The economic causes and consequences of human activity on earth’s ecosystems
What are interactions between human activity and the earth system ?
Since when is there a problem ? Who were the first to identify the problem ?
What are the science and the measures of it ?
Are we sure of all that ? Are there some uncertainties ? Why are there still deniers ?
What are the main issues ? Population ? Technology ? Inequalities ? Greed and the richest ?
Is capitalism the root of all evil ? Individualism ? Materialism ?
Can we identify the footprint point of contact ?
What are the social consequences of climate change ? Do we know what is going to happen ?
What can we do ?
Can we define a safe operating space for humanity on earth ?
How can we achieve sustainability ? Is it a simple technical question ? Is a holistic revolution needed ?
Should efficiency (sobriété), self-sufficiency (autonomie) and de-growth be promoted ?
Are there alternatives to degrowth ? Is “green growth” a real concept ?
Is there a plan out of this mess ?
What are we doing ?
What is the Green Deal ? Is it going to collapse ?
Are current policies changing anything ?
Is there something like clean energy ? Is nuclear an option ?
What are COP and international agreements ? Are those changing anything ?
The USA is out (again) of Paris agreement, so what ?
Are people changing their minds about human responsibility ?
Aims
Acknowledge the extent of the limits to human operation on earth
Anticipate and understand the disaster to come
Understand today’s policies and their limits
Imagine what should be done to cope with the constraints
Imagine the world of tomorrow, technically, politically and socially
Wooclap
Buzzwords!
Who are you?
Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist
Kenneth Boulding, US Congress address, 1973
If you want to save the planet, don’t hug a tree, hug an economist.
unknown, probably not avowed
Evaluation
Overview
10% participation in class
30% Multiple Choice Quizz
60% Individual or group
Quizz
3 sessions
6/03
3/04
24/04
Around 10 multiple choice questions, 1 or 2 open (write a very short essay)
30 minutes, during class, immediate results
Please warn us if you can’t attend for an alternate evaluation
Individual or group assignment
2 options:
Book review
Pick a book (exemples to follow). Non fiction essay about environment, environment policies, case studies, report from NGO or international institution. Nothing like a good polemique! Summarize the book (as if you want to spare us from reading the book) and then (un)sell it. Finally, give your opinion/position. If it is a “classic” of environmental issues (such as Jared Diamond’s Collapse), then explore the subsequent book’s discussions and legacies. English or French, due by the end of semester, 20k [more or less 15%].
Debate Club
A subject (vegetarianism, nuclear energy, degrowth vs green growth, collective vs individual responsibility]), 2 groups. The 2 groups will discuss pre-presentation in order to react/adjust. Then they will present and discuss with the class.
Book reviews
Classics
Most reviewed EOE book : place in context, discuss debates around the book
Silent Spring is a “classic”, study the legacy
Jancovici: famous polemist, to be discussed with care
Dounghnut economy has proven to be a popular concept: is it overrated ?
Advocacy of geeoengineering: what would you respond ?
Merchants of Doubt is the story of a true conspiracy and ways to fight it
Climate Shock presents (brillantly) the economist POV
Population bomb has been influential, what is its legacy ?
Hansen has been one of the first to educate the US to climate change
6th extinction is a desesperate call
Ishmael is an extroardinary story about humain and the environement, echoing the matlhusian trap
Nothing new under the Sun has been one of the first environmental history showing an ancient impact of humans on the planet
The Club de Rome Report updated
Critics and polemiques
Low tech is a strong critique of techno solutionism
Jancovici: famous polemist, to be discussed with care
Six degrees is a catastrophic account of our possible future: lessons ?
Anti Tech Revolution deals with the belief in progress
Industrial Society and its future
Anti Tech Revolution deals with the belief in progress
Technoligical Slavery, an other Kaczynski’s book
From globalisation to climate change
End of the World ?
Blue prints for a plan
Planet remade: a ray of optimism ?
An essay by Stern from the Stern review, the mainstream plan A
Drawdown, a plan for the planet
Cradle to Cradle is an ancient but infliential book; to confront to age of Low Tech
Famous Naomi Klein inquiriy of the enemies of climate change mitigation
An orginal account on the making of environmental policies
The unhabitable earth
The Green Deal: are there any solid foundation to a popular wording ?
The dispute over food behavior
Practicalities
Debates
Nuclear energy versus Renewable energy
Degrowth, anticapitalism versus green growth and technosolutionism
Food sobriety versus freedom of nutrition
Agenda
30/01: session 1 Malthus & Co
6/02: no session (rescheduled)
13/02: session 1 continued ; session 2 The case of Air Pollution
20/02: session 3 Carrying capacity and drivers of human impact / debate club #1 Nuclear energy vs RNW
6/03: Quizz 1 / session 4 IPCC & Earth Summit, superficial ecology versus deep ecology
13/03: session 5 A crash course on Climate Change (CCCC1) mechanisms and scientific analysis / debate club #2 degrowth
20/03: session 6 C4 2 Civilization and climate
27/03: session 7 C4 3 IPCC scenarios and consequences& carbon budget / debate club #3 food sobriety
3/04: Quizz 2 / session 8 & 9 C4 5 Who, Where and Why : emissions of GHG understood
10/04: session 8 & 9 C4 5 Who Where and Why : emissions of GHG understood / debate club #4 low versus high tech
17/04: session 10 Inequality and pollution
24/04: Master Quizz / session 11 The European Green Deal / debate club #5 inequality
[to reschedule] session 11 : Lessons from the Montreal Protocol or Why and How are we going to Stop Climate Change
Resources
We are currently transfering the slides to a new engine
