Transcript MSE Retreat: Environmental Policy ENV610

MSE Retreat: Environmental
Policy ENVR 610
Peter Brown
Mark Goldberg
Learning Objectives
• to describe the major impacts that humans have on the environment
and to describe the major reasons why these occur;
• to appreciate, criticize, and use the I=PAT(E) framework for thinking
about personal and policy responses of the impact of these alarming
conditions;
• to understand the strengths and weaknesses of some of the policy
tools often used in environmental policy, such as risk analysis and
cost/benefit analysis frameworks;
• to be able to articulate in writing, and provide appropriate arguments
as appropriate, what actions can be taken to remedy a major
environmental problem;
• to speak thoroughly and convincingly on specific environmental
issues; and
• to deepen, articulate, and show the consequences of a sense of
personal responsibility for life’s prospects.
Evaluation
• Class commentary/critique, class
participation (25%)
• Presentation (25%)
• 20-25 page fully documented paper (50%)
Syllabus
• Modular
• Based on I=PAT(E)
• I =impact, P = population, A = affluence,
T = technology, E = ethics
Texts
• Peter G. Brown, The Commonwealth of
Life,
• Herman Daly, Beyond Growth
• Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
• James Gustaf Speth, Red Sky at Morning
• CDROM: various articles and readings for
the course
The students
• 4 from the option; 13 from other programmes
• Distribution
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Agricul. economics: MSc(1)
Anthropology: PhD(1), MA(1)
Atm & ocean sci: PhD(1)
Bioresource eng: MSc(4)
French lit: MA(1)
Geography: MSc(2), PhD(1)
Parasitology: PhD(1)
Philosophy: PhD(1)
Renewable resource:MSc(2)
Urban planning: MSc(1)
Classes
1. IPATE
2. Climate change
(science+mitigation+adaptation)
3. The collapse of worldview, “the path in
the thicket,” and the formulation of the
land ethic
4. Human and nature centered ethics,
relations between evolution and ethics—
does ethics code adaptive behaviours
Classes (cont)
5. The population explosion and some cascading
effects of human lifestyles on the environment:
the influenza pandemic as an example
6. Reducing Human Numbers: The Demographic
Transition; Education; Family Planning;
Limiting/selling reproduction rights;
starvation/malnutrition, disease, is the problem
solving itself?
7. Technological Innovation for the Environment
(Guest lecture by Tatiana Koveshnikova, York
University)
Classes (cont)
8. Is Sustainable Development a Coherent
and Workable Idea?
9. The Great Expansion: What are :
affluence, growth, stocks and flows, the
life support and assimilation budgets of
the biosphere… Peter Victor over Skype.
10. Consequences of growth: air pollution
and effects on the health of species
11. Student presentations….
The Papers (16)
• Climate change:
– Afforestation and mitigation of climate change
• Ecosystems:
– Invasive species in ships’ ballast water
– Poverty impact on biodiversity
• Education:
– Steps toward an environmentally literate citizenry in the United
States
• Energy:
– Environmental impacts of biofuel production
– Application of the precautionary principle in the Athabasca Oil
Sands
– Industrial Scale Wind Power
Papers (cont)
• Ethics:
– Cree beliefs and practices that enhance biological
diversity
• Exploitation of natural resources:
– The World Bank and the Gold Mines of Guyana :
– History of Forestry in Québec
• Food production and environmental
consequences:
– The Green Revolution
Papers (cont)
• Population:
– Population policies and human reproductive rights
• Public Health:
– Environment and health: Managing for Resilience
– Precautionary principle and public health
– Drinking water and cholera in Bolivia
• Water:
– Water and energy in groundwater exploitation in
Gujarat State
Students’ Comments
•
•
•
•
Overall evaluation: 4.4
Too much reading
Insufficient time for discussion/interaction
More on existing policy, its assumptions,
shortcomings, and successes.
• More on conceptual foundations of policy.
• Want to feel empowered, some did some
didn’t
Redesign of Course
• Will still use IPAT(E) as a paradigm
• More on policy frameworks and foundations
• Will still use climate change as the main
example
• Will retain component on ethics
• Will develop more fully:
– Micro and Macroeconomics
– Risk assessment
– Cost-benefit analysis
• Will have a second course in the winter term