- The
tragedy of the commons
- What's the
tragedy, what are the commons, what is free riding?
- What has property
got to do with it (and why do governments engage in regulatory
takings?)
- What is the
prisoners' dilemma, and what has that got to do with it?
- You don't have
to agree with Hardin, but you have to understand his argument to
disagree in a coherent way.
- What does Hardin propose?
- Common
property, property rights issues
- Do you know
what they are--could you come up with an example, how might resources
governed by common property be different than ownership by the state,
private individuals, or no one at all (open access)?
- What have they
got to do, if anything, with Hardin's 'tragedy' thesis?
- Carrying
capacity and overshoot
- What is carrying
capacity?
- What did Malthus
say?
- What is overshoot,
and what is 'ghost acreage,' and how are they related?
- Is there evidence
and/or logic supporting overshoot?
- Environmental
racism
- What is it,
what is institutional racism?
- Where does
environmental racism express itself (either geographically, or institutionally--for
instance, in what settings, levels of government, etc., on the ground)
- Jared Diamond's thesis on Collapse
- You should have read the chapter on the Anasazi--but remember his framework for comparing societies, and think about how it might apply to the U.S., for instance. Any parallels?
- Economic
growth
- Is it partly
myth? If so, why or how?
- How is growth
often measured, and what are shortcomings?
- Income maximizing
versus risk minimizing--what are the effects of these two strategies
on the environment?
- We know about
the quantity of growth over the last half century. What about its
quality, character (where has growth occurred and how has the environment
been involved)?
- What is money
fetishism?
- Capitalism (how is it relevant to the environment?)
- Buddhist
economics
- What has this
got to do with the environment?
- What has it
got to do with the modern world and globalization, if anything?
- What is sustainable
development, what is capitalism, and can they co-exist?
- Risk
and modernization
- What's Beck's
argument?
- Why the transition
from distribution of wealth to distribution of risk as a central
organizing feature of society? In other words, why has an emphasis
on risk followed pursuit of wealth, with respect to industrialization?
- Personal/individual
versus collective risks
- Boomerang effect
- Biofuels
- We spent a good deal of time on this one . . . there are a few things you should have gotten out of it
- demand vs supply-side policies (what are they, examples, effectiveness)
- key issues relating to biofuels, different kinds of fuels, different sources
- Ecological issues (soil, water, energy production/consumption, land conversion, etc.)
- Political / economic issues (who likely benefits, in terms of consumers, producers, processors, etc.)
- Global issues
- global warming
(week 9, the small group assignment')
- What is
the logic and evidence behind it?
- Imagine
you're debating a skeptic . . . what are the 'sides' of the argument?
- how has the media covered the issue?
We'll skip the readings from week 9 that we didn't get to (the last ones from Schnaiberg and Gould, Roberts).
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