Download - UCSB Sustainability

Sociology 265EC: Earth in Crisis
Fall 2012
Fridays, 9 a.m. till noon
SSMS 3017
John Foran, Instructor, Professor of Sociology
Office: 3417 Social Sciences Building
Phone: 893-8199
e-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and by appointment (I’ll also do lots of e-mail
consultation)
This course is dedicated to the memory and spirit of Stephen Schneider1 …
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I’ll start by suggesting that what the global justice movement –
and climate activism in particular – is doing right is trying to bring
together people dedicated to change. For me, the secrets of their
success lie in their inclusiveness – their ability to draw people
together across their differences, the incredible creativity and joy
that they bring to their actions (yes, changing the world should be
fun!), their fearlessness, and the love they hold for each other (and
I do think that emotions – of rage and anger, yes, but also of hope
and love – can also hold us together), and their openness and
willingness to try new forms of activism. They are doing all this
with some striking tactics, and with achingly beautiful visions of a
better world, and we should all be learning more about them, and
getting involved ourselves, because the crisis we are living through
is one of unprecedented proportion and danger, with the very real
possibility of a deeply more horrifying world to come.
But it could just as well turn out very differently.
There are many paths to a better future, one worthy of us and for
our children, and depending on the concrete situations that people
face in different corners of the world, it should be no surprise that
there are going to be different paths to the future we want.
1
See his website at http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/
2
Plenty of luck and good weather would help too – the chances of
the former being much greater than the latter, but that’s the whole
point!
– John Foran
It is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the
end of capitalism.
– Fredrick Jameson, “Future City,” New Left
Review 21 (May-June 2003)
Statement of Purpose and Course Description
This course will explore the causes and consequences of climate change on a global
scale, covering the state of the science in layman’s terms, the current and future social impacts of
climate change, the global negotiations process, and climate justice activism.
A growing international scientific consensus has emerged that there is now only a 50
percent chance that the official United Nations target of limiting the rise in average temperature
to 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050 would effectively avert irreversible climate change. The
latest reports of the IPCC and in particular, the view of Dr. James Hansen, the world’s bestknown climate scientist, point toward the need for a treaty that will limit warming to 1.5 degrees
Celsius or less and restore the Earth’s atmosphere to the scientifically established sustainable
level of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide (it is currently just under 395 ppm and rising).
Meanwhile, existing market-based programs such as carbon cap and trade are failing to constrain
the steady increase of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
At the same time, the international climate negotiations process is at an impasse, as the
dominant parties to the climate negotiations continue to advance positions completely at odds
with each other and with this science, suggesting that humanity is on a collision course with
nature that it cannot win. It’s hard to disagree with the late, great Alexander Cockburn: “Look
at the false predictions, the blunders. Remember the elemental truth that Nature bats last, and
that folly and greed are ineluctable parts of the human condition” (“In Fukushima’s Wake: How
the Greens Learned to Love Nuclear Power,” pp. 75-79 in New Left Review 68 (March-April
2012), 79).
On the side of hope, since 2007, or even earlier, a promising global climate justice
movement has emerged behind the slogan “System change, not climate change!,” making
demands for a socially just, scientifically appropriate, and legally binding climate treaty. To get
such a treaty, governments who do not want to vote for it, or whose short-term interests and
economic elites are not served by signing, will need to be persuaded and/or possibly forced to do
so by their own citizens and Earth citizens everywhere.
The purpose of this course, then, is to get our heads round the reality that we now live on
an “Earth in crisis,” and to explore the implications of this for living in a better future.
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My Philosophy of Teaching and Learning
I consider teaching radical act…
Learning and teaching are complex, endlessly fascinating collaborations. I learn
enormous amounts from the students in classes I have facilitated, whom I consider colleagues
and companions on an intellectual, sometimes life-changing journey. My goals for my classes
include the development of critical thinking analytical skills and the historical perspective
necessary to examine our deeply held assumptions regarding the social world and to cultivate our
sociological imaginations as we attempt to provide explanations for these phenomena. We will
collectively facilitate our work in a convivial and collaborative way, hone the arts of applying
theoretical concepts to actual historical and contemporary situations, and make connections
between these situations and what we study and what we do.
I agree with Manolo Callahan: “We [should] attempt to convert the competitive
atmosphere of the traditional graduate seminar into a site for collective reflection and action. We
will think out loud as we examine concepts, theoretical frameworks, and specific evidence
convivially, constructing new tools as we proceed. Sharing our unique perspectives, histories,
experiences, skills, and desires will allow us to acknowledge the resources we ourselves claim as
well as the knowledge we hope to share. Given that we will engage difficult and controversial
concepts and issues, it will be our shared obligation to maintain an intellectually rigorous and
respectful environment. Thus, it imperative that our engagement be thoughtful and supportive of
the views, experiences, expertise, and desires of others at all times.”
Texts
There will be a heavy amount of reading in this course, by any standard. The good news
is that you decide what to read and how much to read. And, you will find this includes some
exciting and inspiring materials you can’t find elsewhere – or your money back!
Three books and a large number of other readings are required for this course. The
required books are:
Saci Lloyd, The Carbon Diaries 2015. London: Holiday House. 2010.
Danny Chivers, The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change: The Science, the Solutions,
the Way Forward. Oxford: New Internationalist. 2010.
John Urry. Climate Change and Society. Cambridge: Polity. 2011.
All of these books are available at the UCEN Bookstore, and they may also be purchased
on Amazon.
The other course readings are posted on our GauchoSpace for the class. Let me know if
you have any problems accessing them.
Students with Disabilities
This course welcomes and accommodates all interested students. Students with
disabilities who require accommodations to fully participate in course activities or meet course
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requirements should speak to the Disabled Students Program, as well as the Instructor. If you
qualify for services through the DSP, please turn in a letter of accommodation to the Instructor.
We will do everything possible to accommodate your individual needs. For more information, go
to http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/
GauchoSpace
Yes! It is indispensible to our work, so check it regularly – https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/
You will be posting your weekly writing to GauchoSpace so we may all read each other’s work
before class meets to discuss.
Course Requirements
Attendance and Participation
Attendance at all class meetings is indispensable for making this course a success for all
of us. Class participation will be measured by attendance and participation in class, volunteering
on multiple occasions for presenting a reading, and general engagement with the materials. You
may ask for the occasional excused absence but I will have to see the reason for it within 24
hours of the missed class, if not in advance, in order to honor your request. It is always greatly
to your advantage to attend class.
Writing
Please note: The format guidelines for all papers in this course are 1” margins all around
and 12 point size. I ask that all papers double-spaced, and printed on both sides (if possible).
I would like to center this course on class discussion and an effort to find new ways of
collective learning. Therefore, I will try to limit the amount of (required) reading assigned, with
shared, delegated responsibility for covering some of it, so that we can read some items with
greater attention than usual.
We will also facilitate a group-centered form of learning by making in-class
introductions/presentations on the material and through weekly briefs circulated to the group the
day before our discussion (hard as this will probably be for most of us).
Each brief should develop an analytical discussion about one or more of the readings
and/or the weekly topic. By a critical analysis of the reading, I am thinking of an assessment of a
selected aspect or aspects of the week’s reading(s), including your own reflections on the issues
raised by the reading (your agreement or disagreement, along with the reasons for either; and/or
questions you have). Try to take no more than (less can be fine, just write something every week)
two single-spaced pages (12 point Times Roman font please) for your briefs, so they can be
printed out on one page back-to-back. Why not keep it short and to the point?
The goal is to post weekly briefs on GauchoSpace on Tuesdays (the earlier the better)
before class, so that we may come to class having read them.
A unique feature of this class is the inclusion of a number of films as curriculum
materials. I do this for several reasons: 1) scholarship today has become transdisciplinary in
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scope and social scientists now need to be adept at film criticism, seeing film as both data for our
projects and in many cases as a form of activist scholarship; 2) film is a medium that is specially
suited for conveying images, emotions, and interaction, and therefore provides sophisticated data
in context for our discussions and for our writing; 3) the subject matter of this course is global
in scope, yet intimate in nature and emotional impact, and films allow us to enter the worlds of
people as they encounter, react to, and resist globalization in countless ways.
In lieu of a brief for a given week, you may write a film review presenting an
argument/point of view, critical observations, and evidence from the film of the previous or
current week, perhaps complemented by materials from the course or outside it, to back these up.
I see no reason to assign a long paper at the end of the term. Let’s put all our effort into
writing great briefs and having great discussions!
Writing Resources
We all need to work on our writing skills, continuously; each of us can become better at
this. The class GauchoSpace contains several excellent guides on how to write well, by John
Foran, Chris Bickel, Manuel Callahan, and the Sociology Department. You might want to study
these before every piece of writing you do this quarter, until you feel you have mastered and can
practice what they say.
Following the News: Tracking Current Issues
As the occasion arises, we may discuss current events, so please feel free to bring and
share news with the class. Excellent resources, among others, are:
The New York Times (the paper of record in the U.S.): http://www.nytimes.com/
BBC News (England and U.K.’s news source of record): http://www.bbc.co.uk/
The Guardian (the United Kingdom’s best newspaper): http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Le Monde Diplomatique (French newspaper of record, English edition):
http://mondediplo.com
Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now!, the best source of progressive global political
journalism in the U.S.: http://www.democracynow.org/
Climate Connections – http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/ – is an archive of past
reporting on climate activism and the global justice movement more generally, and is a
project of the Global Justice Ecology Project
www.tomdispatch.com – the weblog of U.S. historian and writer Tom Engelhardt is in
my view the world’s best English-language website for critical analysis of global social
movements, U.S. foreign and domestic policy, and the multiple crises of contemporary
capitalist globalization. You can subscribe to this at the website.
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Course Topics and Reading Assignments
Part One:
What the Science Says
Friday, September 28. First meeting: starting up…
Introduction to the course, and first class discussion.
Readings [please read these BEFORE coming to our first class]
Bill Barnes, “Draft comments after Denver ASA,” 1-4 (2012) [on
GauchoSpace]
Malcolm Bull, “What is the Rational Response?” London Review of Books
34 (10) (May 24, 2012), 1-7, http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n10/malcolmbull/what-is-the-rational-response
Film
A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet (Mark Kitchell, 110
minutes, 2012)
Friday, October 5. Scientists, Skeptics, and Society: The Debate on Climate Change
Today, we will debate whether and to what extant climate change is real. After all,
there’s a debate about this, right?
Come to class prepared to argue on one or the other side of the question: last names A –
K will argue that climate change is happening and is a grave threat, while last names L – Z will
argue against this position, to whatever degree they wish (i.e. it’s not happening, it’s happening,
but is not caused by human activity; it’s happening, but is not a grave threat; it’s happening but
we can find a technological fix that will allow us to live pretty much as we do now, etc.)
Core Reading
Danny Chivers, The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change, foreword,
Introduction, and chapter 1: “How Do We Know that Climate Change is
Happening?” 5-45
Materials for the Debate
“Are You Crazy?”– Climate Change is not Happening positions:
Christopher Booker, “Many Inconvenient Untruths,” in his The Real
Global Warming Disaster (New York: Continuum, 2009), 144-151
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[go to site to watch video, and print out for more information]
JunkScience Sidebar -- All the Junk That's Fit to Discuss, 1-8,
http://junksciencesidebar.com/category/climategate/
[go to site and poke around] http://compendium.open.ac.uk/moodle/fileold.php/2/kmap/1288889885/ClimateSkepticArguments_Outline.html
Bob Inglis, “How GOP should engage climate science,” USA Today
(September 26, 2011),
Bjørn Lomborg, various essays, 1-9, including “A Return to Reason”
(2010), pp. 1-2, http://www.projectsyndicate.org/commentary/lomborg66/English
“Are You an Idiot?” – Climate Change is Happening positions:
Jan Dash, “What About the Contrarians? A Guide“ (July 3, 2010, last
update April 7, 2012), http://climate.uuuno.org/articles/view/148487/?topic=45942
Background pieces
Al Gore, “Climate of Denial: Can Science and the Truth Withstand the
Merchants of Poison?” in Rolling Stone (July 7, 2011), 76-83, 112-113,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-of-denial-20110622
Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Where Did Global Warming Go?” New York Times
(October 16, 2011), 1-4, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/sundayreview/whatever-happened-to-globalwarming.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=elisabethrosenthal
Naomi Oreskes, “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” (2004):
in Bill McKibben, editor, The Global Warming Reader (O/R Books,
2011), 75-78
Danny Chivers, The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change, chapter 3:
“Why is Climate Denial on the Rise?” 56-68
Meanwhile, back to the science. Today, we’ll also look at the actual mechanisms of
climate change (at least as much as a non-sciency social “scientist” can understand them!).
Readings
Danny Chivers, The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change, foreword,
Introduction, chapter 1: “How Do We Know that Climate Change is
Happening?” 5-45, chapter 2: “How Bad Could it Get?” 46-55, and
chapter 5: “How Much Do We Need to Cut?” 92-101
The materials on GauchoSpace from Spencer Weart’s amazing website on
“The Discovery of Global Warming,” at
http://www.aip.org/history/climate, including “Summary,” “History in
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Hypertext,” “Timeline/Milestones,” and “Reflections on the Scientific
Process, as Seen in Climate Studies”
IPCC Working Group I, “Summary or Policymakers: The Science of
Climate Change” (1995), in Bill McKibben, editor, The Global Warming
Reader (O/R Books, 2011), 55-67
IPCC, Summary for Policymakers (2007), 1-18,
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-spm.pdf
Optional. IPCC, Assessment Synthesis Report IV (2007), 1-52,
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr.pdf.
Part Two:
The Social Science of Climate Change
Friday, October 12. The Carbon-Industrial Complex (and How to Break it Up)
Today, we will take a first look at how climate change results from the social system that
we know and live in.
Special assignment due in class Friday, October 12: The Ecological Footprint Quiz.
Before class, please go to http://myfootprint.org/en/visitor_information/
Take the quiz, print out the results page, put your name on it, and evaluate why you got
the score you did, in a couple of sentences.
Website to Explore
One piece which I’d like everyone to view before class is by photojournalist Paul Fusco on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Note:
It’s an interactive website, and it’s horrifying, so be prepared to see some
heart-rending images of children. I believe we must bear witness, to honor
the people it shows us, and to make the necessary connections to the
ongoing disaster in Japan, and the possible coming disasters in many other
places. The current crisis has a highly visible, and scary, new dimension:
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl
Readings
John Urry, Climate Change and Society (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011).
Wednesday, October 17. Special Event at 6 p.m. in the MultiCultural Center Theater: The
Naked Option: The Last Resort
This film reveals the inspiring story of an organized group of Nigerian women who use
the threat of stripping naked in public, a serious cultural taboo, to make their voices heard in
their perilous struggle to hold multinational oil companies accountable to the communities in
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which they operate. Discussion with the filmmaker Candace Schermerhorn following the
screening (75 min., English, 2011, USA).
Friday, October 19. Climate Change in the Majority World [class will self-organize for
today]
Today, we will take a close look at how climate change impacts societies in the Majority
World.
Readings
Christian Parenti, “Reading the World in a Loaf of Bread: Soaring Food
Prices, Wild Weather, Upheaval, and a Planetful of Trouble” (July 19,
2011), http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175419/
Gopal Dayaneni and Mateo Nube, “How to Break the Global Climate
Stalemate Between the Global South and the North,” in Climate Action,
issue 52 (Winter 2010) at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climateaction/how-to-break-the-climate-stalemate-between-the-global-south-andthe-north, 1-5
Andrew J. Hoffman, “Climate Science as Culture War” (Fall 2012), 1-14,
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/climate_science_as_culture_war
We’ll also consider the situation of countries affected by rising sea levels, and the
political struggles they are waging against climate change, with a screening of Climate Refugees:
The Face of Climate Change (2010, Video Project, 86 minutes).
Readings
Wikipedia, Mohamed Nasheed,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Nasheed, 1-10
Statement delivered by Grenada on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island
Sates (AOSIS), AWG-KP Opening Plenary Durban, 28 November 2011,
http://aosis.info/2011/aosis-rejects-delay-until-2020-%E2%80%93demands-urgency-for-climate-agreement/, 1-2
AOSIS Rejects Delay Until 2020 – Demands Urgency for climate
agreement (December 1, 2011), http://aosis.info/2011/aosis-rejects-delayuntil-2020-%E2%80%93-demands-urgency-for-climate-agreement/, 1-2
Friday, October 26. The Future is Already Here
Today, we’ll look at an imagined world of 2015, and try to imagine what our world might
look like in 2015… 2020… 2030…
Saci Lloyd, The Carbon Diaries 2015, and see the author’s homepage:
http://www.sacilloyd.com/books/carbon-diaries-2015
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Carbon Diaries – a compilation of reviews and background
We’ll also screen in class the film, The Age of Stupid, with Pete Postlethwaite, directed
by Franny Armstrong, One-Off Productions, Ltd (88 minutes).
Read background briefing on The Age of Stupid, 1-25
Readings
Madeline Ostrander, “When Words Fail: Does a Warming World Need a
New Vocabulary?” (September 19, 2011),
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/when-words-fail-does-a-warmingworld-need-a-new-vocabulary, 1-5
Part Three:
Negotiating Change
Friday, November 2. What about the United Nations Climate Change Conferences – How
are the Negotiations Going?
Today, we’ll study the history of the global climate negotiations which have been taking
place since the early 1990s and led to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, designed to limit countries’
emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. We’ll look at the dramatic turn of events at the 2009
COP 15 meeting, when the world expected a breakthrough treaty, and was rudely surprised by
the outcome, ending with a careful look at the Durban COP 17 meetings in South Africa in
November-December 2011.
Readings
Spencer Weart, “International Cooperation,” extract from his website on
“The Discovery of Global Warming,” 1, 17-41,
http://www.aip.org/history/climate
Wikipedia, “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,”
1-20, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNFCC
Wikipedia, “Kyoto Protocol,” 1-22,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol
Wikipedia, “Copenhagen Accord,” 1-7,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Accord
“Deal or No Deal?” (Rising Tide, Rising Creative Commons, 2009), 1-16,
http://www.very.org.uk/dealornodeal/dond.pdf
Joel Kovel, “A Conference that will live in Infamy,” Capitalism Nature
Socialism 21 (1) (March 2010): 1-2
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ABC News, “Future not for sale: climate deal rejected,”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-12-19/future-not-for-sale-climate-dealrejected/1185014, 1-4
Richard Black, “Developing countries split over climate measures”
(December 9, 2009), BBC, 1-4,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8403745.stm
Suzanne Goldenberg, “US denies climate aid to countries opposing
Copenhagen accord” (April 9, 2010), Guardian,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/09/us-climate-aid
Patrick Bond, “Durban’s Conference of Polluters, Market Failure and
Critic Failure,” Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization 12 (1/2):
42-69, http://cdmscannotdeliver.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/bondephemera.pdf
John Foran and Richard Widick, “Breaking the Stalemate on Climate
Change: The Long Road from Durban,” 1-13
Hayley Stevenson and John S. Dryzek, “The Legitimacy of Multilateral
Climate Governance: A Deliberative Democratic Approach,” Critical
Policy Studies, 6:1, 1-18
Hayley Stevenson and John S. Dryzek, “The Discursive Democratisation
of Global Climate Governance,” Environmental Politics 21 (2) (March
2012): 189-210
Hayley Stevenson and John S. Dryzek, “The Legitimacy of Multilateral
Climate Governance: A Deliberative Democratic Approach,” Critical
Policy Studies 6 (1) (April 2012): 1-18
Tina Gerhardt, “Get it Done! Youth to UN on Internationally Binding
Climate Treaty” (Sunday, December 11, 2011), 1-14,
www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/11-8
Anne Petermann, Executive Director, Global Justice Ecology Project,
“Showdown at the Durban Disaster: Challenging the ‘Big
Green’ Patriarchy” (December 16, 2011), 1-8, http://climateconnections.org/2011/12/16/showdown-at-the-durban-disasterchallenging-the-big-green-patriarchy/
REFERENCE ONLY: Glenn MacIntosh, Compilation: COP17 Durban
UN Climate Summit 2011: Betrayal of Life,
http://www.ecosanity.org/blogsanity/compilation-cop17-durban-unclimate-summit-2011-betrayal-life
JF’s blog: http://www.iicat.org/iicat-daily-reports-from-cop17-durbansouth-africa-nov-28-dec-9/
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Friday, November 9. Global Climate Justice Movements
Today, we will survey some of the leading players in the global climate justice
movement, or better, movements, that have emerged in the past five years, including Climate
Justice Now!, 350.org, and Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), and in the U.S., Energy
Action Coalition, PowerShift, SustainUS, and Van Jones’s Rebuild the American Dream.
Core readings
Consult the document, “The Global Climate Justice Movement On-Line,”
and please take at least a couple hours to look at websites.
Bertie Russell, Andre Pusey, and Leon Sealey-Huggins, “Movements and
Moments for Climate Justice: From Copenhagen to Cancun via
Cochabamba,” ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical
Geographies 11 (1) (2012): 15-32.
Video
The Romney-Ryan economic plan in three minutes, presented by Robert
Reich – very clear and good! http://front.moveon.org/everyone-aroundyou-needs-to-see-this-video-robert-reich-dropped-everything-tomake/#.UDwBD1zTkDB.facebook
Friday, November 16. Radical Climate Justice
Today, we will take a close look at the “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother
Earth,” adopted by the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother
Earth, on April 27, 2010 in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and subsequently submitted by the Bolivian
government to the United Nations for consideration.
Core Readings
World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother
Earth “Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth,”
Cochabamba, Bolivia (April 27, 2010),
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=2268, 1-3
Interview with Pablo Solon, conducted by John Foran at Durban, South
Africa, December 2, 2011
We’ll also explore the political culture of “ecosocialism,” which combines a critique of
capitalism as the cause of the crisis of planet Earth with an alternative model for a future that
would be ecologically advanced, economically just, and politically free.
Core Readings
Joel Kovel and Michael Löwy, “EcoSocialist Manifesto” (drafted 2001,
amended and adopted 2008), 1-9
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Danny Chivers, The No-Nonsense Guide to Climate Change, chapter 9:
“What is it going to take?”; chapter 10: “What might a zero-carbon future
look like?”; and chapter 11: “Ten top tips to save the planet,” 170-196
Readings
Rebecca Solnit, “Compassion Is Our New Currency: Notes on 2011’s
Preoccupied Hearts and Minds” (December 22, 2011), 1-6,
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175483/tomgram%3A_rebecca_solnit,_
occupy_your_heart
Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster, “An Ecological Revolution Is Not
Just Necessary – It’s Essential,” from their book, What Every
Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism (New York: Monthly
Review Press, 2011), 123-144
Friday, November 23. Thanksgiving Break!
Thursday, November 29. Video-chat with the International Institute for Climate Action
and Theory Live at the COP18 in Doha, Qatar…
Technology and time zones permitting, be prepared for a special eye-witness account of
the COP18 proceedings from Doha, Qatar, and to interact with noted climate action theorists
John Foran and Richard Widick.
Friday, November 30. No class
Tuesday, December 4. Special Event… Island President at 7 p.m.
Please try to attend a free screening about the charismatic president of the Maldives, a
climate hero. The film will be shown at 7 p.mat the Pollock Theater, next to the SSMS building.
You need to reserve a seat in advance by going to
http://www.carseywolf.ucsb.edu/emi/events/film-screening-island-president
Friday, December 7. The Political Cultures of Climate Justice
In-class video
Please watch Stephen Schneider, “Ethics and Values,” a talk at Chicago
Latin School (January 19, 2010), 50 minutes,
http://cyperusmedia.com/pages/media/ethics.html
Special event
If technology permits, John Foran will Skype into the class from the
COP18 meetings in Doha for a live update.
Friday, December 14. Facing the Future -- What are we going to do? Final thoughts, and
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farewells
This week, it is my hope that we can gather to celebrate, hear what everyone’s thinking,
and figure out how we’ll stay in touch.