assessment of their experiences at OWU as an E&S major. You’ll present a 10-minute overview of this document in the last few weeks of the semester (see schedule). Please make slides for the presentation and put them in the shared folder.

Freshmen/sophomores (198) will produce a plan for their future at OWU, based on experiences in the course (including networking and interaction with seniors). You’ll present a 5-minute overview of this document in the last few weeks of the semester (see schedule). Make a simple set of slides and save them in the shared folder.

Non-majors in the class: Feel free to modify this format to fit your circumstances (talk to Krygier)

498 E&S Achievement & Assessment Document: 3-4 pages includes

• 1 paragraph: Personal introduction, statement of (to the best of your memory!) your general academic goals when you started at OWU, and where you find yourself now, in your final year at OWU. You can look back at the stuff you wrote for ENVS 198 as most of you took that course!
• 1 page: Achievement: Review of key E&S-related coursework, research, internships, OWU Connection experiences, travel abroad, extracurricular activities, and outcomes. What accomplishments are you most proud of? Or which were most impactful?
• 1-2 pages: Documentation of two experiences that had the most positive impact on your OWU E&S education; two things you, in hindsight, found lacking in your E&S education or things you regret not doing (or doing sooner). The latter can include suggestions for modifications or developments of the E&S program at OWU
• 1 paragraph: Imagine you are in a job interview for your dream job, and you need to explain to your potential employer, in a few eloquent sentences, what relevant employment skills your environmental coursework and projects have allowed you to develop. Look at the list of transferable skills provided for ideas and write a short paragraph describing your skills and strengths in clear, concise, accessible language. Think of this as your “elevator pitch” for your future!
• 1 paragraph: Advice for freshmen and sophomore majors
• 1 paragraph: Your future plans, and how your efforts at OWU shaped them.

198 E&S Plans for the Future Document: 3 pages include

• 1 paragraph: Personal introduction, statement of your general academic goals at OWU, and where you hope to find yourself when you graduate from OWU.
• 1 page: Articulate specific parts of your OWU education you have and plan to participate in: this includes E&S-related coursework, research, internships, OWU Connection experiences, OWU Career Connection experiences, travel abroad, and extracurricular activities. Not quite knowing is OK, but speculate on what opportunities seem to be of more interest to you.
• 1 page: Comment on your experience in ENVS 198 this semester. This includes readings and discussions, visitors, STF meetings, etc.
• 1 paragraph: What is the most important goal you have at this point at OWU, and what do you need to do to make it happen? For example, you want to write a TPG grant to travel to the Amazon, get academic and internship experience with urban planning, combine research on water quality with a travel learning course or semester abroad, etc. What are the biggest impediments to this goal?

Articles for Discussion Meetings

Group 1: Fried Egg Jellyfish

• This ancient bit of ingenuity keeps carbon trapped for thousands of years | Grist
• Lyrebirds farm their own food – and shape entire forests – Earth.com
• Western diets and chronic diseases | Nature Medicine
• Tiny lightning bolts discovered in water droplets and it might explain how life began on Earth
• Inadvertently Victorious: How Some Species Persist as the Climate Collapses – The Revelator
• The Value of Climate Prediction Markets | Traders’ Insight
• Intensification – Michaela Busse – Granular Power: The Gritty Politics of Sand
• Getting hit by lightning is good for some tropical tree
• Birds Are Changing Color in Cities. Here’s Why
• Decarbonization improves energy security for most countries, study finds
• Kawasaki Shows Off Rideable Horse Robot
• Data centres will use twice as much energy by 2030 driven by AI
• Carl Linnaeus Flower Clock  – The Marginalian

Group 2: Chicken Turtles

• Sea Slug, Climate Change Warrior – Nautilus
• Climate champion or catastrophe: Can AI offset its own, growing emissions? | Euronews
• You Might Think of Shrimp as Bugs of the Sea. But a Remarkable Discovery Shows the Opposite: Bugs Are Actually Shrimp of the Land
• The world is heating up. How much can our bodies handle? | Grist
• After Paris curbed cars, air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change – The Washington Post
• Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See – Nautilus
• Climate change will make rice toxic, say researchers – Ars Technica
• How California climate credits reward factory farms out of state – The Washington Post
• The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing
• New quantum-based navigation tech beats GPS precision by 50 times
• Climate Change Kills Capitalism – CounterPunch.org
• Sellers of secondhand clothes prepare for tariffs to give their businesses a boost
• New Supplement Helps Save Pollen-Stripped Beehives

Group 3: Screaming Hairy Armadillos

• The Hole Story: How Woodpeckers Make Homes for the Rest of the Forest | Living Bird | All About Birds
• Microplastics: What’s trapping the emerging threat in our streams?
• If Bugs Are Sentient, Should We Eat Them? – Nautilus
• Three ways to cool Earth by pulling carbon from the sky – 3 Quarks Daily
• Scientists say they can now calculate the trillions in climate damage caused by fossil fuel giants | Euronews
• Against the Tyranny of Opinionated Ignorance
• The horses and mules that moved mountains and hearts
• The Great Insect Apocalypse: Why Are Bugs Vanishing?
• Plastics that melt in the ocean offer new hope for cleaner seas
• Scientists Found The ‘Lid’ Keeping The Yellowstone Supervolcano From Erupting: ScienceAlert
• Rattlesnake venom evolves and adapts to specific prey, study finds | Snakes | The Guardian
• Antarctica’s Astonishing Rebound: Ice Sheet Grows for the First Time in Decades
• Sand groomers v turtles: how wildlife is falling foul of the demand for Insta-perfect beaches | Global development | The Guardian

Group 4: Sarcastic Fringeheads

• Ancient Poems Record the Decline of a Special Porpoise
• Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time – Carbon Brief
• W.A.S.T.E. | Madeleine Adams
• Mapping underground mycelium networks? – Google Search
• Capuchin monkeys are stealing howler monkey babies in weird fad | New Scientist
• New Jersey Hawk Develops Clever Hunting Strategy Using Traffic Signals: ScienceAlert
• Penguin poop may help preserve Antarctic climate
• Cub found alone in US woods now being raised by wildlife staff in bear costumes | California | The Guardian
• How seaweed is a powerful, yet surprising, climate solution
• The environmental impact of mandatory in-office work
• How Black Paint Can Reduce Bird Deaths From Wind Turbines – IEEE Spectrum
• How the little-known “dark roof” lobby may be making US cities hotter | Climate crisis | The Guardian
• We’ve Finally Seen The Skyscraper Tsunami That Shook Earth For 9 Days: ScienceAlert

Group 5: Boops Boops

• Sinking Giant Concrete Orbs to the Bottom of the Ocean Could Store Massive Amounts of Renewable Energy
• Your smartphone is a parasite, according to evolution
• Explainer: How human-caused aerosols are masking global warming – Carbon Brief
• Blue Line Medicine – Orion Magazine
• U.S. cities look to Vienna for green affordable housing: NPR
• NatureQuant OPEN – NatureScore Map – Felt
• We mapped 18,000 children’s playgrounds and revealed inequality across England
• Climate change impact on food like everyone giving up breakfast’
• ChatGPT use linked to cognitive decline: MIT research
• Climate Change Will Bankrupt the Country – The American Prospect
• Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening – Chico Mendes – Tank Top | TeePublic
• Did animals provide the blueprints for human culture? | Aeon Essays
• The Man Who Invented the Modern Zoo Tested Out His Ideas on People First

Group 6: Tasselled Wobbegongs

• What Foragers Teach Us about Seasons and Social Change
• Why Field Research Remains an Essential Part of Scientific Inquiry and Inclusion – Literary Hub
• How the UK is testing a radical plan to refreeze the Arctic
• Billionaires’ wealth surged $6.5tn over past decade, Oxfam reports | The super-rich | The Guardian
• When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color? | Quanta Magazine
• Green Social Housing: Lessons from Vienna – Climate and Community Institute
• Biology Lessons In Degrowth – The George Tsakraklides View
• We are storytelling apes: Experimenting with new scientific narratives in a time of climate and biodiversity collapse – Anderson – 2025 – People and Nature – Wiley Online Library
• How this group got Trump to sign a pro-environment executive order – The Washington Post
• “Why are they doing this?” – Balanced Weather
• Can we afford to be afraid of nuclear power? | Energy | The Guardian
• Food giants graded a “D” on sustainable farming practices – The New Lede
• Maddening Proof Plastics Industry Knew Recycling Was False Solution in 1974, New Document Shows – DeSmog
• The great myth of empire collapse | Aeon Essays