11:374:102 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE     Section 2
12/23/07

Spring, 2008    TTh 2:15-3:35 131 Blake

Digital version of this outline; go to the Department Web Site: http://humanecology.rutgers.edu/
Click on Courses and this web site gives you digital access to a copy of the course syllabus (with links), homework assignments (with links), handouts, and class notes.

Computer Lab: 221 Blake Hall

If you are registered for this course or are an EPIB major you have access to the lab that we share with the LA program 231, Blake Hall.

Instructor:
Professor George E.B. Morren, Jr.
Department of Human Ecology
208 Cook Office Building
Office hours: Tuesday-Thursday 1 - 2 PM and by appointment
Telephone: 732/932-9153 x315
E-Mail: morren@aesop.rutgers.edu  Don’t hesitate to contact me regarding your work in the course.

Course Overview:

This course is about your role as a consumer, citizen, and future professional in global environmental change. It aims to provide you with the tools necessary to measure your personal impact on the world and to assess your role as a citizen of the world. In short, this is an international ‚ 'civics course,' aimed at preparing students to be citizens of the world, able to express opinions regarding global issues and policies and to evaluate their own connections to the rest of the world and its peoples.

In order to do this, we need to know more about the historical, economic, technical-scientific, socio-cultural, institutional and policy dimensions of environmental problems and issues. We also need to look at things at different scales and levels of analysis; for example, the relationship between environmental policies at the local (e.g., your town) and the international (e.g., the UN) levels.

Ethical consumption/product life cycle analysis, institutional actors, and regime 'theory,' are among the tools we will use to examine such problem-topics as global climate change, deforestation, trade, and agriculture/food production.

Course Requirements (and approximate value: Total = 100):

1. 2 examinations: total of 50 points.
2. 6 World Wide Web assignments: 40 points.
3. Regular attendance and participation: 10 points. Attendance will be taken at all class and discussion meetings.
Required Reading:
Your reading assignments can be found in two locations: (1)  unless noted otherwise, your assignments are on electronic reserve in Chang Library,* and otherwise (2) web sites with links in the digital version of this syllabus.

*Link to electronic reserves: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 1: Introduction to the 'Big Picture' and Course Overview: 22 - 24 January

Jimmy Carter, ‘As a Citizen of a Troubled World’

Weeks 2  & 3 Opening Arguments I: World Citizenship & Ethical Consumption
29 January - 7 February

N.Y. Times, Union, Students Demand Gap End Sweatshop Production
Tony Smith, Difficult Times for Coffee Industry as Demand Falls
Katharine Q. Seelye “Environmental Groups Gain as Companies Vote on Issues”
N.Y. Times, ‘When Nike Speaks’
Abby Ellen, Suit Says Chevron-Texaco Dumped Poisons in Ecuador
D. Gonzalez et al., Banana Workers Get Their Day in Court
Archon Fung, et als., Realizing Labor Standards
Ginger Thompson, Behind Rose’s Beauty, Poor and Ill Workers
David Gonzalez “Latin Sweatshops Pressed by U.S. Campus Power”
Sherry Day, Move Over Starbucks, Juan Valdez is Coming
Jon Mooallem. ' The Unintended Consequences Of Hyperhydration.' N.Y. Times Magazine, May 27, 2007
Louise Story & David Barboza, 'Mattel Recalls 19 Million Toys Sent From China.' NY Times, August 15, 2007.
Perlez & Johnson, Behind Gold’s Gllitter
USGAO, Environmental Liabilities
Kelly Patterson, Miners, retailers to certify ethical production of metal. Labels on cutlery, cars, jewelry would show environmental, rights standards upheld.’ The Ottawa Citizen Wednesday,
June 14, 2006
World Bank, ‘Riverine Tailings Disposal and Submarine Tailings Disposal.’ World Bank
Extractive Industries Review (2005) http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/eir.nsf/

"The Story of Stuff"       http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

Web Assignment No. 1 Ethical Consumption (pdf)

Week 4 & 5: Opening Arguments: International Institutions II, Actors & Processes
12 - 21 February

Kenneth Dahlberg, "Environmental Actors"
L. K. Caldwell, "Issues and Problems of International Environmental Concern"
David Armstrong, 'International Regimes'
Anon. “If the U.N. Were Being Created Today”

Visit the following United Nations web site, follow links and read the relevant materials in order to gather a basic understanding of the structure and operations of the organization including the details of the UN Charter, the major divisions of the UN (such as UNEP and the International Court of Justice), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
www.un.org/
This is also a reading assignment. You will be responsible for the contents. Consider such questions as: What is the relationship of all this to the environment and environmental quality? What "rights" that you might have expected to see are "missing from the ‘Declaration?’

Download copies of the 'Environmental Actors Grid' blank and 'Environmental Actors Grid' filled in grid.

Web Assignment No. 2 Environmental Actors and the 'Law of the Sea' (pdf)

Weeks 6 & 7: Capitalism and Global Trade 26 February - 6 March

Alexei Barrionuevo, 'Globalization in Every Loaf.' NY Times, June 16, 2006
Belinda Coote: "The Trade Trap"
Celia W. Dugger, 'CARE Turns Down Federal Funds for Food Aid.' NY Times, August 16, 2007
Harry Flood, ' Manufacturing Desire.' Adbusters Magazine WINTER, 2000
Tina Rosenberg, “The Free Trade Fix,”
George Morren, “Trade Trap, Third-World Debt, North-South Trade, and the Development of Underdevelopment”
Global Exchange Staff, “Understanding the Class Nature/Democratic Conditionality”
Bruce M. Rich, “Greening of the Development Banks”
Virginia Postrel, “The Rich Get Rich and the Poor Get Poorer. Or Do They?”
N.Y. Times, “When Nike Speaks”
Elizabeth Olson, “The WTO’s Next Chief”

Web Assignment No. 3: The World Bank

Week 8: Global Climate Change as An International Environmental Case Study
11 - 13 March

Alexei Barrionuevo, 'The Energy Challenge: For Good Or Ill, Boom In Ethanol Reshapes Economy Of Heartland.' NY Times, June 25, 2006
Keith Bradsher, 'China To Pass U.S. In 2009 In Emissions,' NY Times, November 7, 2006
Claudia H. Deutsch, ' Global Warming Subject for Directors at Big Companies.' N.Y. Times, September 21, 2006
Jeremy Leggett, "The Nature of the Greenhouse Threat"
Bill Marsh, ' A Battle between The Bottle and The Faucet.' N.Y. Times, July 15, 2007
Jad Mouawad, The Greener Guys NY Times, May 30, 2006
Corey S. Powell, 'Black Cloud' [a review of Big Coal, By Jeff Goodell] NY Times, June 25, 2006
Andrew C. Revkin News Analysis: Into Thin Air: Kyoto Accord May Not Die (or Matter)
N.Y. Times, “Kyoto Protocol in Peril”
Andrew C. Revkin, ' Talks To Start on Climate Amid Split on Warming.' N.Y. Times, November 5, 2006
Heather Timmons, 'British Science Group Says Exxon Misrepresents Climate Issues.' NY Times, September 21, 2006

Go to the UNEP website http://climatechange.unep.net/  and check out the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Early Warning Map

Web Assignment No. 4: Kyoto Conference on Global Climate Change (pdf)

Week 9: REVIEW & MID-TERM EXAM 1 - 3 April

Review (First class meeting of week)
Exam (Second class meeting of week)

Week 10: Threatened Resources, Threatened People: Forests and Biological Diversity  
15 - 17 April

Norman Meyers, „The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future
Abby Ellin, “Suit Says ChevronTexaco Dumped Poisons in Equador”
Larry Rohter,  “Seeking Balance Relentless Foe of the Amazon Jungle: Soybeans”
Luis G. Martinez Chico Mendez Case Study

Web Assignment No. 5  Deforestation (pdf)

Week 11:& 12: The Product Life Cycle of What People Eat 22 - 28 April

Carol & John Steinhart, “The Energy We Eat”
Lester Brown & John Young, “Feeding the World in the Nineties”
Elizabeth Becker & David Barboza “Battle Over Biotechnology Intensifies Trade War”
Francis M. Lappe & Joseph Collins, Selections from Food First
Jack Doyle, “The Green Revolution II”
Sherri Day “Move Over Starbucks“
Tony Smith “Difficult Times for the Coffee Industry”
Tina Rosenberg “The Free Trade Fix”
Somini Sengupta “World Hunger Increasing”
Hynes, Patricia "In the Shadow of Silent Spring
David Bull, “Pesticides and the Third World Environment; A Victim Every Minute”
D. Weir & M. Schapiro, “Dumping: Business as Usual”
Anon. “Group Names Most Contaminated Produce”
David Gonzalez & Samuel Loewenberg “Banana Workers Get Day in Court”
Ginger Thompson “Behind Roses’ Beauty: Poor and Ill Workers”
Environmental Working Group “A Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce Reuters
“EPA Proposes Cancer Guidelines for Children (NYT) [bundled with EPA Proposes New Cancer Risk Guidelines [AP]/EPA Seeks to Update Guidelines for Cancer Risk Assessment (EPA Press Release)]
Katharine Q. Seelye & John Tierney “EPA Drops Age-Based Cost Studies”
Saritha Rai „Hazardous Waste is Shipped From India to U.S. Recycling Plant”
Elizabeth Becker & Jennifer Lee, "Europe Plan on Chemicals”

Visit the MEATRIX at: http://www.themeatrix.com/ and http://www.themeatrix2.com/
Explore the site.

Web Assignment No. 6 Where Does Our Food Come From?(pdf)

Week 12: (Last Day of Class) Summary and Review 1 May

FINAL EXAM Check grid in current schedule of classes booklet for date and time.