CDAE 195;NR 141; ENVS 141
Joshua Farley
CDAE’205 B Morrill Hall

• Offered by Jon Erickson using Daly&Farley textbook
• Dual nature
– Read entire textbook for theory
– Apply theory in project
• We will now alternate years, but maintain continuity

• What is Economics?
– Definition
– 3 Questions
• What makes ecological economics different?
– Preanalytic vision
– Finite planet
– Complex adaptive system
– Human behavior and coevolution
• Must respond to change
– What changes are relevant?

2 Part Course: Principles and
Applications
• EE theory
– Textbook readings, newspaper and class discussion
• Cold calls (6% of grade)
– Two take home exams (10% of grade each)
– Jeopardy games (3%)
– Participation (10%)
• Current events big part

2 Part Course: Principles and
Applications
• Applications
– Projects (40% of grade)
• Steady state Burlington: (350 Burlington, Transition town)
– How do we need to transform the Burlington economiy to respect planetary boundaryis?
– Food, transportation and housing
– What would be the impact on the quality of lfe?

2 Part Course: Principles and
Applications
• Other tentative projects:
– Help plan and organize USSEE conference
– Help Plan and Organize Owneship reclamation series
• More details on projects on Wednesday
• Population policy (4% of grade)

2 Part Course: Principles and
Applications
• Reflections (15% of grade)
– Bridge principles and applications
– 12 total, one at least every 4 classes
– Should discuss relationship between projects, course material, current events, life experience, future expectations, etc.
– Details under assignments on Blackboard

• Every class will start with overview of current events that are relevant to the day’s topic
• Major part of your participation grade

• The Science of Prophets and Profits
– “dominant paradigms typically become encrusted and resistant to change, making it difficult for their adherents to even perceive anomalies that are inconsistent with existing theory.”
– “Sometimes the only way to see how one is implicitly framing a problem is to face a direct challenge from someone who frames it completely differently.”
• The Low Politics of Low Growth
– “everything is easier if the economy is growing”
• Greece Sees Gold Boom, but at a Price
– “This will be a business for 10, maybe 15 years, and then this company will just disappear, leaving all the pollution behind like all the others did”
• As China's Economy Revives, So Do Fears of Inflation
• On Scale of 0 to 500, Beijing’s Air Quality Tops ‘Crazy Bad’ at 755

• Energy Industry Awaits U.S. Ruling on Prairie
Chicken
– Tradeoffs
• With Carbon Dioxide Emissions at Record High,
Worries on How to Slow Warming
• Heat, Flood or Icy Cold, Extreme Weather Rages
Worldwide
• Not Even Close: 2012 Was Hottest Ever in U.S.
• Australian Forecasters Add New Colors to
Temperature Charts to Capture Record Heat

Microeconomics and Human Behavor
• Global Food Prices on the Rise, U.N. Says
• A Bit of Relief on Food Prices
• Natural-Gas Rally Fizzles
• Pharmacies Pressed to Meet High Demand for Flu
Vaccine
• Bluefin Tuna Sold for Record $1.76 Million in
Tokyo ‘Auction’
• The Seventh-Generation Corvette Is Unveiled in
Detroit
• Milk of Human Kindness Also Found in Bonobos

• Our Economic Pickle
– Share of wages in GDP at record low
– The share of wages going to the top 1 percent climbed to 12.9 percent in
2010, from 7.3 percent in 1979
– From 1973 to 2011, worker productivity grew 80 percent
– median income for working-age households (headed by someone under age
65) slid 12.4 percent from 2000 to 2011
– the top 1 percent of households garnered 65 percent of all the nation’s income growth from 2002 to 2007 AND 93% SINCE THE RECESSION ENDED
• Treasury Will Not Mint $1 Trillion Coin to Raise Debt Ceiling
• U.S. Fiscal Talks Made No One Look Good
– The White House essentially caved to a measure that will cost about $100 billion over 10 years and will benefit fewer than 5,000 wealthy estates.
– The political appeal here is to reward big campaign contributors

• U.S. Trade Deficit Expands to a Seven-Month
High
• It's Too Soon to Be Sure of a Euro Zone Happy
Ending

• An Incomplete Fix
– Unearned income
• Carbon Taxes Make Ireland Even Greener
• Internet Activist, a Creator of RSS, Is Dead at
26, Apparently a Suicide
• California's CO2 Now Has a Price, but a Low
One
• Depardieu and the New Capitalism

• Will be using blackboard for all assignments
– GOAL IS A PAPERLESS COURSE
• Course Texts:
– Daly, Herman and Farley, Joshua. Ecological Economics: Principles and
Applications. Island Press, Washington, DC. (second edition)
– Any reputable daily newspaper
– RECOMMENDED
– Steffen, Alex . Carbon Zero: Imagining cities that can save the planet . http://grist.org/carbon-zero/
– The Post Carbon Institute http://www.postcarbon.org/
– Dietz, Rob and Dan O’Neil (2012) Enough Is Enough: Building a
Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources. Berret Koehler
Press, San Francisco
• How many people do not understand reflection due dates?
• I suck at spoon feeding