The organizing theme of the Diversity and the Environment Reading Group (DERG) 2007-08 was the relationship and connections between diversity and global environmental issues.  Topics included biodiversity, cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity, agricultural diversity and complexity, energy resources, sustainability, and global climate change.  Issues discussed included environmental racism, eco-feminism, socio-economic and cultural patterns of consumerism, monoculture vs. polyculture, CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), large-scale industrial agribusinesses and their practices, food processing systems, GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), small-scale organic farming, food distribution, dietary habits, non-renewable vs. renewable energies, centralized large-scale industrial energy production, decentralized small-scale alternative energy production, energy consumption habits, eco-politics, extinction of species, pollution, destabilization of ecosystems, and effects on human health.