4/07/15
Bixby Center for Population, Health and Sustainability
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley
PH 196.003
Survival 101: Taking Control of Your Future
Spring Semester 2015
CNN 75625
3 units: two hour class and one hour discussion section
Lecture
Mondays, 2-4 pm
88 Dwinelle Hall
Discussion Sections
Wednesday 10 -11 am, 279 Dwinelle Hall
Wednesday, 11 am – 12 pm, 103 Wheeler Hall
Instructor
Malcolm Potts
Selected faculty from across campus
Course overview
In their professional and personal lives students now attending Berkeley will confront a very different set of
challenges than most of the current faculty have experienced. Human activity and human numbers threaten the
possibility of irreversible damage to the fragile biosphere on which all life depends. The current generation of
students is the first one to face this existential problem and it may be the last one that can solve it. The problems
are global and the course will build on the unique cultural and ethnic diversity of UC Berkeley and its growing
international links.
The goal of this course is for faculty with expertise in the many variables involved (energy consumption, food
security, population growth and family planning, climate change, governance, migration, resource consumption,
etc.) to give one-hour presentations on their specific topic. Informal student discussion groups will then prepare
brief statements responding to the challenge presented, and suggest ways of ameliorating the problem under
discussion. Each group will make a brief presentation during the second hour of the two-hour class.
The course will present the unique partnership between faculty and undergraduates. While one focus of the
course is the threat of continued exponential growth in the use of fossil fuels, the goal of the course is to release
the human energy of UC Berkeley undergraduates to begin to learn, problem solve, create networks of interest
groups, and develop a commitment and advocacy for change. The course parallels, in part, the recent initiative of
the University President in placing an emphasis on food security both domestically and globally.
Learning objectives
 To understand that the continued exponential growth in energy consumption, and human population
growth, is unsustainable.
 To develop a perspective on the current destruction of natural resources and biodiversity.
 To understand how adverse trends, for example in group global warming and population growth, can
interact in adverse ways, sometimes with considerable rapidity.


To define, through discussion and readings, those policies that need to be put in place and the investments
that must be made in order to move the current pattern of unsustainable economic activity to a
biologically sustainable one.
To understand, by building on the ethnic and cultural diversity of UC Berkeley, the many political, social,
and cultural barriers that stand in the way of developing needed ,evidence-based policies and investments.
Grading
20% Short reflection paper (4 pages, double-spaced) on your perceptions of one of the topic areas covered in
the course. Minimum of three outside sources.
35% Participation in discussion section.
20%
Second reflection paper (6 pages, double-spaced) using acquired knowledge for in-depth analysis of
first reflection paper topic to include proposed, achievable solutions. Minimum of three outside sources.
25% Capstone presentations.
Short reflection paper turned in during class on 2/23. Second reflection paper turned in during class on 4/20.
More information on the reflection papers and capstone presentations will be provided in discussion sections.
This is a small class and your attendance and participation are important! If you need to miss a class for a valid
reason you must inform the GSI ahead of time to be excused. Without a valid excuse your final grade will be
reduced by 5% if you are absent from lecture; and your discussion section grade percentage will be reduced by
5% if you are absent from discussion section.
(One goal of the pilot course will be to test the possibility of a unique grading mechanism. This could involve
discussion sections making presentations to the rest of the class who will then use their iClickers to grade the (i)
relevance and (ii) achievability of the response to the specific problem presented in the previous week by faculty.)
Attendance
iClickers will be used in the lectures and also to validate attendance. You can buy your iClicker remote at the Cal
Bookstore. Please use iClicker+. You must register your iClicker within the PH196.003 bCourses course site
using the tool in the left-hand navigation bar. Each student must have his or her own iClicker. Sharing is not
allowed. It is imperative that you do not give your iClicker to anyone if you will be absent or do not accept
someone else’s iClicker.
Readings
Students are required to read the assigned articles posted on the class bCourses and available as a reader at
Krishna Copy, 2111 University Ave. In addition, selected readings will be assigned from The Crash Course:
The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy, Energy, and Environment on reserve in the SPH library.
Course contact information:
Instructor of Record
Malcolm Potts MD PhD
207G University Hall
tel. 642-4327
potts@berkeley.edu
GSI
Maggie Crosby
MPH Candidate ’15
maggie.crosby@berkeley.edu
Course Coordinator
Claire Norris MPA
227 University Hall
tel. 642-6915
cnorris@berkeley.edu
COURSE OUTLINE
1. 1/26
Introduction of the Course (Malcolm Potts)
The goals of the pilot course and how they will help develop a larger course of 200-500 students.
Scale and exponential growth. Will the next twenty years be fundamentally different from the
past twenty years? If yes, this is the course for you.
Reading:
 Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 1,The Coming Storm,
pages 3-6
2. 2/02
Population and Family Planning (Ndola Prata)
Reading:
 Prata, Ndola, Making Family Planning Accessible in Resource-Poor Settings,
Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B (2009) 364, 3093-3099
 Potts, Malcolm, Getting Family Planning and Population Back on Track, Global Health:
Science and Practice, 2014, Volume 2, Number 2
Discussion: Innovative video production for capstone presentations. Bring your computers with
iMovie to class to follow along. Taught by Lisa Peterson.
3. 2/09
Human Causes of Recent and Future Climate Change (Michael Wehner)
Reading:
 Walsh, John, Wuebbles, Donald, et al, US Global Change Research Program, Climate
Change Impacts in the United States, Chapter 2, pages 1-29
 Walsh, John, Wuebbles, Donald, et al, US Global Change Research Program, Climate
Change Impacts in the United States, Appendix 4, FAQ, pages 1-31
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on population and family planning (February
2 lecture).
2/16
Presidents Day Holiday
4. 2/23
The Transition to the Bio-economy (David Zilberman)
DUE: Short reflection paper
Reading:
 Zilberman, David, The Economics of Sustainable Development, The American Journal
of Agricultural Economics, 96, no.2, 2014: 385-396
 Swinnen, Johan, Riera Oliva, The Global Bio-Economy, Agricultural Economics 44, no.
s1, 2013, 1-5
 Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 17, Necessary But
Insufficient: Coal, Nuclear, and Alternatives, Minerals, pages 159-176
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on climate change (February 9 lecture).
5. 3/02
Environment and Agriculture, Food Security (Federico Castillo) *Lecture from 3-4 pm
Reading:
 An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Food Security, Food Security Information for
Action Practical Guides, The EC-FAO Security Programme
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

Roncoli, Carla, Okoba, Barrack, et al, Adaptation to Climate Change for Smallholder
Agriculture in Kenya: Community-Based Perspectives from Five Districts, Kenya
Smallholder Climate Change Adaptation, October 2010, The University of Georgia
Reardon, Thomas, Nosti Stephen, Links Between Rural Poverty and the Environment in
Developing Countries: Asset Categories and Investment Poverty, World Development,
Vol. 23, No. 9, 1995, pages 1495-1506
Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 20, Soil: Thin,
Thinner, Gone, pages 197-203
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on the bio-economy (February 23 lecture).
6. 3/09
Issues in Contemporary Climate Change Research (Michael Wehner)
Reading: no assigned readings for this lecture
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on the environment and agriculture (March 2
lecture).
7. 3/16
Mid-Course Corrections (Malcolm Potts)
Discussion on where the pilot course is going, how it can be improved, and any ideas from
students and faculty for new topics or content.
3/23
Spring Break
8. 3/30
What is Wealth? (Chris Martenson)
Reading:
 Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 9, What is Wealth?
(Hint: It’s Not Money), pages 57-62
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on climate change (March 9 lecture).
9. 4/06
Economic Impact of Climate Change (Maximilian Aufhammer)
Reading:
 Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 25, Future Scenarios,
pages 231-245
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on wealth (March 30 lecture).
10. 4/13
Global Migration and Demographic Change (Robin Marsh)
Reading:
 Kapur, Devish, McHale, John, The Global Migration of Talent: What Does it Mean for
Developing Countries?, CGD Brief, Center for Global Development, October, 2005
 Cohen, Joel, Beyond Population: Everyone Counts in Development, Working Paper 220,
July 2010, Center for Global Development
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on economic impact of climate change (April
6 lecture).
11. 4/20
Flipped Class – students reach about oceans
DUE: Second reflection paper
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on global migration (April 13 lecture).
12. 4/27
Synthesis Lecture: Viewing the Human Dilemma Systemically (John Harte)
A look at all the lecture issues presented and discussion on the merits of viewing the human
dilemma systematically. Examination of the positive and negative synergies among components
and the types of solutions that properly respect the entanglements within the system.
Reading:
 Harte, John, Feedbacks, thresholds and synergies in global change: population as a
dynamic factor, Biodiversity and Conservation 5, 1069-1083 (1996)
 Martenson, Chris, The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future of Our Economy,
Energy, and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2011, Chapter 19 Minerals: Gone
with the Wind, pages 191-196
Discussion: Discuss and present possible solutions on April 20 lecture.
13. 5/04
Capstone Presentations / Course Evaluations
Students will select the two best ideas from the course and each will be addressed in a
30-45 minute presentation to the class. Students will choose from creative formats
in addition to PowerPoints – e.g. videos, scientific posters, debates, TED Talks, etc.