Please note: Reading locations are noted below as: available as Books (B) at the COOP; in the Reader (R); or on the Web (W).
Environment and Society
| Topics | Readings | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to the Course | No Readings | Turn in bio |
| State of the Environment |
Brown, Lester, “Challenges of the New Century,” Chapter 1 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York, W. W. Norton, 2000, pp: 3-21. (B) Bright, Chris, “Anticipating Environmental ‘Surprise’,” Chapter 2 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York, W. W. Norton, 2000, pp: 22-38. (B) Worldwide Fund for Nature, Living Planet Report 2000. |
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| Industry and the Environment |
Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, “The Next Industrial Revolution,” and “Waste Not,” Natural Capitalism, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1999, pp:1-21, pp: 48-61. (B) “Redefining Progress,” The Ecological Footprint. |
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| Technology and Democracy |
Sclove, Richard, Democracy and Technology, Chapters 1 and 2, New York, The Guilford Press, 1995, pp.: 3-24. (R) Mander, Jerry, “Technologies of Globalization,” in Mander and Goldsmith (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1996, pp: 344-359. (R) |
Calculate your Ecological Footprint before class |
| Globalization |
French, Hilary, “Coping with Ecological Globalization,” Chapter 10 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York, W. W. Norton, 2000, pp: 184-202. (B) Chomsky, Noam, “The Contours of the World Order,” Year 501, Boston, South End Press, 1993, pp.: 33-64. (R) Mobilization for Global Justice, September 30th Protest in D.C., http://www.september30.org/s30/ (W) |
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| Environmental Regulation |
Kraft, Michael E., and Norman J. Vig, “Environmental Policy from the 1970s to 2000: An Overview,” in Vig and Kraft (eds.) Environmental Policy – New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, Washington, D.C., CQ Press, 2000, pp:1-31. (R) Mazmanian, Daniel A., and Michael E. Kraft, “The Three Epochs of the Environmental Movement,” in Mazmanian and Kraft (eds.) Toward Sustainable Communities – Transition and Transformations in environmental Policy, Cambridge, MIT Press, 1999, pp; 3-41. (R) |
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| Pollution Regulation |
Gottlieb, Robert and Maureen Smith, “The Pollution Control System: Themes and Frameworks,” Reducing Toxics, Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1995, pp:10-24. (R) Fiorino, Daniel J., “Challenges,” Making Environmental Policy, Berkeley, UC Press, 1995, pp:1-21. (R) Hammitt, J.K., “Data, Risk and Science, Foundations for Analysis” in M. Chertow and D. Esty (eds.) Thinking Ecologically, The Next Generation of Environmental Policy, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1997, pp.: 150-169. (R) |
Case Studies
| Topics | Readings | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Better Living Through Chemistry? | Thornton, Joe, “Organochlorines Around the World,” and “The Damage Done: Health Impacts in People and Wildlife,” in Pandora’s Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000, pp:23-55, 116-154. | |
| Toxic Ignorance |
Steingraber, Sandra, “The Social Production of Cancer: A Walk Upstream,” in Hofricter (ed.) Reclaiming the Environmental Debate – The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000, pp:19-38. (R) Roe, David and William Pease, “Toxic Ignorance,” The Environmental Forum, May/June 1998, pp.: 24-35. (R) McGinn, Anne Platt, “Phasing Out Persistent Organic Pollutants,” Chapter 5 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York, W. W. Norton, 2000, pp: 77-100. (B) |
Video: Trade Secrets or Rachel’s Daughters |
| Biotech and Food |
Rifkin, The Biotech Century – Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, New York, Penguin Putnam, 1998, pp: 1-36. (R) Mann, Charles, “Biotech Goes Wild,” Technology Review, July/August, 1999. Friends of the Earth, “Genetically Modified Food,” policy briefing, (W) |
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| Biotech and You |
Bereano , Philip, “Don’t Take Liberties With Our Genes,”. Walker, Casey, “An Interview with Rich Hayes,” Wild Duck Review, vol. V, no. 2, Summer, 1999, pp.: 19-25. (R) Hayes, Richard, “The Threat of the New Human Techno-Eugenics: An Overview,” unpublished manuscript, August 1999, 14 pages. (R) |
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| Computer Production |
Cook, Christopher D., and A. Clay Thompson, “Silicon Hell,” The San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 26, 2000. Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, “Right-to-know a little… Exposing double standards in global high-tech production.” Goldberg, Carey, “Where Do Computers Go When They Die?” The New York Times, March 12, 1998. Matthews, H. Scott, et. al., “Disposition and End-of-Life Options for Personal Computers,” Green Design Initiative Technical Report #97-10, Carnegie Mellon University, July, 1997. |
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| E-Commerce and the Internet |
Hendrickson, Chris, H. Scott Matthews and Luis Ochoa, “Environmental Implications of E-Commerce, the Internet and the New Economy,”. Davis, Christopher. “CMU researchers say e-commerce could be environmentally friendly. Findings indicate delivery process needs to be tweaked.” Bizjournal.com, Dec. 8, 2000. Leahy, Stephen, “E-commerce: friend or foe of the environment?” Environmental News Network, Monday, December 11, 2000. Levitt, James, “The Interconnected Futures of the Internet and Conservation,” White Paper for the Internet and Conservation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. |
Electronics Problem Set Due |
| Cities and the Environment |
McMahon, Edward, “Stopping Sprawl by Growing Smarter,” 1997. Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, “Human Capitalism,” Natural Capitalism, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1999, pp:285-308. (B) |
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| Equity and Environment |
Faber, Danny, “Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards,"Environmental Injustices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Report, Northeastern University, January 16th, 2001, pp: i-viii and 38-41. Motavalli, Jim, “Toxic Targets – Polluters that Dump on Communities of Color are Finally Being Brought to Justice,” E – The Environmental Magazine, July-August, 12 pages, 1998. |
Video: A Civil Action |
| The Return of Sweatshops |
O’Rourke, Dara, “Sweatshops 101,” Dollars and Sense, September, 2001 (W) Bonacich, Edna, and Richard Appelbaum, “The Return of the Sweatshop,” Introduction to Behind The Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000, pp:1-25. (R) Maquila Solidarity Network, “How Our Clothes Are Made,”. |
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| Sweatshops and You |
Bonacich, Edna, and Richard Appelbaum, “Workers,” Chapter 6 in Behind The Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, pp:164-199. (R) Press, Eyal, “Sweatshopping,” in Ross (ed.) No Sweat, New York, Verso, 1997, pp: 221-226. (R) |
Sweatshop Survey Due |
Responses
| Topics | Readings | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Rethinking Regulation |
National Academy of Public Administration, Environment.gov – Transforming Environmental Protection for the 21st Century, Washington, DC, NAPA, November 2000, pp: 17-29, 183-194. Rondinelli, Dennis, “Rethinking US Environmental Protection Policy,” Nov. 2000, pp: 5-7, 24-33. |
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| Information-Based Regulation |
O’Meara, Molly, “Harnessing Information Technologies for the Environment,” Chapter 7 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York, W. W. Norton, 2000, pp: 121-141. (B) Fung, Archon, and Dara O’Rourke, “Reinventing Environmental Regulation from the Grassroots Up: Explaining and Expanding the Success of the Toxics Release Inventory,” Environmental Management, 2000, vol. 25, no. 2, pp.:115-127. (R) Visit http://www.scorecard.org. (Archived version from Wayback Machine) |
Evaluate your home zipcode in Scorecard |
| Corporate Strategies | Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, “Making the World,” “Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier,” and “Muda, Service, and Flow,” Natural Capitalism, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, pp:62-81 and 111-143, 1999. (B) | |
| Corporate Strategies |
DeSimone, Livio, and Frank Popoff, “Eco-Efficiency and Sustainable Development,” in Eco-Efficiency – The Business Link to Sustainable Development, Cambridge, MIT Press, pp:1-22, 1997. (R) Allenby, Braden R., Industrial Ecology – Policy Framework and Implementation, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1999, pp:40-53. (R) |
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| Community Strategies |
Darnovsky, Marcy, “Green Living in a Toxic World: The Pitfalls and Promises of Everyday Environmentalism,” in Hofricter (ed.) Reclaiming the Environmental Debate – The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000, pp:219-237. (R) Morris, David, “Communities – Building Authority, Responsibility, and Capacity,” in Mander and Goldsmith (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1996, pp: 434-445. (R) |
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| Community strategies |
O’Brien, Mary, Making Better Environmental Decisions – An Alternative to Risk Assessment, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000, pp: 3-15. (R) Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, “Once Upon a Planet,” Natural Capitalism, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1999, pp:309-322. (B) |
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| Class Presentations | No Readings | Presentations |
| Class Presentations | No Readings | Presentations |
| Summary and Conclusions | No Readings | Term Projects Due |
