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 SUSTAINABILITY: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES SUS 20010 Fall 2012 Monday and Wednesday, 11:45-­‐1:00, DeBartolo 140 Instructors: J. Matthew Ashley, Department of Theology, 130 Malloy, [email protected] Jon Coleman, Department of History, 458 Decio, [email protected] Jessica Hellmann, Department of Biological Sciences, 179 Galvin, [email protected] Patrick Murphy, Department of Marketing, 394 Mendoza, [email protected] Office hours to be announced and by appointment. COURSE DESCRIPTION Overview: This course will introduce students to the ideas behind, the debates within, and the work that goes into sustainability studies. Taught by professors from a variety of academic fields, the class will harness ideas, questions, and methods from the sciences and humanities to outline and to come up with responses to critical environmental challenges. The professors will model interdisciplinary approaches through three case studies. Intended to be participatory, innovative, and engaging, the course will provide students with a foundation of knowledge and reservoir of techniques to explore sustainability issues further at Notre Dame and beyond. Objectives: This course begins with the premise that moving toward sustainability involves mastering at least three sorts of skills and knowledge, and exercising them conjointly. First, moving toward sustainability requires making difficult decisions between things that we value, when these values often pull in different directions. It might also require transforming the way we, and others, value our world. Value systems are often informed by one’s religion, which is a potent resource both for resistance to change but also for energizing change. Thus, moving toward sustainability means being able to talk intelligently about those values and how they are formed and transformed, and being able to balance different values held by different groups, so as to promote and sustain intelligent debate when values conflict. Second, moving toward sustainability means knowing how nature works and how the decisions we make (to achieve what we value) will affect and change the natural world in which we live and on which we rely. Third, moving toward sustainability means making intelligent policy decisions out of a knowledge of what is possible now in our society, even if we want to try to stretch the limits of what is possible. That requires knowing how economic and political systems work, and how far they can stretch before they break. It also involves knowing what 1 technology (both present and projected) can and cannot do. Our course goals involve one or another of these three basic tasks, or involve how they relate: 1.
To become familiar with and apply concepts relating to the developing discipline of sustainability studies. 2.
To integrate business, historical, scientific, and theological perspectives on sustainability 3.
To learn from the case studies so that we can apply the class principles to everyday living 4.
To examine the interfaces among environmental, economic and ethical/social (triple bottom line—TBL) responsibilities 5.
To learn about “best practices” in sustainability 6.
To sharpen analytical and communication skills 7.
To enhance professionalism 8.
To enhance critical thinking skills and evaluation of information sources 9.
To enable novel solutions to vexing problems 10.
To avoid either Pollyannaish optimism about the future or apocalyptic despair. Student learning outcomes After completing this course students will 1. be able to identify and describe the principal elements of a scientific understanding of an ecosystem in relation to a challenge to sustainability. 2. be able to identify different stakeholders in a challenge to sustainability, and analyze the political and economic structures that connect them. 3. be able to describe how Christianity has been the source of one value-­‐system for approaching questions of sustainability and assess how it is being used in debates over changing current practices for the sake of greater sustainability. 4. be able to describe sources from U.S. history of current approaches to challenges to sustainability and assess their continuing utility. 5. be able to analyze debates over challenges to sustainability (particularly stalled ones!) in terms of different value systems, differing appropriations of scientific findings and different background commitments in economics and politics, and then assess different positions in those debates according to the adequacy of all three. 6. be able to propose a viable solution to a particular challenge to sustainability and create a persuasive proposal that advocates this solution. 7. have developed a greater capacity to contribute to sustainability drawing on their own area of expertise in conversation with others and their areas of expertise. 8. have developed a greater appreciation both of the complex challenges we face in moving toward a more sustainable world but also of the possibility of crafting creative and effective responses to those challenges. 2 HONOR CODE The Notre Dame Academic Code of Honor Pledge is observed in this course. “As a member of the Notre Dame community, I will not participate in or tolerate academic dishonesty.” EXPECTATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS This course will be composed of four modules. Each module will end in a 20-­‐minute in-­‐class exam. Exams are scheduled for September 12, October 3, November 7 and November 28. Exams are based on lecture material, assigned readings, and assignments. There is a required final project. Each assigned group can either: 1) select a particular sustainability issue such as climate change, water, biodiversity or another approved by your instructors; or 2) examine in depth a company’s sustainability efforts and record. Your project should raise an issue or challenge, explore the various dimensions of the challenge, and propose one or more solutions that you defend as viable. The project should be ~15 pages in length and contain a bibliography. Additional details and a template will be forthcoming. There also are five group assignments and one individual assignment. We are placing you in groups so that you can start learning to work across disciplines. Our hope is that together you can analyze and solve problems better than any one of you could alone. Each project will be graded on a scale of 1-­‐5 with 5 being excellent and significantly above instructor expectations; 4 being strong, bringing novel insights, information, and conclusions; 3 being acceptable with useful information and some novel insights; 2 being weak with little information and/or novel insights; and 1 being marginally completed. Participation is required. After two missed class sessions (except for university-­‐
excused absences) the participation grade will be lowered by one grade level for each absence. More than five unexcused absences may result in a grade of F for the course. GRADING Assignments Exams Final project Participation 20% 48%, (12% each) 20% 12% 3 COURSE SCHEDULE You MUST read the assigned readings before each class period. You could be called upon in class, and groups will get together in class to discuss the day’s reading. T=text book; S=online course reserves; I=internet. 8/22 INTRODUCTION Class expectations, faculty intros, discussion about sustainability Reading: Stein, It’s not easy being green (S) ****Group assignment: Meet outside of class between now and Sunday and generate two definitions of sustainability that mean something to you. Defend them from your different disciplinary perspectives. Email your groups’ definitions to the instructor working with your group by 5 p.m. on Sunday, 8/26. 8/27 DEFINITIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY Defining the problem of sustainability, present group assignments in class Reading: Hardin, Tragedy of the commons (S) Boulding, Economics of the coming spaceship Earth (S) Speth, The Bridge at the End of the World, Chapter 10 (S) 8/29 – NATURE AND VALUES Religious interpretations of sustainability and nature, sustainability values and where they come from, setting and reframing priorities Reading: White, The historical roots of our ecologic crisis (S) Blenkinsopp, Treasures old and new (S) 9/3 – THE LAND ETHIC Defining the values of nature, biography of Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac as historical, ecological and philosophical document 4 Reading: Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, pp. 3-­‐18, 44-­‐50, 66-­‐77, 108-­‐112, 120-­‐137, 158-­‐162, 165-­‐176, 188-­‐226. (T) 9/5-­‐HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTISM/SUSTAINABILITY History of environmental thinking, rise of sustainability, environmentalism vs. ecology Reading: Coleman, Animal last stands (S) ****Group assignment: The Sand County Almanac is about doing; it is intended to convince you to care about nature and its preservation. Is it effective? Did it convince you to care, and why? Can the Land Ethic apply to sustainability issues today? How could you convince other people to care about the Land Ethic and/or sustainability? Discuss this with your group and come up with either a consensus argument or explain where members of your group disagree and why. Due by email on 9/9 9/10-­‐ INTRODUCTION WRAP-­‐UP, AND DISCUSSION In-­‐class discussion about group assignment 9/12—EXAM & INTO TO CASE STUDIES 20 minute exam and explanation of case study approach for rest of semester 9/17—NATIVE POPULATIONS How natives use salmon, native use and relationship with natural resources, history of native peoples arriving in North America, the myth of the Ecological Indian Reading: Chapter 1 of White, The Organic Machine (T) 9/19—STAKEHOLDERS Stakeholder analysis, stakeholders in the Columbia River, Columbia River Pastoral Letter, special guest via Skype 5 Reading: Chapter 2 of The Organic Machine (T) Catholic Bishops Letter (I) Economist, The Penebscot’s song (T) 9/24—THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST & THE COLUMBIA RIVER Ecology and climate of the Pacific Northwest, overview of ecological concepts raised by the case study Reading/viewing: Hellmann, Climate Change 101 (video; S) Economist, The vanishing north (T) Mote & Salathé, Future climate in the Pacific Northwest (S) Crozier et al. Potential responses to climate change in organisms with complex life histories: evolution and plasticity in Pacific salmon (S) 9/26—POWER Social and political power and decision-­‐making, hydroelectric power & and sustainable energy, dam construction and dam removal Reading/listening: Chapter 3 of White, The Organic Machine (T) Brad, Woody Guthrie’s fertile month on the Columbia River (I) ****Group Assignment: Research the ecology and use of one type of salmon, create a poster and email the poster for printing by 9/30 10/1—SALMON The ecology of salmon, endangered species Reading: Chapter 4 of White, The Organic Machine (T) 10/3—EXAM & POSTER SESSION 20 minute exam and poster viewing/judging—winner of the best poster gets a salmon dinner! 6 10/8—CORN & CIVILZATION history of cultivation of corn, total acreage in corn production, native habitats displaced by corn production Reading: Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Chapters 1 and 2 (S) **** Individual assignment: Calculate your environmental footprint. Interpret this footprint in the terms of what have you learned so far. Results and analysis due by email on 10/9 10/10—GROUP WORK Group discussion about environmental footprints, group time to finalize proposal 10/12—GROUP PROPOSAL DUE 10/22—FEEDING THE WORLD & AG COMMODITIES Human demography and population growth (demand), cereal crops, corn pricing, global market for food (supply) Reading/videos: UN Population Report, Chapter 1 and p. 116-­‐121 (I) Abend, How cows (grass-­‐fed only) could save the planet (I) Strohm, When business is good (S) ****Group assignment: Write three questions that you would like to ask a living, breathing corn farmer from the Midwest. Email your questions by 10/23 10/24—YIELDS: FERTILIZER, PESTICIDE & GMOS The Industrial Revolution & Haber-­‐Bosch, agricultural pollution, the family farm, special guest via Skype Reading/videos: Tilman et al., Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices (S) Welch and Aston, Fill ‘er up—but at what price? (S) Ratner, The great corn con (S) 7 10/29—BIOFUELS AND CLIMATE CHANGE Ethanol, greenhouse gases from agricultural production Reading/videos: Smith et al., Agriculture, Executive Summary & Sections 8.1-­‐8.3, 8.10 (I) Scharlemann and Laurance, How green are biofuels (S) Wald, U.S. backs project to produce fuel from corn waste (S) 10/31—GOVT FAM POLICY & SUSTAINABLE FARMING History of government food subsidies and farm policy, corn syrup, organic farming, local food movement Reading: Pretty, Agricultural sustainability (S) Poetry Foundation, Wendell Berry (I) Economist, Boondoggle Harvest (T) US Catholic Bishops: “For I Was Hungry & You Gave Me Food: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers, and Farmworkers” (I) 11/5—EXAM & OBESITY 20 minute exam and movie clips and discussion about the obesity crisis 11/7—COMMON MYTHS ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE & THE ENVIRONMENT Popular misconceptions, communicating science to the public, the role of scientific expertise, making sense of information vs. opinion, changing religious opinions about global change Reading: Oreskes, The scientific consensus on climate change (S) Pielke, Consensus about climate change? (S) Kolstø, Scientific literacy for citizenship (optional; S) 11/12—SUSTAINABLE MARKETING Environmentally sensitive companies and how they do it (e.g., Interface, Patagonia) 8 Reading: Murphy, Sustainable marketing (S) Patagonia, Don’t buy this jacket (I) Economist, Shoots, greens, and leaves (T) Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World, Chapter 5 (S) ****Group assignment: Investigate sustainability coverage of Walmart in the media and pick one article/story. What is your take on this coverage? What is it describing? What effect do you think this Walmart action has on society, other companies, and corporate culture? Due by email on 11/17 11/14—CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS: NIKE Nike as an example of corporate sustainability, special guest via Skype Reading: Corporate Responsibility Report for Nike, http://www.nikebiz.com/crreport/ (I) Locke et al., Nike considered: getting traction on sustainability 11/19—CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITTY EFFORTS: WALMART Walmart as an example of corporate sustainability, discuss group assignment Reading: Corporate Responsibility Report for Walmart, http://www.walmartstores.com/sites/ResponsibilityReport/2011/ (I) 11/26—POLLUTION AND SOLID WASTE FROM PRODUCTS Industrial waste recycling, electronic waste Reading/video: 60 Minutes, The Wasteland (I) Others on Recycling: S. Strom, “Rethinking Recycling,” NYT, 3/24/ 12 and W. Koch, “Companies aim for zero success in waste recycling,” USA Today, 1/30/ 12. (S) 11/28—EXAM & ND OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY 20 minute exam and visit from the ND Office of Sustainability 12/3 & 12/5—SOLUTIONS: POLICIES & INSTITUTIONS 9 What you can do in your daily life to make a difference, leading a sustainable life and career, class discussion Reading: Shulman et al., Cooler Smarter, Chapter 2 (S) 20 questions at http://www.coolersmarter.org (I) Marris et al., Hope in the age of man (S) Berry, The peace of wild things (I) 12/11—FINAL PROJECT IS DUE, 5:00 pm READINGS LIST (Bold are required text books) 60 Minutes. 2008. The Wasteland. November 9, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4586903n. Abend, L. 2010. How cows (grass-­‐fed only) could save the planet. Time Magazine, January 25. Berry, W. 1998. The peace of wild things. In The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint Press, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171140. Boulding, K. E. 1966. The economics of coming spaceship Earth. Page 3-­‐14 in Environmental Quality for a Growing Economy. Resources for the Future, Johns Hopkins University Press. Brad, J. 2007. Woody Guthrie’s Fertile Month on the Columbia River. All Things Considered. National Public Radio, DATE, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11918998. Blenkinsopp, J. 2004. Creation, the body, and care for a damaged world. Pages 36-­‐52 In Treasures Old and New: Essays in the Theology of the Pentateuch. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI. Catholic Bishops of the Columbia River Region. The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for Creation and the Common Good. http://thewscc.org/images/stories/Resources/Statements/colrvr-­‐e.pdf Coleman, J. 2005. Animal last stands: empathy and extinction in the American West. Montana, The Magazine of Western History 55: 2-­‐13. Crozier, L G., A. P. Hendry, P. W. Lawson, T. P. Quinn, N. J. Mantua, J. Battin, R. G. Shaw, and R. B. Huey. 2008. Potential responses to climate change in organisms with complex life histories: evolution and plasticity in Pacific salmon. Evolutionary Applications 1: 252-­‐270. Economist. 2012. June 22 [a number of copies of this issue have been purchased for the class; the sheer number of sustainability-­‐related articles in this issue shows how “main stream” sustainability has become]. Hardin, G. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243-­‐1248. 10 Kolstø,, S. D. 2001. Scientific literacy for citizenship: tools for dealing with the scientific dimension of controversial socioscientific issues. Science Education 85: 291-­‐310. Leopold, A. 1949. A Sand County Almanac. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Locke, R. M., R.Henderson, C. Lyddy, and C. Reavis. 2009. Nike considered: getting traction on sustainability. MIT Sloan Management 08-­‐077. https://mitsloan.mit.edu/MSTIR/sustainability/NikeConsidered/Documents
/08.077.Nike%20Considered.Getting%20Traction%20on%20Sustainability.
Locke.Henderson.pdf. Marris, E., P. Kareiva, J. Macaro, and E. C. Ellis. 2011. Hope in the age of man. New York Times, December 7, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/opinion/the-­‐age-­‐of-­‐man-­‐is-­‐not-­‐a-­‐
disaster.html. Mote, P. W., and E. P. Salathé. 2010. Future climate in the Pacific Northwest. Climatic Change 102: 29-­‐50. Murphy, P. 2005. Sustainable Marketing. Business & Professional Ethics Journal VOL: X-­‐X. Oreskes, N. 2004. The scientific consensus on climate change. Science 306 1686. Patagonia. 2001. Don’t buy this jacket. New York Times. November 25, http://patagonia.typepad.com/files/nyt_11-­‐25-­‐11.pdf. Pielke, R. A. 2005. Consensus about climate change? Reply to Oreskes. Science 308: 952-­‐954. Pollan, M. 2006. Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Press, New York, NY. Poetry Foundation, Wendell Berry, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wendell-­‐
berry Pretty, J. 2008. Agricultural sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B 262: 447-­‐
465. Ratner, S. 2011. The great corn con. New York Times, June 25. Scharlemann, J. P. W., and W. F. Laurance. 2008. How green are biofuels? Science 319: 43-­‐44. Shulman, S., J. Deyette, B. Ekurzel, D. Friedman, M. Mellon, J. Rogers, S. Shaw. 2012. Cooler smarter: practical steps for low-­‐carbon living. Island Press, Washington DC. Smith, P., D. Martino, Z. Cai, D. Gwary, H. Janzen, et al. 2007. Agriculture. In Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-­‐report/ar4/wg3/ar4-­‐wg3-­‐chapter8.pdf Speth, J. G. 2008. The Bridge at the End of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. Stein, J. 2012. It’s not easy being green: why Gen Y can’t be bothered to save the planet. Time Magazine, April 2. Strohm, S. 2011. When business is good. New York Times, February 22. 11 Tilman, D., K. G. Cassman, P. A. Matson, and S. Polasky. 2002. Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices. Nature 418: 671-­‐677. United Nations. 2011. State of the World Population: People and Possibilities in a world of 7 billion. Available online at: http://foweb.unfpa.org/SWP2011/reports/EN-­‐SWOP2011-­‐FINAL.pdf Wald, M. 2011. U.S. Backs project to produce fuel from corn waste. New York Times, July 7. Welch, D. and A. Aston. 2006. “Fill ‘er up—but at what price? BusinessWeek, May 22. White, L. W. 1967. The historical roots of our ecologic crisis. Science 155: 1203-­‐
1207. White, R. 1996. The Organic Machine. Hill and Wang, New York, NY. 12 Group Name Members (1) Leopold Andru Creighton Kaitlin Hennessy Kayla Powell Phillip Diamond (2) Columbia Elizabeth Andruszkiewicz Bridget Curran Matthieu Huon Daniel O’Leary (3) Chinook Francis Vu Sydney Speltz Carli Fernandez James Durham (4) Hydro Katherine McCormick Ella Bergmann Philip Palmon Antony Michuda (5) Maize Connor Myers Patrizia Martellora Anna Gorman John McLaren (6) White Gary Hunt Fabian Yang Susanna Spaulding Leah Bernardi STUDENT GROUPS Email [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 13 (7) Ethanol Stephan Bradley Michael Clark Stephanie Maciuba Cailin Gillespie (8) Organic Kaitlin Kenney Ian Graham Kayleigh Hausser Robert Toole (9) Creation Connie Woo Daniel Whitaker Lacey Cochran Christopher Kuo (10) Recycling John Mossman Stephanie Nearhos Hannah Darst Tyler Eto (11) Fertilizer Olga Bryazka Alexandra Budz Patrick Revord Laura Conti (12) GMO ClaireRin George Michael DeJaegher Shantel Northbird Armani Sutton (13) Earth Nolan Welsh Garrett Ward Maureen Ren Rebekah Wierson [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] 14 (14) Commons Julia Teixeira [email protected] Annemarie Schwendler [email protected] Jonathan Mandarakas [email protected] Richard Neville [email protected] (15) Commodities Kayla Sierra [email protected] Emily Degan [email protected] Joshua Corcoran [email protected] Patrick Hess [email protected] (16) Biofuel Joseph Robinson [email protected] Veronica Ryan [email protected] George Farrell [email protected] Teresa Keeney [email protected] (17) Climate Gabriela Elizondo [email protected] Caralyn Mezyk [email protected] Michael Robinson [email protected] Keith Podgorski [email protected] (18) Farming Christopher Paluf [email protected] Breck Ashdown [email protected] Jenna Richman [email protected] Caitlyn O’Malley [email protected] (19) Electronics Theresa Palid [email protected] Michelle Kelly [email protected] Robert Gialessas [email protected] Some necessary shifts of group membership will take place in the first few weeks as a result of changes in course registration. 15