ENVS100/L
Ecology & Society - Environmental
Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Fall 2007 Profs. Jeff Bury, Greg Gilbert, and Erika Zavaleta
Some questions and keywords to help guide the readings
10/02 Environmental Challenges:
Speth 1-73
1. From your reading of Section One of Speth (pp1-73), list the
three (only three) environmental challenges that you feel are most important
to address effectively in the next decade.
2. Are there environmental challenges that Speth did not discuss that you think
are more important than these three? What are they and why?
3. What one environmental challenge are you ready to dedicate the next decade
of your life to overcoming?
4. Who is Gus Speth, and what “authority” does he bring to this
book. What biases do you expect him to have?
10/04: Environmentalist responses: Speth 75-116
1.
What were the key environmental concerns at the beginning of the environmental
movement, and what was their scale? What were the most important responses to
address these concerns in the US?
2.
What factors does Speth think were essential to reach the "tipping point"
of the early environmental governance effort?
3. How do the principal global environmental governance concerns that emerged
from international assessments in the 1980s differ from those of the 60s and
70s?
4. Of the 10 global concerns on pp 89-91, how many of these made your lists
in response to Reading questions 2 and 3 from 9/26? Would you like to revise
your answer to question 3 from 9/26?
5. How are international conventions/protocols developed? Which kinds of environmental
problems are most amenable to resolving through such processes? Which are least
likely? Why?
6. There are a number of important acronyms and names scattered throughout the
book. Be sure you can give a brief description of who or what are each of the
following (and their importance in environmental studies): WTO, OECD, Rio Earth
Summit, Convention on Biological Diversity, Agenda 21, Montreal Protocol, Kyoto
Protocol, Brundtland Commission, NEPA, NRDC, EPA, CEQ, IUCN, UNEP, GEF, WRI,
National Academy of Sciences, Rachel Carson, Julian Simon, Paul Ehrlich, Bjorn
Lomborg. Use your available resources (including classmates, the web, books,
etc.) to be comfortable with key figures and institutions throughout your reading.
7. What is Environmental Governance?
10/11: Ten Drivers; Speth 117-147; Framing: Butler.
Reading
Questions for Speth
1. Think about the original formulation of the classic IPAT equation put forward
by Holdren and Ehrlich in 1974. What are the individual components, and what
do they represent in real-world terms? What is the value of such a simple model?
What are the shortcomings? How to the 6 additional components that Speth suggests
(p120) improve this model? Are all of them improvements? Do they make the model
more effective? For what?
2. Make a list of several models that help shape the way you (or governments,
or society in general) view the world (e.g., the economic model of supply and
demand). Are these models conceptual, theoretical, empirical, mechanistic, quantitative,
qualitative? What about the models do you think is useful? What are the limitations
of models?
3. Do you think that Speth's 10 drivers are all equally important to the environmental
project? Given limited energy, time, resources, and political will, which 4
would you put at the top of your list for drivers to harness in an effort to
improve the health of the world? Why choose those 4?
4. Do you see fundamental conflicts between any of the drivers? That is, a change
in one to reap positive benefits is likely to lead to a negative change in another?
Reading Questions for “Winning
Words” (Katy Butler interview with George Lakoff, Sierra Magazine
July-August 2004)
1. George Lakoff posits that “our political decisions are not rational,
but filtered through unconscious metaphors that shape our thinking about everything
from how children should be raised to how nature should be regarded to how the
government should be run.” (Butler’s paraphrase.) Identify one currently
common way of verbally filtering or “framing” an important issue.
How might this “frame” limit or distort Americans’ understanding
of the issue?
2. Lakoff suggests one alternative to the “spotted-owls-vs.-people”
framing of the debate about logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.
Elaborate on his suggestion—or offer your own re-frame of the same debate.
3. Lakoff argues that some kinds of framing are more honest than others. Do
you agree? Present a brief example to support your position.
NOT YET UPDATED FROM HERE DOWN
10/5: Eight Transitions: Speth 149-201
1. Speth outlined "The Eightfold Way" to a sustainable world. Think
about his eight transitions. Which of the ten drivers from Ch. 6 does each address?
Do you think the proposed transitions will be effective? Why or why not?
2. Given limited time, resources, and energy, where would you put your personal
efforts? Why? Is this because you think this is the most essential transition,
or because you are driven by personal interests, or both?
3. Do you think that all eight transitions are essential? Are some more important
than others? Are there transitions that Speth does not present that you think
are more important?
4. What do the governance scenario acronyms FROG, GEOpolity, and JAZZ represent
(be able to describe each in a sentence).
5. Speth outlines 10 international environmental law principles (pp. 175-176)
within his discussion of GEOpolity. How do these related to the ideals outlined
at the Rio Earth Summit? Do you know of examples of how any of these are currently
in play? Are there particular principles that you consider especially essential
to achieving a sustainable world?
6. How will you personally contribute to the "most fundamental transition
... in culture and consciousness" (p. 191). Do you agree that this is the
most fundamental transition of all?
10/10: Environmentalist Grief, Despair, and Empowerment: Macy
1. What do Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown
mean when they refer to contemporary humans’ “pain for the world”?
How does such pain differ from, or go beyond, either concern for personal well-being
or other “emotions long familiar to our species”? Toward the end
of the chapter, Macy and Brown say that our pain for the world is “natural
and healthy.” How so?
2. Macy and Brown name and describe several “psychological sources of
repression” and several “sociological sources of repression.”
Which of these phenomena seemed most familiar, accurate, or meaningful to you?
Why, in terms of your own experience, do they resonate for you?
3. In the section headed “Consequences of Repression,” Macy and
Brown assert that “Repression is not a local anesthetic.” What do
they mean? What is “psychic numbing”? What are some of its most
debilitating consequences?
4. Macy and Brown, along with other contemporary philosopher/activists, envision
a global Great Turning—a potential evolution from the so-called Industrial
Growth Society, which treats the Earth primarily as a “storehouse and
sewer” for human exploitation, toward the emergence of life-sustaining
societies. (They don’t posit a Great Turning as inevitable— but
they do assert that it will be essential if the human race, and much of the
living planet Earth as we know it, is ultimately to survive.) According to these
authors, what role does human “pain for the world” play in the realization
of a Great Turning? In what way can you imagine drawing on your own world-pain
to help you contribute to positive change?
10/12: Environmental numeracy: Gilbert Stats Primer; MA intro: MA1:vii-svii,
1.01
1. Review the Stats Primer (A critical reader's
brief guide to statistic, pp327-332 in the reader). If you have any questions,
bring them with you to lecture.
2. Think about the overall scope
and scale of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment project? What was the purpose?
Who is the audience? What kinds of people and institutions were involved in
putting it together? What was the process?
3. Be comfortable with these keywords and ideas as used in the MA: Ecosystem
Services, Well Being, Human Position in Nature, Scale, Drivers, Indicators,
Scenarios, Models, Valuation.
4. How do the drivers of change (p27) match up with or differ from the way Speth
framed drivers of environmental problems?
10/17: Using science in making arguments; MA Ecosystem services: MA1.11
Keywords:
Biodiversity, Intrinsic value, Cultural value, Trophic interactions, Climatic
vs. biotic drivers, Resource Dynamics, Patterns, Experiments, Theory, Complex
Interactions, Species loss and additions, Land Use and Cover Change
10/19: MA Ecosystem services: MA1.11
10/24: Policy and Social response typology: MA3.02
10/26: Assessing response options: MA3.03
Keywords:
Binding constraints, acceptable tradeoffs, enabling conditions, Domains: Political,
Institutional, Economic, Social, Ecological, Quantitative and Qualitative, Subjective
and Objective, Weights, Incommensurable, Pluralistic Perspectives, Deliberative,
Info-gathering, and Planning tools, Dynamic and Adaptive, Assessment and Decision
Making.
10/31: Disciplines and theory to guide MA scenarios; Ecology in a socioeconomic
context: MA2.03
Keywords:
Tradeoffs, Direct and Indirect, Dynamics, Regime Shift, Cumulative, Nonlinear,
& Interactive Feedbacks, Cross-scale interactions, Homeostasis, Proactive
vs. Response, Evolution, Hierarchy theory, Island Biogeography, Disturbance,
Succession, Patch Dynamics, Food webs, Bioaccumulation, Trophic cascades, Landscape
ecology, Ecosystem ecology, Montreal
Protocol, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Luxury, Command and Control, Maximum
Sustainable Yield, Resilience, Adaptive Management, Social Learning, Environmental
Economics, Markets, Valuation, Political Ecology
1. What is a scientific theory?
2. What are some environmental problems for which ecological or economic theory
contributes to either a better understanding or identifying solutions?
3. What role do you think ecology (as a science) should play in societal choices
about environmental governance, and how might it best be used?
11/2: The four MA scenarios: MA2.05
Keywords:
Global Orchestration, Order From Strength, Techno Garden, Adapting Mosaic.
1. Be able to briefly characterize
the assumptions and implications of each of the four scenarios.
2. What is the statement of values implicit in each of the four scenarios? For
someone that subscribes to a given scenario, what is that person's "vision
of the good"?
3 . What is the same in all four scenarios - what are the baselines? Do the
commonalities themselves make a plausible single scenario?
4 . What is missing from the scenarios?
5. Which, if any, of the scenarios most closely allies with your world view?
11/7: Guest lecture: Dick Norgaard: Norgaard article on ERes; you might
also want to read the Norgaard article in the reader)
1
. What does Norgaard see are the chief shortcomings of the Millennium Assessment?
Do you agree?
2. What does he see as the chief hope that can be taken from the MA?
3. Come to class with one prepared question that you would like to ask Norgaard
as someone deeply involved in the MA.
11/9: Ecosystem services and their drivers under scenarios: MA2.05,2.09
Keywords:
Indirect drivers: Population, Economics, Energy Use; Direct drivers: GH
gasses and air pollution, climate changes, land use and cover change, N impacts
1. Consider the main conclusions at the start of chapter 2.09 carefully, in
the context of what is presented in more detail within the chapter.
2. How has carefully following through the implications of particular sets of
values through these scenarios changed your views on different governance options?
11/14: Ecosystem services and their drivers under scenarios: MA2.09
Keywords:
Provisions: Food, Fish, Agriculture, Freshwater resources; Regulating: Climate
and C regulation, Soil degradation, water purification, coastal protection,
others; Supporting Services; Cultural Services
11/16: Multiscale assessments of the MA: MA4.07
11/21: Scale, embeddedness, multiple knowledge systems: MA4.05