Sustainable Development: Environment, Economics and Society
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine
Instructor: Vail, David
Subject area: Economics
Department: Economics
Course number: 18
Year taught: 1998
Level: Undergraduate
Please note that the copyright for this syllabus is retained by the
instructor.
"Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their needs." - Brundtland Commission
"Sustainability is an essentially vague concept . . .It is
not meaningless, just inevitably vague." - Robert Solow
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue
it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air
and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." - Genesis
"Humans have no right to reduce the richness and diversity
[of life forms] except to satisfy vital needs." -
Arne Naess
"Quantitative growth and qualitative development follow
different laws. Our planet develops over time without growing. Our economy a
subsystem of the finite. Non-growing earth, must eventually adapt to a similar
pattern" - Herman Daly
"Environmental resource and population stresses are diminishing,
and with the passage of time will have less
influence than now upon the quality of life." -
Julian Simon (emphasis added)
"Environmental problems are problems of social
organization ' - Richard Norgaard
"Think globally - act locally." - Hazel Henderson
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
This semester we will explore relationships between economies and ecosystems,
especially between the economy's production, distribution consumption, and
disposal activities and the ecosystems' long term carrying capacity. A central
focus will be the environmental impacts of capitalist economic development in
advanced industrial societies and on a world scale. You will become familiar
with the ecological economist's way of thinking about issues like scarcity,
efficiency, well-being, fairness, technological innovation, irreversible
changes, uncertainty, risk, discounting the future, and effective policy. Even
so, an economics background is not required for the course and mastering
economic analysis is not its main purpose. Three core goals are to understand
how the economy is embedded in and co-evolves with natural systems; to consider
how ecological insights and moral principles can improve economic thinking; and
to explore innovations in our economic and political institutions that could
facilitate the transition to sustainable economic development.
Topic Outline
A. Ecological Literacy: Why We Are Here
B. Capitalism, Industrialization, Globalization and Environment: A Systems
Perspective
C. Introduction to Ecological Economics
D. Sustainable Development: Meanings, Moral Obligations and Operational
Guidelines
E. Acting Globally: Three Transboundary Issues
F. Acting Locally: America - sustainable agriculture
Maine - sustainable forest management
Toward a sustainable Bowdoin College
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMICS, AND
SOCIETY
DETAILED TOPIC OUTLINE AND READINGS
Foster = John Bellamy Foster, The Vulnerable Planet
EE = Robert Costanza, et al., An Introduction to Ecological Economics
SM = Sustainable Maine Primer
Numbered items are handouts (also available on library reserve)
A. Ecological Literacy: Why We Are Here (1 week)
1. Ecological Literacy and liberal arts education
David Orr - Earth in Mind, Chapters 1-3 [ 1 ]
University Presidents for a Sustainable Future - "The Talloires
Declaration" [3]
EE - pages 17-22
SM - pages 2, 5,
2. Writing to Learn
William Zinsser - On Writing Well (excerpt) [2]
B. Capitalism, Industrialization, Globalization and Environment: A Systems
Perspective (2.5 weeks) Foster - all EE - pages 33-35 David Korten -
"Economic Globalization" [4] Fred Smith - "Reappraising
Humanity's Challenges, Humanity's Opportunities" [5] Stephan Schmidheiny -
"The Business of Sustainable Development" [6] Tom Athanasiou -
"The Age of Greenwashing" [7]
video: In the Name of Progress
C. An Introduction to Ecological Economics (2 weeks) EE - Chapters 2
& 3 (selections) William Baumol and A. Blinder - Microeconomics (selections)
[8] Roger Lewin - "It's a jungle out there" [9]
D. Sustainable Development: Meanings, Moral Obligations and Operational
Guidelines (2.5 wk.) SM- all EE Chapters 1 and 4 (selections), review p. 62
and Chapter 3 review Foster 130-133 D. Vail - "All Sweden Shall Live:
Reinventing Community for Sustainable Development" [10] Robert Solow,
"Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective" [11] Alan Durning -
"Asking How Much is Enough" [ 12] Kenneth Arrow, et al. -
"Economic Growth, Carrying Capacity and the Environment" [13] Steven
Moore, "The Coming Age of Abundance" [14] Indur Goklany - "Richer
is Cleaner" [15]
video: Affluenza
E. Sustainable Food Systems: Acting Globally, Nationally and Locally (3
weeks)
1. Overview Lester Brown, "Facing the Prospect of Food
Scarcity" [16] Vail, et al., "Agricultural Policy Crisis in the
Industrial Nations" [17]
2. The Population Connection
EE pp. 109-111
Brown, review pp. 33-3 5, 37
Herman Daly, "A Formula for the Post-Kyoto Era" [ 18]
Nicholas Hildyard, "Too Many for What?" [ 19]
--6 April Discussion #6 - Food, Population and Hunger
10 April Field trip to Hidden Valley Farm, Alna, Maine (Bambi Jones - farmer,
Russell Libby Executive Director, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Assn.) -
organic farming and community supported agriculture.
3. The two-way Connection to Climate Change Robert Kates, "Climate Change
1995 - Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation" [20] Rosenzweig and Hillel,
"Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Food Supply"[2
1 ] Peter Bunyard, "Industrial Agriculture: Driving Climate Change?"
[22] review Herman Daly [18]
--9 April Discussion # 7 - Climate Change and Agriculture
4. Securing Food Supplies Charles Mann, "Reseeding the Green
Revolution" [23] Jules Pretty et al., "Regenerating Agriculture"
[24]
5. An Affirmative Vision for Advanced Industrial Societies World Resources
Institute, "Growing Green" [25] Vail, et al., "Universal
Greening: International Patterns" [17] Vail, "Suburbanization of the
Countryside and Revitalization of Small Farms" [26] Bambi Jones,
"Community Supported Agriculture " [27] Organic Farming File [28]
--16 April (7 pm) - Video: To Feed the World 17 April (note - Friday)
Discussion #8 - A Vision for Sustainable Agriculture
F. Acting Locally (2 weeks & reading period)
Case 1 - Sustainable Forest Management in Maine William Hancock, "The Maine
Woods: A Future Up for Grabs" [29] D.Vail - "How to Tell the Forest
from the Trees: Forest Management and Logging Systems in Sweden and Maine"
[30] Roger Sedjo, "Using Forest Plantations to Spare Natural Forests"
[31] William Sugg, "Low Impact Forestry is Gaining Ground in Maine"
[32] packet: Regulating Industrial Forest Management [33] packet: Preserving
Maine's Wildlands [34]
--24 April (note - Friday) Discussion #9 To Clearcut or not to
Clearcut in Maine's Industrial Forest?
--25 April Field Trip to Mel Ames' "low impact" commercial forest
operation, Atkinson, Maine
Case 2 - Greening Bowdoin College
Review Orr [1] chapter 1
Review "The Talloires Declaration" [3]
Dartmouth College, ES 50 (1996) - "It's Not Easy Being Green - an audit of
five New England Schools" [35]
Bowdoin College, ES 101 (1992) - "An Institutionalized Recycling Plan for
Bowdoin College" [36]
The Campus Earth Summit (Yale 1994) - "Recommendations", Blueprint
for a Green Campus [37]
--27 April Guest speaker: David Orr - greening the Oberlin campus.