Teaching Statement

F&ES 870a, International Environmental Law and Policy. 3 credits. An introduction to international environmental law and policy. After reviewing the rise of the international environmental agenda, the course concentrates on how societies have responded to global-scale environmental challenges, including deforestation, biodiversity loss, desertification, climate change, ozone depletion, toxic substances, and the loss of living marine resources. The principal response to date has been in the area of international environmental law and policy, where a major new field of law and diplomacy has opened up and new multilateral institutions have been created. This first attempt at global environmental governance is surveyed and critically evaluated. Alternatives are examined. The main text for the course is a law casebook, D. Hunter et.al., International Environmental Law and Policy (University Casebook Series, 2002). James Gustave Speth

F&ES 90009 (formerly FES836a) Modern Capitalism and the Environment: Pathways to Sustainability: 3 Credits. Can modern capitalism sustain the environment, and can the environment sustain modern capitalism? A fundamental question facing societies today is whether the world economy as it now exists can be tamed to operate within constraints that protect and preserve natural assets. After examining some of the recent analyses of ongoing deterioration of natural assets, this seminar will review from several perspectives the relationships among capitalism, growth, and the environment. It will then analyze critically a variety of prescriptions that have been offered to address this fundamental question. These prescriptions differ considerably in the degree of intervention or change proposed. Whether one urges modest adjustments to modern capitalism or deep change depends on the degree to which one believes today’s economic and political system is seriously or irreparably destructive and also on the analysis offered of the underlying systemic problems.

DeVane Course Description Can modern capitalism sustain the environment, and can the environment sustain modern capitalism? A central question facing societies today is whether the world economy can be tamed to operate within constraints that protect and restore natural assets. Almost universally, governments agree that the environmental impacts of today’s economic activity are unacceptably large and must be reduced; recently, major international assessments of climate change and declining ecosystem services add new weight to this conclusion. It has been noted that all we have to do to destroy the planet’s climate and its biota is to keep doing exactly what we are doing today, with no growth in the human population or the world economy. But human activities are growing – dramatically. It took all of history to build the $7 trillion world economy of 1950; today we add that amount of economic activity every decade. The world economy is poised to double and then double again in the lifetime of today’s college students. Modern capitalism is the powerful engine of this growth. After first examining major environmental trends and conditions, the course will review current thinking about the relationships among capitalism, growth and the environment. A variety of prescriptions that have been offered to take economy and environment off collision course will then be considered. These prescriptions differ considerably in the degree of intervention or change proposed. Whether one urges modest adjustments to modern capitalism or deep change depends on the degree one believes today’s economic and political system is seriously or irreparably destructive and also on the analysis offered of the underlying systemic problems.

Topics

• Global Change Science and Policy
• Policy, Economics and Law
• Social Ecology of Conservation and Development