MAIN TOPICS OF THE COURSE

- Principles and policies to safeguard our Planet
(a holistic perspective, from climate change and water security to linkages between environmental, human and animal health).
- Principles and policies for conservation and protection of Nature and the Environment.
- Developed and developing countries; Least Developed Countries.
- geographical and ecological handicaps.
- natural disasters / human disasters.
- Sustainable development /unsustainable development.

- Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth, 2006: a documentary - film directed by Davis Guggenheim; the international campaign of the former United States Vice President Al Gore to educate world citizens on global warming and its consequences on the Earth's surface.

- Al Gore, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, 2017: a documentary - film directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk; former American Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, travelling around the world to train an army of activists and influence international climate policy.

- The Limits to Growth
Report by System Dynamics Group Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
he message of this book still holds today: The earth’s interlocking resources – the global system of nature in which we all live – probably cannot support present rates of economic and population growth much beyond the year 2100, if that long, even with advanced technology. In the summer of 1970, an international team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology began a study of the implications of continued worldwide growth. They examined the five basic factors that determine and, in their interactions, ultimately limit growth on this planet-population increase, agricultural production, nonrenewable resource depletion, industrial output, and pollution generation. The MIT team fed data on these five factors into a global computer model and then tested the behaviour of the model under several sets of assumptions to determine alternative patterns for mankind’s future. The Limits to Growth is the nontechnical report of their findings. The book contains a message of hope, as well: Man can create a society in which he can live indefinitely on earth if he imposes limits on himself and his production of material goods to achieve a state of global equilibrium with population and production in carefully selected balance.

Research to be carried out by Students
- Green Deal of EU.
- International fight against climate change and global warming: social and political events, and movements, in Europe, the world, and Italy.
- Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist, and her role.
- Bushfires in Australia and consequences on animal Biodiversity.
- Brazilian forests: fires and devastation; responsibility of President Bolsonaro (follow the international press - available on the Web - such as The New York Times International Edition, Le Monde, etc.).
- Thailand, India, equatorial Africa: destruction (and fires) of forests; their consequences.
- Pollution from plastics and micro-plastics, in the Oceans and Mediterranean Sea.

- Jean Sellier, André Sellier, Atlas des peuples du Moyen Orient, Asie Centrale, Caucase, 2007 (2010)

- R. White, Crimes Against Nature. Environmental Criminology and Ecological Justice (Willan Publishing, Cullompton - UK), 2008 e 2014
- Peter C. List, Radical Environmentalism, 2005

- J. Rifkin, Il Sogno Europeo, 2005

- Joseph E. Stiglitz, La globalizzazione e i suoi oppositori, 2002 : adottare l'edizione successiva e più recente possibile

- R. Carson, Silent Spring, 1962

- J. Rifkin, Beyond Beef (Ecocidio: ed ital, 2002)

- UNEP, Desk Study on the Environment in Iraq, 2004

- Laura S. Etheredge, editor, Middle East Region in Transition. Historical Palestine, Israel, and the Emerging Palestinian Autonomous Areas, 2016

- G. Shafir, Land, Labor and the Origin of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,1882-1914, 2008

- Ilan Pappe, The ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (con ed. italiana 2008)

- Ilan Pappe, The biggest prison on earth, 2017