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MSE Retreat: Environmental Policy ENVR 610

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;

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MSE Retreat: Environmental Policy ENVR 610

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  1. MSE Retreat: Environmental Policy ENVR 610 Peter Brown Mark Goldberg

  2. 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.

  3. Evaluation • Class commentary/critique, class participation (25%) • Presentation (25%) • 20-25 page fully documented paper (50%)

  4. Syllabus • Modular • Based on I=PAT(E) • I =impact, P = population, A = affluence, T = technology, E = ethics

  5. 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

  6. 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)

  7. Classes • IPATE • Climate change (science+mitigation+adaptation) • The collapse of worldview, “the path in the thicket,” and the formulation of the land ethic • Human and nature centered ethics, relations between evolution and ethics—does ethics code adaptive behaviours

  8. Classes (cont) • The population explosion and some cascading effects of human lifestyles on the environment: the influenza pandemic as an example • Reducing Human Numbers: The Demographic Transition; Education; Family Planning; Limiting/selling reproduction rights; starvation/malnutrition, disease, is the problem solving itself? • Technological Innovation for the Environment (Guest lecture by Tatiana Koveshnikova, York University)

  9. Classes (cont) • Is Sustainable Development a Coherent and Workable Idea? • The Great Expansion: What are : affluence, growth, stocks and flows, the life support and assimilation budgets of the biosphere… Peter Victor over Skype. • Consequences of growth: air pollution and effects on the health of species • Student presentations….

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

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