ENVR 201 – 001
SOCIETY AND ENVIRONMENT
MWF 11:35-12:25
ENGMC 204
Fall 2004
Instructors:
Madhav G. Badami (Urban Planning/MSE) – Course
Co-ordinator
Oliver Coomes (Geography)
Renee Sieber (Geography/MSE)
COURSE OUTLINE
This course deals with how human activity interacts with and affects the environment, and how
our choices as individuals and societies, our political institutions and economic arrangements, and
technologies, mediate these interactions and effects.
The course will discuss society-environment interactions and environmental issues in various
sectors, including air, water, land, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport, and energy, and how
issues of politics, equity, and how we value the natural environment are inextricably intertwined
in the debates around environmental problems.
The course deals with questions on which people tend to have strong opinions:
What are the causes of human misuse or overuse of our environment?
Are there too many people and not enough resources?
Can technological fixes solve environmental problems?
Can “getting the prices right” solve these problems?
Are there limits to economic growth and/or human development?
Can we (and how do we) live sustainably and equitably in a global community?
The lectures will discuss the readings, raising additional questions and adding information about
their significance for understanding society-environment interactions. An important function of
the lectures is to critically discuss important but often contested concepts such as “sustainability”,
“resources”, “carrying capacity”, and “development”. Wherever possible, case studies will be
used, to ground our discussions in the lived reality of societies, and to help students gain a deeper
appreciation of theoretical concepts. The lectures will discuss various environmental issues not
only in various sectors, but also in different geographical contexts. This approach will allow us to
make connections and investigate similarities and differences between environmental issues in
different sectors and contexts, and explore the implications of these similarities and differences
for addressing these issues in different sectors and contexts.
Students will be expected to read extensively and carefully analyze the material in the lectures
and readings. They will also need to understand interconnections among case studies and analytic
issues presented in the lectures and readings.
Be warned that the readings and lectures will not always agree. This reflects the character of the
subject, which brings together ideas from many disciplines and stimulates sharp debates
concerning environmental issues.
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How does ENVR 201 intersect with the other three MSE core courses?
The Global Environment, ENVR 200, addresses human impacts on global biogeochemistry, and
global policy initiatives aimed at controlling them. While we share a concern about human
impacts on ecosystems, ENVR 200 focuses more on global biogeochemical effects of industrial
activity and international policies aimed at protecting the atmosphere and the oceans. In ENVR
201 we examine a broader range of demographic, socio-economic, technological and institutional
processes underlying our impact on essential resources and ecosystem services, and how they can
be used and managed in a manner that is sustainable on local and regional geographic scales.
The Evolving Earth, ENVR 202, deals with how our environment evolved and how humans came
to have such a disproportionate impact on it. We overlap with ENVR 202, for example, on the
subject of human land use and its impacts. However, while their focus is on long-term origins and
history, we are more concerned with recent land use, resource management, and how
unsustainable practices can be reversed.
Knowledge, Ethics and Environment, ENVR 203, deals with how people in different cultures
think about the environment, and thus with the cultural and philosophical dilemmas encountered
when people with different assumptions seek a common environmental ethic. The concern in
ENVR 203 is with how people think about their environment, while we are mainly concerned
with our material relationships with the environment.
Requirements
Students are required to attend the lectures, and to carefully study the assigned readings before
each class. Students must buy the course pack (collected readings for ENVR 201) at the McGill
Bookstore. Additional readings may be assigned as required. Master copies of these readings will
be available for photocopying at Copies EUS on the mezzanine floor of the McConnell
Engineering Building.
Two mid-term exams (each worth 25% of the final mark) have been scheduled, in class, for
Wednesday, October 6 and Wednesday, November 10. There will be a three-hour final
exam (worth 50% and covering the entire course) sometime during the exam period (the
Instructors have no control over the scheduling of the final exam).
The exams will consist of short answer questions ranging from definitions of terms and concepts
(50-75 words) to problem-solving questions and short essay questions (150-250 words).
Questions will stress comprehension of major concepts and issues rather than memorization of
facts or details. As the course progresses there will be a gradual transition from questions that
focus directly on special items covered in individual lectures and readings, to more general
questions that integrate across subjects covered in different lectures, different readings, and even
different sections of the course. Questions and (correct) answers will refer only to materials
covered in the course.
We will try to discuss sample questions before the mid-term exams. We have scheduled an inclass review session before each exam. After each mid-term exam has been marked, we will
devote a class session to discussing questions and answers.
A student who misses one mid-term exam, and who promptly presents a note showing a
valid excuse (illness or family affliction), may receive credit for the course by writing the
other mid-term and the final exam. In such cases, the other mid-term exam will be worth
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33% of the final mark, and the final exam, 67%. Failure to write both mid-term exams
means an automatic mark of “J” (“absent”) for the course, unless a student provides
convincing evidence of illness or family affliction (“J” is equivalent to “F”).
Any student who, due to illness or family affliction, fails to write the final exam must apply
to the Associate Dean of his or her faculty for a “deferred” mark, with permission to write a
supplemental exam in early May 2005. Otherwise, failure to write the final exam means an
automatic “J” for the course. Students who receive a mark of D, F, or J for the course may
apply (at the Student Affairs Office) to write the supplemental exam in May. In all other
cases, there is no provision for writing make-up exams, nor for resubmitting work, nor for
doing additional work to improve one’s mark.
Teaching Assistants
We have three Teaching Assistants this year: Rotem Ayalon, Philippe Crete, and Robin de Bled.
Office Hours
The Instructors and Teaching Assistants will be available for consultation during office hours
which will be announced in class.
Schedule of Lectures and Exams
Introduction
Sept. 1
The course will be discussed in general terms. Instructors will introduce themselves, discussing
their backgrounds, disciplines, and research interests.
Resources
Are there enough resources to support the human population? There is much controversy over the
future status of renewable and non-renewable resources, as well as ecosystem cycles and services
that sustain us. Much of this controversy hinges on what we consider a resource to be, how we
estimate its abundance, how we access our dependence on it, and whether the way we use it
changes as it becomes scarcer.
(1) What are “resources”? Are they running out? (Coomes)
Sept. 3
Readings
Dearden and Mitchell, 1998. “Energy Flows and Ecosystems”.
Freedman, 1998. “Resources and Sustainable Development”.
Labour Day
Sept. 6
Population
Does population growth threaten the biosphere? There is great controversy over the causes and
environmental consequences of rapid population growth. To grasp the nature of the problem, we
must understand: (a) historical and spatial variations in population density and rates of growth;
(b) interactions and feedback loops among fertility, morbidity, migration & mortality; (c)
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demographic trends over the last few millennia, centuries, and decades; and (d) population
structure and growth trajectories.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Why does population matter? Distributions and densities (Coomes)
Population and growth: key factors (Coomes)
Population and history; Demographic transition (Coomes)
Issues of population policy (Coomes)
Sept. 8
Sept. 10
Sept. 13
Sept. 15
Readings
Bergman, 1995. “Human Population: The Distribution and the Pattern of Increase”.
Raven, Berg, and Johnson, 1997. “Understanding Population Growth”.
Raven, Berg, and Johnson, 1997. “Facing the Problems of Overpopulation”.
Resource Use, Institutions, and Impacts
(1)
(2)
Replumbing the Planet (Sieber)
Water and Conflict (Sieber)
Sept. 17
Sept. 20
It is almost preposterous to think of water as a resource in short supply. However, water
will likely be one of the most critically stressed resources and the cause of major conflicts
in the 21st century. In the above two lectures, we will cover humans rerouting and
restructuring the water supply and then resource conflicts surrounding water. Resource
conflicts exist between peoples but also between wildlife and humans. We also include
issues of privatization and contamination (not necessarily linked) and de-salinization.
Readings
Reisner, 1993. “Chinatown” and “A Civilization, if You Can Keep It”.
McKenzie, 2002. “Water-Resource or Commodity?”.
de Villiers, 2002. “Water and Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
Dimitrov, 2002. “Water, Conflict and Security: A Conceptual Minefield”.
(3) The Global Fisheries (Badami)
Sept. 22
This lecture will discuss the role of open access regimes, technological evolution, and
government intervention in the global fisheries crisis, by drawing on case studies in
North America and India, and will explore ways in which the crisis may be resolved.
Readings
McGinn, 1998. “Promoting Sustainable Fisheries”.
(4) International Treaties and Antarctic Fisheries (Ellis)
Sept. 24
This is a guest lecture by Professor Jaye Ellis of the Faculty of Law and the McGill
School of Environment.
(5) Food production and livelihood in an Amazonian society (Coomes)
Reading
Miller, 1994. “Food Resources”.
Sept. 27
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(6) Landfills (Sieber)
(7) A Particular Case: Computer waste (Sieber)
Sept. 29
Oct. 1
What's waste got to do with it? Where does your garbage go? These two lectures take you
beyond reduce, reuse and recycle to some of the thorniest issues in waste production and
its management. Who should pay for waste? Polluter or consumer? Waste isn't
necessarily viewed as a bad thing. Certain countries have built their economies around
accepting and/or reprocessing waste.
Reading
CBC Marketplace on computer waste
Questions, discussion, and review for exam
Oct. 4
MID-TERM EXAM 1
Oct. 6
Conceptualizing Society-Environment Interactions
(1)
Introduction to Environmental Economics (Coomes)
Oct. 8
Thanksgiving Holiday
(2)
Oct. 11
Demand, supply and equilibrium: concepts of
economic efficiency, welfare and equity (Coomes)
Oct. 13
Readings
Field and Olewiler, 1995. “What is Environmental Economics?”
Parkin and Bade, 1994. “Demand and Supply”.
(3 and 4) Monetary Valuation of the Environment: Theory
and Mechanics (Badami)
Oct. 15 and 18
Return Mid-term Exam 1 and discuss
Oct. 20
(5) Monetary Valuation Case Study: Air pollution (Badami)
(6) Critique of Monetary Valuation, and Alternative Approaches (Badami)
Oct. 22
Oct. 25
Environmental processes are essential for human life, and play a crucial role in the
global economy, yet they have been taken for granted. How might the environment, and
human health and life, be valued? The problem is that environmental values are
intangible, and hard to define. Further, environmental values such as clean air are not
traded on markets. However, economists have developed methods for monetary valuation
of the environment. These methods can help account for and internalize environmental
externalities and the environmental costs and benefits of public projects, and demonstrate
the need for environmental policies, but are fraught with conceptual, technical,
philosophical and ethical difficulties. Critics of monetary valuation argue that it is
neither appropriate nor necessary to put price tags on nature, and that we can make wise
environmental choices without prices. The above four lectures discuss these opposing
positions, and suggest alternatives to monetary valuation.
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Readings
Harris, 2002. “Valuing the Environment”.
The Economist, 2002. “Never the Twain Shall Meet: Why do economists and environmental
scientists have such a hard time communicating?”
O’Neill, 2000. “Markets and the Environment: the Solution is the Problem”.
(7) Calculating Inputs to the Ecological Footprint and other issues
related to the politics of data sources (Sieber)
(8) Analysis and Activists (Sieber)
Oct. 27
Oct. 29
An ecological footprint is defined as the bioproductive area (land and sea) that would be
required to sustainably maintain a region or community's current consumption, using
prevailing technology. It is one of several alternatives to cost-benefit analysis and a
method of measuring resource use. How are the values for ecological footprint derived?
What has been the “footprint” of the ecological footprint calculation?
Readings
Chambers, Simmons and Wackernagel, 2001. “Footprinting Fundamentals”.
Hansson and Wackernagel, 1999. “Rediscovering place and accounting space: how to re-embed
the human economy”.
Sustainability – Prospects, challenges and strategies
We return to the basic questions raised at the start: for example, are there too many people and
not enough resources? If so, how can these problems be addressed? We examine fundamental
debates: Is the earth threatened by over-population, by poverty, or by excessive consumption?
Can dire poverty be eradicated? Can several billion humans live sustainably on this planet? What
challenges do we face, and what information, actions, policies, and ethics may be required to
increase our chances of a sustainable future? And how do we reconcile the inevitable conflicts
and trade-offs?
(1) An economist’s perspective on sustainability (Coomes)
Nov. 1
Can an economic perspective help us to operationally define what sustainability means?
The reading by Solow provides the theoretical background for this lecture.
Readings
Solow, 1993. “Sustainability: An Economist’s Perspective”.
Daily and Ehrlich, 1992. “Population, Sustainability, and Earth’s Carrying Capacity”.
(2) Urbanization, Human Activity and Environment (Badami)
(3) The Urban Environmental Challenge in Poor Countries (Badami)
Nov. 3
Nov. 5
In these two lectures, we will address: the importance of cities from the point of view of
local environments and ecological sustainability; global urbanization trends;
urbanization, the urban environmental situation, and the ability to deal with urban
environmental problems, in rich and poor countries; why the urban environmental
challenge is the most serious in the poor countries, despite their low share of global
resource consumption; and finally, why, although human activity in cities has significant
local, regional and global environmental impacts, cities are likely the optimal scale at
which environmental problems may be addressed effectively.
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Readings
Rees, 1992. “Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics
leaves out”.
Douglass and Lee, 1996. “Urban Priorities for Action”.
Questions, discussion, and review for exam
Nov. 8
MID-TERM EXAM 2
Nov. 10
(4) Transport in North America: Problems, Prospects, Remedies (Badami)
Nov. 12
In this lecture, we will discuss how cultural, economic, technological and politicalinstitutional forces have shaped (and continue to shape) the transport system in North
America, how transport and energy subsidies, and externalities, have contributed to
sprawl and excessive reliance on cars, and how transport planning to provide for
growing automobile use has created a vicious circle in which automobile reliance and
inefficient land use patterns reinforce each other. We will then discuss how this vicious
circle may be broken through “full-cost” pricing and other policies, and the potential
benefits of these approaches, by drawing on the European experience.
Readings
Hanson, 1992. “Automobile Subsidies and Land Use: Estimates and Policy Responses”
Pucher, 1988. "Urban Travel Behavior as the Outcome of Public Policy: the Example of Modal
Split in Western Europe and North America."
(5) Hydrogen and all That … (Badami)
Nov. 15
The transport sector has serious implications for climate change and energy security, in
addition to producing adverse local and regional impacts. Transport accounts for a
quarter of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and nearly half the
petroleum consumption worldwide. North America alone accounts for 35-40% of the
energy consumed and carbon dioxide emitted worldwide by the transport sector, with just
5% of the population. Finally, energy consumption is growing the most rapidly in the
transport sector in North America. The need to increase the use of alternatives to oil in
the transport sector is therefore highly desirable, but this sector is also the most
challenging from this perspective. This lecture will discuss these challenges, and explore
the potential of alternative fuels to contribute to energy security and air pollution and
carbon dioxide emission reductions, by means of a case study focused on hydrogen.
(6) The roots of environmental racism (Sieber)
(7) Movement interactions (Sieber)
(8) Women and the environment (Sieber)
Nov. 17
Nov. 19
Nov. 22
This set of three lectures focuses on environmental equity, social justice, race, class and
gender. From Cancer Alley to Sacrifice Zones, we explore the source of the
Environmental Justice/Racism movement. We also interrogate the uneasy peace between
the environmental justice and the environmental/conservation movements in terms of
race, class and gender. This leads into a lecture on the disproportionate effects of
environmental degradation on women as well. It also charts the links between women's
welfare and population and between gender equity and sustainability.
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Readings
Bullard, 1994. “Environmental justice for all”.
Wright, Bryant and Bullard, 1994. “Coping with Poisons in Cancer Alley”.
Return Mid-term Exam 2 and discuss
(9) The trade-off between social equity
and sustainability in Peru (Coomes)
(10) Political economy and ecology:
causes of tropical deforestation (Coomes)
Nov. 24
Nov. 26
Nov. 29
Reading
Johnson, 2000. “Population, food and knowledge”.
(11) Poverty, human development and environment (Badami)
Dec. 1
To round off this set of lectures, we will address, in the context of the challenges
discussed, the following questions: can a world population that could stabilize at around
10-11 billion be provided for, and can we alleviate mass poverty, while preserving our
environment? Can human development be attained at moderate per capita resource
consumption? What obstacles and challenges might we face, and how might we meet
these challenges? What technological, institutional, and economic approaches might we
apply to address environmental impacts due to human activity in both rich and poor
countries? What can we learn from cross-national and historical comparisons in meeting
these challenges?
Readings
Dasgupta, 1995. “Population, poverty and the local environment”.
Smil, 1993. “Effective Strategies”.
Wrap-up, review for Final Exam
Dec. 3