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Sustainability Leadership
Course: Biol 496 (CRN 37015), IDS 495 (CRN 35771), OEAS 495 (CRN 35769); three credits
Course title: Sustainability Leadership
Instructors: Dr. Hans-Peter Plag, Tatyana Lobova, Michelle Heart
Term: Summer 2017, May 15-June 24, 2017
Time: Mondays and Wednesday, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Location: Batten Arts-Letters 2068
Class Pages
NOTE: Tba
- Class (05/15/2017)
- Class (05/17/2017)
- Class (05/22/2017)
- Class (05/24/2017)
- Class (05/31/2017)
- SL Project (06/05/ - 06/09/2017)
- Class (06/12/2017)
- Class (06/14/2017)
- Class (06/19/2017)
- Class (06/21/2017)
A number of publications will be available as PDF for use in the class on the workspace.
- Class 1 (05/15/2017): Part 1: Introduction to the Class; Part 2: Sustainability Leadership; Part 3: Setting up the projects
Part 1: The class is a Service Learning class, which implies that the students will work in small groups on real-world projects throughout the class. The projects we will work on are:
- Develop Adaptation plans for specific T&E species or suites of species. This could be done for a species range wide or in context with a particular refuge. The ones that jumps out are the Lake wales species as a suite both Plants and animals, Beach mice, sea turtles, etc. There are also a number of migratory birds coming through Florida and many of these have not had any type of adaptation planning yet started.
- Impact of Sea Level Rise on Ecosystems, Biodiversity, and Conservation Planning in Florida. The new sea level rise high projections for Florida include trajectories that have 2.5 m by 2100. No work has yet been done with that projection. That information could be modeled on coastal T&E species.
- Potential climate changes impacts on Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Conservation Planning in Florida. The potential climate change impacts from temperature changes and precipitation changes have not yet been well translated to what they mean locally on the ground.
During each class, we will have a part that is related to sustainability leadership and another part that relates to working on the projects.
In each group, the students will decide on responsibilities for the various chapters of the project reports. Each report has six chapters, and each student will be responsible for two of these chapters.
In each class, we will discuss a number of questions in the sustainability leadership part. Please, be prepared to participate in the discussion of these questions, which requires to read the listed documents prior to the class.
Part 2: Sustainability Leadership
Defining sustainability leadership can be done by asking a number of questions.
- What is sustainability? Sustainability is an emerging characteristic of a dynamic system; it is not built into a system by design.
- How can we define sustainability leadership: maintaining a system - impacting it - in a way that keeps positive futures open.
- What systems are we refering to? We consider biological, social and economic systems, communities, including whatever technical support the community may have developed.
- What is the underlying concept? We use the concept of a system being embedded in a life-support system, on which the system under consideration depends.
- Do we have a core principle? Principle: sustainability emerges if we meet the needs of the community and its members, while safeguarding the life-support system on which the well-being of the current and future system's members depends.
- What is leadership? Understanding challenges to sustainability and developing viable strategies to meet these challenges and maintain the community embedded in the life-support system.
- What does this require?
- knowning the system, the members, the life-support system
- Assessing a situation; reflect on own biases that could impact the assessment; understand the biases of others, of the community and the limitations these biases consitute for possible paths of the system.
- detect and undderstand threats, analyse vulnerabilities, assess risks
- have foresight - and interact with others about the desirable futures
- understand the decision making, know the stakeholders,
- Work with the community to develop options
- Implement options and critically assess their impact on the community and its life-support system.
Questions for you:
- How important is it for you that humanity aims for sustainability and what would you be willing to sacrifice for that?
- What type of leadership do we need to make progress toward sustainability?
- Is human reasoning rational?
- How does conservation factor into sustainability and how does it relate to technological progress replacing functions in the Earth's life-support system?
Reading List
Kolbert, E., 2017. Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds - New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason. The New Yorker, February 27, 2017 issue. html.
White, M. D., 2011. Why Did We Evolve the Ability to Reason? To Argue! The final step in human evolution is — the lawyer? Psychology Today, html.
Ropeik, D., 2015. The Threat To Life On Earth Because Human Instinct is More Powerful Than Reason. html.
Lu, D., 2017. We would need 1.7 Earths to make our consumption sustainable. Washington Post, html.
Torres, P., 2017. It’s the end of the world and we know it: Scientists in many disciplines see apocalypse, soon. Salon. html
Ferry, D., 2017. It’s Time to Let Certain Animals Go Extinct. Outside online. html.
Additional Reading:
Mercier, H., and Sperber, D., 2017. The Enigma of Reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Biermann, F., 2014. Earth System Governance: world politics in the anthropocene. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Part 3:
The students will form groups of three or four around the three topics. It is required to apply the adaptation science approach to the topic. It will be important to distribute the chapters between the students. All students will contribute to all chapters, but individual students will be leading each chapter. Initially, each group will exchange thoughts on how to collect relevant information. Each group will assess how they want to approach the topic and distribute the work among the group members.
Reading List/Material
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2016. A Guide to Climate Change Adaptation for Conservation - Resources and Tools for Climate Smart Management of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Species and Their Habitats. Version 1. Florida Fish and Wildlife Service. Available at html.
Peninsular Florida LCC Conservation Planning Atlas. html.
- Class 2 (05/17/2017): Part 1: Decisions, Biases, and the Creation of Knowledge; Part 2: Projects.
Part 1: The goal is to understand how world views of neighborhood, parents, schools, etc. create a very personal bias, community and cultural biases, and how these biases impact the reflections we have of the world, and how they often direct our decisions and even the creation of knowledge. With respect to personal bias, the aim is to understand how world views of neighborhood, parents, schools, etc. create a very personal bias.
Our perceptions of reality are reflections of the "real world", the thing by itself, and these reflections are impacted by individual, group, and cultural biases and preconceptions. The deviations of our reflections from the "thing itself" as well as our biases direct our deliberations, limit options for decision, and even guide the creation of knowledge. Particularly when dealing with complexity and threads, awareness of the own biases and those of others can help to reduce their impacts and open avenues to evidence-based deliberations and problem assessments.
Questions for you:
- After viewing Hans Rosling's TED presentation, what is Rosling's main message, in your opinion?
- What do you know about cognitive biases and how do you think they impact our decision making? Give examples.
- Based on your understanding and today's readings, respond to: How, and by whom, has in recent decades in the U.S. a form of skepticism been used to discredit and blur scientific evidence? How does this relate to cognitive biases?
- Considering the example of "Coddling the American Mind," how do biases impact the interpretation of societal developments? Give examples.
- Additionally, can you give an example where your biases have impacted your perception of recent events?
Reading List
View: “How Not to Be Ignorant About the World” by Hans and Ola Rosling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg
Christian, S.E., 2013. Cognitive Biases and Errors as Cause - and Journalistic Best Practices as Effect, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 28, 160—174, DOI: 10.1080/08900523.2013.794674
Hutson, M., 2017. Living a Lie: We Deceive Ourselves to Better Deceive Others. Scientific American, html.
Lee, S. and Lebowitz, S., 2015. 20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions. Business Insider, August 26, 2015. See http://www.businessinsider.com/cognitive-biases-that-affect-decisions-2015-8. See also the Wikipedia article on cognitive distortions.
Lukianoff, G. and Haidt, J., 2015. The Coddling of the American Mind. The Atlantic, September 2015. See http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/.
Jensen, R., 2016. The coddling of the capitalist, white-supremacist, patriarchal american mind. Available http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-03-08/the-coddling-of-the-capitalist-white-supremacist-patriarchal-american-mind.
Additional Readings:
Yam, P., 2015. A Plea for a Scientific Worldview from An Honest Liar, on Debunker James Randi. Scientific American, March 9, 2015, html. A relevant quote: ‘Although many academics think they are too smart to be fooled, “there are things beyond their expertise,” Randi had said during our 1995 interview. “Physicists are most easily deceived, because they deal in a real world of objects,” and their natural inclination is to take anomalies as discoveries rather than as hoaxes, he noted.’
Shermer, M., 2015. What Can Be Done about Pseudoskepticism? Scientific American, March 1, 2015. See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-can-be-done-about-pseudoskepticism/.
Oktay, Y., 2014. “You're Not Going to Try and Change My Mind?” The Dynamics of Identification in Aronofsky's Black Swan. KB Journal, 10(1). See html.
Part 2: The students in each group discuss their personal reflections of the problem their group is focusing on and analyze how biases may impact these reflections. Identify the system each group is going to consider and define the issue that requires some form of adaptation. Discuss how biases might impact the reflections different stakeholder groups might have of the issue.
Reading List/Material
- Class 3 (05/22/2017): Part 1: Community and cultural biases:; Part 2: Projects
Part 1: Realize that communities at different levels have biases in how they see the world inside and outside the cultural context. Biases are necessary to find a way to live in the complex world and to deal with knowledge gaps. There are many ways of living in the Earth's life-support system and many of them are sustainable - but many others are not. Cultural biases keep a society often from understanding the laws and messages of nature, and this can threaten the community. Biases also have a significant impact on how we see threats and what we consider hazards.
Questions for you:
- Based on Ward et al. (2017), does growth and sustainability fit together or contradict each other?
- Why are some low risk overemphasized and high risks almost ignored?
- What is the main argument of Mason (2015)?
- Mason's (2015) position on partisan-ideological sorting does imply a community bias that is both united and divided. How do you respond to such a paradoxical point of view?
- Gee (2011) argues that “When major disasters strike, it isn't the disaster itself that is responsible for many of the deaths that occur. It’s the disbelief of the people in the most danger from believing that the disaster is as bad as everyone says it is.” Do you agree or disagree? Briefly explain why.
Reading List
Anderson, J., 2017. The psychology of why 94 deaths from terrorism are scarier than 301,797 deaths from guns. Quarz, html
Ward, J., Chiveralls, K., Fioramonti, L., Sutton, P., Costanza, R., 2017. The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability. The Conversation. html.
Mason, L., 2015. “I Disrespectfully Agree”: The Differential Effects of Partisan Sorting on Social and Issue Polarization, American Journal of Political Science, 59(1), 128—145. pdf.
Gee, B., 2011. Economic Crisis and the Normalcy Bias. See https://www.nolanchart.com/article8861-economic-crisis-and-the-normalcy-bias.html.
Briley, D.A., Morris, M., Simonson, I., 2000. Reasons as carriers of culture: Dynamic vs. Dispositional models of cultural influence on decision making, Journal of Consumer Research, 27(2), 157-178.
Additional Readings:
Kenyon, T., 2014, False polarization: debiasing as applied social epistemology, Synthese, 191, 2529—2547, DOI 10.1007/s11229-014-0438-x
Fragoso, A. D., 2016. Scientists Just Confirmed The Scientific Consensus On Climate Change. Published on APR 13, 2016 4:26 PM at /http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/04/13/3769104/climate-scientific-consensus-real/.
Crociataa, A., Agovino, M., Saccoc, P.L., 2015. Recycling waste: Does culture matter? Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 55, 40—47.
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_OqprX7148
Part 2: Hazards In each group, work on identifying the hazards that could impact the system the group is considering. Take a time horizon of at least 50 years and up to 100 years.
Readings/Documents
IPCC, 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp. Available at AR5. Extract information/projections for Florida.
Pachauri, R. K., Allen, M. R., Barros, V. R. et al., 2014. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II, and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), IPCC.
{U.S. Climate Change Research Program, 2007. Our Changing Planet - The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2008, U.S. Climate Change Research Program, Washington, D.C., A report by the U.S. Climate Change Research Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, and a Supplement to the President's Budget for Fiscal Year 2008. Available at http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/ocp2008/default.htm.
Boesch, D.F., Atkinson, L.P., Boicourt, W.C., Boon, J.D., Cahoon, D.R., Dalrymple, R.A., Ezer, T., Horton, B.P., Johnson, Z.P., Kopp, R.E., Li, M., Moss, R.H., Parris, A., Sommerfield, C.K.}, 2013. Updating Maryland's Sea-level Rise Projections, Special Report of the Scientific and Technical Working Group to the Maryland Climate Change Commission, 22 pp., University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge, MD.
Gesch, D. B., Gutierrez, B. T., Gill, S. K., 2009. Coastal Elevations. In Titus, J. G., Anderson, K. E., Cahoon, D. R., Gesch, D. B., Gill, S. K., Gutierrez, B. T., Thieler, E. R., Williams, S J. (eds.): "Coastal Sensitivity to Sea Level Rise: A Focus on the {Mid-Atlantic Region", U.S. Climate Change Science Program, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1, 25-42.
National Research Council, 2013. Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises. National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2013. Committee on Understanding and Monitoring Abrupt Climate Change and Its Impacts; Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; Division on Earth and Life Studies.
Sanford, T., Frumhoff, P. C., Luers, A., Gulledge, J., 2014. The climate policy narrative for a dangerously warming world, Nature Climate Change, 4, 164-166.
Church, J. A., Clark, P. U., Cazenave, A., Gregory, J. M., Jevrejeva, S., Levermann, A., Merrifield, M. A., Milne, G. A., Nerem, R. S., Nunn, P. D., Payne, A. J., Pfeffer, W. T., Stammer, D., Unnikrishnan, A. S., 2013. Sea Level Change, In Stocker, T. F.,Qin, D., Plattner, G.-K., Tignor, M., Allen, S.K., Boschung, J., Nauels, A., Xia, Y., Bex, V., Midgley, P. M. (eds.): Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA., pages 1137-1217.
Werners, S. E. et al. Thresholds, tipping and turning points for sustainability under climate change. Curr. Opin. Env. Sustain. 5, 334–340 (2013).
Sweet, W. V., Kopp, R. E., Weaver, C. P., Obeysekera, J., Horton, R. M., Thieler, E. R., Zervas, C., 2017. Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States. NOAA Technical Report NOS CO-OPS 083. pdf.
Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact Technical Ad hoc Work Group. April 2011. A Unified Sea Level Rise Projection for Southeast Florida. A document prepared for the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact Steering Committee. 27 p. pdf.
Flavelle, C., 2017. The Nightmare Scenario for Florida’s Coastal Homeowners - Demand and financing could collapse before the sea consumes a single house. Bloomberg. html.
Dangendorf, S., Marcos, M., Wöppelmann, G., Conrad, C. P., Frederikse, S., Riva, R., 2017. Reassessment of 20th century global mean sea level rise. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616007114. html.
- Class 4 (05/24/2017): Part 1: Evidence-Based Leadership; Part 2: Projects - Vulnerabilities
Part 1: Evidence-Based Leadership: For evidence-based leadership, it is important to realize that facts tend to be incomplete, often outdated, wrong, misinterpreted. It is important to understand the role of paradigms and immutable truths in the interpretation of facts. For the assessment of trends, understanding the problems of inductions, the meaning of Black Swans, possible surprises, is highly relevant. With sustainability being an emerging property of a system, monitoring the system and identifying its trajectory provides a basis to decide on the necessity of interventions. These interventions can oppose the system's current development to prevent undesired futures or utilize the system processes to direct it into a more desirable futures.
Questions for you:
- Jack London explores the conflict between man and nature in “To Build a Fire.” Could the ending of the story be different? Briefly explain why or why not?
- In the conclusion section, William Demastes (1998) ties a natural event, the Mississippi flood, to the power of nature over human structuring, as an example. What is the lesson learned by the US government as a result, according to the author, and how can it be applied to decision making?
- Kirchhoff et al. (2013) mention “...new approaches to the creation of knowledge involving both growing integration across disciplines and greater interaction with users” as part of their study. Briefly elaborate on that thought.
- Additionally, Capra (1996), states in Chapter 1, “The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realize that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.” Discuss your interpretation of the statement while giving examples from the text. Can you apply Capra's point to a problem you are familiar with?
Reading List:
Capra, F., 1996. The Web of Life. Random House Publishers. It is recommended to read chapters 1 and 2. The PDF is also available in the workspace library.
Kirchhoff, C.J., Lemos, M.C., Dessai, S., 2013. Actionable knowledge for environmental decision making: Broadening the usability of climate science, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 38, 393-414. pdf.
Demastes, W., 1998. Theatre of Chaos: Beyond Absurdism, into Orderly Disorder. Cambridge University Press, New York.
London, J., 1908. To Build a Fire. See https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to-build-a-fire.pdf or http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html. A quote: “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe.”
Plag, H.-P., 2016. Knowledge Must Translate into Action - “They had all the Knowledge ...” Column 12 in “On The Edge.” ApoGeo, 31(2), 8-10, Spring 2016, http://apogeospatial.com/knowledge-must-translate-into-action/.
Additional reading:
Boyle, M., 2017. Environmentalism used to be about defending the wild – not any more. The Guardian, May 22, 2017. html.
Taleb, N. N., 2010. The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility. Random House Publishing Group.
Kilby, B., 2015. A Psychologist Explains Why People Don't Give a Shit About Climate Change. Vice, Posted on June 9, 2015, html.
McBrayer, J. P., 2015. Why Our Children Don’t Think There Are Moral Facts. New York Times, March 2, 2015, html.
Cock, J., 2011. How the term “scientist” came to be. Posted on February 16, 2011 at http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2011/02/16/origin-of-scientist/
Part 2: Vulnerabilities: Analyze the vulnerabilities of your system.
Preparatory report: The preparatory report is due on Sunday, May 30, 2017. Please submit the report by e-mail to the three teachers.
Relevant literature:
Plag, H.-P., Jules-Plag, S., 2013. Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Ecosystems. In Pielke Sr., R. A., Seastedt, T., Suding, K. (eds.): Vulnerability of Ecosystems to Climate, Volume 4 of: Climate Vulnerability: Understanding and Addressing Threats to Essential Resources, 163-184, Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-384703-4.00105-2.
Shellenbarger Jones, A., Bosch, C., Strange, E., 2009. Vulnerable Species: the Effects of Sea-Level Rise on Coastal Habitats. In Titus, J. G. et al. (eds.): "Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region", U.S. Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1, 73-83.
Karl, T. R., Melillo, J. M., Peterson, T. C. (eds.), 2009. Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, Cambridge University Press.
Kelly, P. M., Adger, W. N., 2000. Theory and practice in assessing vulnerability to climate change and facilitation adaptation, Climatic Change, 47, 325-352.
- Class 5 (05/31/2017): Part 1: Risk assessments; Part 2: Projects - Foresight
Part 1: Risk assessment: Analyze how risk is managed, understood, ignored in different cultures and how physical laws are integrated in risk assessments.
Questions for you:
- In Simonetta (2016), the principles of “thermodynamics” are used as an example to explain cyclic “Collapse of Civilizations.” After studying https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thermo.html, discuss your interpretation of the article's main point. Do you agree with the analogy? Give an example.
- Rusbridger (2015) raises the following questions: “Even when the overwhelming majority of scientists wave a big red flag in the air, they tend to be ignored. Is this new warning too similar to the last? Is it all too frightening to contemplate? Is a collective shrug of fatalism the only rational response?” How do Rusbridger's questions relate to biases and their impacts on risk perception? Discuss your point of view with an example.
- How does Lewandowsky's (2016) message relate to the relevance of biases and their impacts on risk analysis?
Reading List:
The threat of unsustainability:
Simonetta, J., 2016. The Other Side of the Global Crisis: Entropy and the Collapse of Civilizations. See here
Berger, A., Brown, C., Kousky, C., Zeckhauser, R., 2011. The Challenge of degraded environments: How common biases impair effective Policy, Risk Analysis, 31(9) 1423-1433. pdf.
Rusbridger, A., 2015. Climate change: why the Guardian is putting threat to Earth front and centre. The Guardian. March 6, 2015, see html
The threat of terrorism:
Bouzar, D., Escaping Radicalism. Scientific American Mind, May/June 2016, 41-43.
Dutton, K., Abrams, D., 2016. Extinguishing the threat. Scientific American Mind, May/June 2016, 44-49.
Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., 2016. Fueling Extremes. Scientific American Mind, May/June 2016, 35-39.
Lewandowsky, S., June 21, 2016. Why is populism popular? A psychologist explains. https://theconversation.com/why-is-populism-popular-a-psychologist-explains-61319.
Part 2: Foresight: Develop foresight and possible scenarios for the future of the system under consideration.
Seligman, M. E. P., Tierney, J., 2017. We aren't built to live in the moment. New York Times, html.
Paul Smith: Gaining a Better Understanding of How to Cope with Extreme Low Probability and High Impact Shock Events — And What About Sea Level Rise? Presentation at 3RC Event, September 16, 2015. pdf.
- Class 6 (06/05 - 06/09/2017): Service Learning Week: Understand decision making, and explore options
Summary: We will work during the week in Florida on the assigned projects in the three groups. The goal is to finish the group report as far as possible and to present the project results to stakeholders on the last day of the visit.
Reading List:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 2016. A guide to climate change adaptation for conservation- Version 1. Tallahassee, Florida. 295 p. pdf. See also html.
Other material:
Maps of refuges and practical details: pdf.
Packing list:doc
Relevant Documents:
Presentation: A preliminary version of the slides has to be submitted on Thursday, June 8, 2017 for feedback from the instructors. The final slides are due on Friday, June 9, 2017, at 1:00 PM.
- Class 7 (06/12/2017): Part 1: Conceptual models, Participatory Modeling, Risk assessment, Part 2: Project:
Part 1: Conceptual models, Participatory Modeling, Risk assessment: Conceptual models, often in form of stock and flow models, provide a basis to explore and understand the processes in a complex system. Participatory modeling is a means to find a model that could help to explore scenarios towards a common goal of a group or community. Risk assessments are a tool to better understand potential threats that could lead to loss of property, livelihood and lives, and lead to an undesriable future.
Reading List
Werrel, C. E., Femia, F., 2017. Epicenters of climate and security: The new geostrategic landscape of the anthropocene. The Center for Climate and Security. pdf. See also html.
Milman, O., 2017. Scientists warn US coral reefs are on course to disappear within dcades. The Guardian, html
Part 2: Project Reports: The final draft reports are due on June 13, 2017 at 6:00 PM. Feedback will be given on Friday, June 16, 2017. The final combined report has to be submitted by June 20, 2017. Any remaining changes will be made in class on June 21, 2017 before the document will be sent to the FWS.
Additional Literature
Chandler, K., Spencer, T., 2004. The mouse that saved a beach house. Birmingham News, Sep. 23, 2004. pdf.
For conceptual stock and flow models, see https://vensim.com.
- Class 8 (06/14/2017): Governance
Part 1: Governance for Sustainability: The Role of Conservation
Reading List
Harvey, C., 2017. Scientists may have just found an unexpected new threat to the ozone layer. The Washington Post, html
Stockholm University, 2017. Sahara greening intensify tropical cyclone activity worldwide. html. See also the paper in PNAS.
Part 2: Project report and Individual case studies
Final draft reports have to be submitted on June 13, 2017 before 6:00 PM. The groups will work on combining the reports into a single document.
Important reference:: Laloë J-O, Cozens J, Renom B, Taxonera A, Hays GC. Climate change and temperature-linked hatchling mortality at a globally important sea turtle nesting site. Glob Change Biol. 2017;00:1–10. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13765.
- Class 9 (06/19/2017): Making Leadership Decisions
Part 1: Assessing proposals, convincing audience, maintaining integrity
Reading List
Metha, H., 2017. Tea Party Co-Founder: Want to Win Over the GOP on Renewable Energy? Never Mention "Climate Change". html.
Wallis, C., 2017. Is the U.S. education system producing a society of "smart fools"? Scientific American, html.
Balcombe, J., 2017. Fishes Use Problem-Solving and Invent Tools. Scientific American Mind, html
Freedman, A., 2017. Trump to mayor of sinking island: Don't worry about sea level rise. Mashable, html.
Skene, K.R., 2017. Circles, spirals, pyramids and cubes: why the circular economy cannot work. Sustainability Science, DOI: 10.1007/s11625-017-0443-3. html.
Adler, C., Hirsch Hadorn, G., Breu, T., Wiesman, U., Pohl, C., 2017. Conceptualizing the transfer of knowledge across cases in transdisciplinary research. Sustainability Science, DOI: 10.1007/s11625-017-0444-2. html
Roux, D.J., Nel, J.L., Cundill, G., O'Farrell, P., Fabricius, C., 2017. Transdisciplinary research for systemic change: who to learn with, what to learn about and how to learn. Sustainability Science, DOI: 10.1007/s11625-017-0446-0. html.
Part 2: Project report and Individual case studies
Individual case study papers have to be submitted on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 6:00 PM.
The combined document with the three group reports is due on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 12:00 PM (noon!). Feedback will be given on Wednesday to allow for final edits before the end of the week.
Citations and Reference should follow the documentation style defined by the Council of Scientific Editors, known as the CSE style. See SSF-Guide or the WISC page for more information on the CSE style.
- Class 10 (06/21/2017): Ethics and Morality of Conservation - or not to Conserve
Part 1: Conserve or not to Conserve
Very often, the need and options for conservation are discussed in an economic setting with economic arguments playing an important role in decisions of whether and what to conserve. The question has to be raise whether sustainability can emerge in the current mainstream economic thinking and what ethical and moral problems arise if economic thinking is applied to decision making in conservation.
Reading List:
Lane, M., 2017. A new professional ethics for sustainable prosperity. Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), html, pdf.
Davies, W., 2017. Moral Economies of the Future - The Utopian Impulse of Sustainable Prosperity. Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), Working Paper No 5, pdf.
Jackson, T., 2016. Beyond consumer capitalism - Foundation for a sustainable prosperity. Center for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), Working Paper No 2, pdf.
Binswanger, H. C., 1998. The Challenge of Faust. Science, 281(5377), 640-641, DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5377.640, html. Local pdf.
Bernstein, S., 2017. How a Math Formula Could Decide the Fate of Endangered U.S. Species. Feds consider "conservation triage" that would let some animals go extinct to save funds for protecting others. Scientific American, html.
Hartl, B., 2017. Wyoming Governor Attacks Endangered Species Act. Common Dreams, html.
Part B: Project report finalization