The Earth: Ethics, Politics & Economics

Featured in Haverblog's "Cool Classes" series.

This page gives the syllabus for a course on "The Earth: Ethics, Politics & Economics," that I taught at Haverford College in autumn 2014. The course seeks comprehensively to answer one question: What are the moral consequences of a growth-centered society and its inevitable environmental impacts?

SYLLABUS

THE EARTH: ETHICS, POLITICS & ECONOMICS

Thomas Donahue

Haverford College, Fall 2014

POLSH250/ENVSH250

MW10-11:30

Office Hours: W 2-4pm

Office: Ryan 201

This course introduces students to questions about our duties concerning the environment. How, it asks, should we deal with clashes among environmental values, economic growth, and people's desires? Such clashes include the following: Should we invalidate contracts to dump waste made between corporations and poor and marginalized communities? Should we send all the waste to poor countries, if their standard of living is lower and therefore—some economists say--the economic costs to them of the waste are less than they would be to rich-country inhabitants? Should the US encourage Andean countries to spray pesticide on peasants’ coca farms in order to reduce the supply of cocaine? Why preserve species that nobody gives a hoot about? In deciding who should pay to fight the costs of climate change, how do we balance among the claims of currently rich countries that polluted in the past, and countries on the make that are polluting heavily now? We examine arguments for and against prominent answers to these questions, in order to help students come up with their own well-informed answer to the course’s central question: What are the moral consequences of a growth-centered society and its inevitable environmental impacts? The course aims to hone the skills in analysis, theory-building, and arguing that are highly valued in legal and environmental advocacy, in public life and the professions, and in graduate school.

What The Course Will Do

The course begins by considering specific problems of environmental justice: whether trees should have legal standing to sue, is there anything wrong with US policy of poisoning the coca crop of Colombian peasants, whether we should preserve wilderness, what’s so great about sustainability, how we should allocate resources among different means of preserving biodiversity, what limits should we accept on consumption for the environment’s sake, how do we balance saving nature and preventing hunger. We then move to considering whether economics can help solve the environmental crisis, or instead worsens it. We next turn to examining three political ideologies that respond to the environmental crisis: green politics, deep ecology, and ecofeminism. The course concludes by critically examining a recent influential book: Stephen M. Gardiner’s A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (2011). This book, which has touched off a debate among scholars and policy wonks, tries to specify the problem at the root of the climate crisis. The book explains why it is so hard to deal with climate change: climate change is a perfect moral storm, involving deep moral failings by all people and all institutions, and a widespread failure to carefully consider the problem. By pressing us to carefully consider the problem, Gardiner gives us grounds for real hope. For, as John Dewey famously said, "A problem well posed is half solved."

It is in that spirit that this course will conduct its business. We shall focus on the problems of the ethics, politics and economics of the Earth: on clashes and trade-offs among conflicting values, on how to allocate scarce resources among alternative priorities, on disputes over the relevant facts, and on disagreements over how to understand the relevant concepts. For by understanding the shape and specifics of each of the problems, we will be halfway to solving them. And what we need in the environmental crisis are serious solutions. We do not need the simple-minded cure-alls purveyed by zealots and talking heads.

To better understand these problems, we will occasionally refer to personal narratives and film. So, for example, to better understand the ecofeminist critique of male-centered domination over nature, we will watch part of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986) and read Val Plumwood's memoir of being attacked by a crocodile. To better understand the moral corruption that many see as partly responsible for the climate crisis, we will watch part of Sense and Sensibility (1995).

Those problems, and proposed solutions to them, make up our agenda. The course might thus also be called, "Theoretical Foundations of Environmental Action," since it scrutinizes the presuppositions of current arguments in favor of this or that environmental policy or environmental attitude. Our questions concern the clashes of values, the differing interpretations of facts, and the clashing theories and attitudes that form the first level of presuppositions driving current political and policy debates about the environment. In particular, we will focus on how the ethical, political, and economic presuppositions at this level do and should inform each other.

What the Course Will Not Do, But Is Related

To fully understand what this course mainly will do, it helps to think about related things that it will not mainly do. You can read more about that here, in a survey of related fields in environmental philosophy, environmental thought, environmental policy, and environmental politics and society. The survey explains how the problems treated in those fields differ from the problems treated in this course. One major aim of this course is to give you concepts and techniques that will allow you to quickly familiarize yourself with any of the fields described in the survey.

Pre-requisites. Only a desire to understand how to use theories and arguments. However, to do a good job in this course, you need to have a handle on the key concepts and problems of at least one of ethics, political theory, or economics. If you haven't had a course in any of the three, then you should read a primer that will give you such a handle. Here are some good ones:

Simon Blackburn, Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics (Oxford UP, 2001), Parts II and III. You can skip Part I.

David Miller, Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP 2003)

Partha Dasgupta, Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP 2007)

Yoram Bauman and Grady Klein, The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Volume One: Microeconomics (Hill & Wang, 2011)

" " " " , The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Volume Two: Macroeconomics (Hill & Wang, 2011)

Course Requirements. To earn full credit, you must:

(1) Participate in class discussion. I know many people find this daunting. Nevertheless, try. One main aim of the course is to help you improve in argument.

(2) Submit 6 response papers. Each session, you may submit a paper, of not more than 350 words, that examines some thesis that that week’s reading has argued. The paper should state a definite thesis found in that week's reading, and then make your own argument for or against that thesis. For full credit, you must submit 6 such papers. Three of them must be submitted by class time on October 20.

(3) Submit a paper proposal. You are required to submit, in Session 15, a proposal for your final paper. The proposal should state a question concerning one of the topics covered in the course, say why the question is important, state your answer to the question (i.e., your thesis), give the key reasons by which you will defend the thesis, state two serious objections to your thesis, and state how you will respond to the objections. The proposal should be not more than 800 words long.

(4) Submit a final paper. You are required to submit, by noon on the last day of exams, a final paper. The paper should state a question concerning one of the topics covered in the course, say why the question is important, state your answer to the question (i.e., your thesis), defend the thesis with argument, state two serious objections to your thesis, and respond to the objections. The paper should be not more than 4,000 words long.

Course Assessment. Course marks will be computed on the following distribution: Class Participation: 20%; Response Papers: 35% (5.84 % each); Paper Proposal: 15%; Argumentative Paper: 30%

Course format. The course will be discussion oriented. I will usually begin sessions by presenting a thesis advanced in the week’s reading. I will discuss its implications. I will then ask one or many of you whether you think the thesis true or false, and why. We shall then examine the reasons you offer for your view. We shall then turn to the reasons the text offers in defense of the thesis. I will ask you what you think of those reasons, and so forth. The course in part aims to improve your skill in reasoned argument.

Course Objectives. By the end of the course, students should

(1) Have become familiar with the key concepts of the theories and arguments about environmental ethics covered in the course;

(2) Have strengthened their skills in applying these concepts to current debate about the problems of environmental ethics;

(3) Have honed their ability to specify how and why specific values clash when dealing with problems of environmental ethics;

(4) Have improved their skills in specifying the disagreement over the relevant facts involved in disagreement over environment problems.

(5) Have learned how to accurately describe the structure of a theory, specifying its key concepts, its main claims, the basic model underlying it, and the question to which it is an answer;

(6) Have honed their skills in specifying the structures of arguments, breaking them into premises-axioms, middle premises-lemmas, and conclusions-theorems;

(7) Have improved their ability in distinguishing between similar concepts denoted by the same word and spotting equivocations in arguments;

(8) Have honed their skills in evaluating and challenging the premises of an argument with rational and well-ordered arguments of their own;

(9) Have improved their ability to evaluate the deductive validity or inductive strength of an argument’s progress from premises to conclusions;

(10) Have worked out for themselves a detailed and developed argument arguing a thesis about one of the questions covered in the course.

E-mail policy. You are welcome to e-mail me with questions about the course. I try to answer e-mails within 48 hours of receipt. Don’t expect an answer before then. Fast generally means shoddy.

Academic Dishonesty: Don’t do it! Here is Haverford College's official language on the subject:

"A Note from Your Professor on Academic Integrity at Haverford:

"In a community that thrives on relationships between students and faculty that are based on trust and respect, it is crucial that students understand a professor’s expectations and what it means to do academic work with integrity. Plagiarism and cheating, even if unintentional, undermine the values of the Honor Code and the ability of all students to benefit from the academic freedom and relationships of trust the Code facilitates. Plagiarism is using someone else's work or ideas and presenting them as your own without attribution. Plagiarism can also occur in more subtle forms, such as inadequate paraphrasing, failure to cite another person’s idea even if not directly quoted, failure to attribute the synthesis of various sources in a review article to that author, or accidental incorporation of another’s words into your own paper as a result of careless note-taking. Cheating is another form of academic dishonesty, and it includes not only copying, but also inappropriate collaboration, exceeding the time allowed, and discussion of the form, content, or degree of difficulty of an exam. Please be conscientious about your work, and check with me if anything is unclear."

I may, at any time, use tools like turnitin.com to detect plagiarism.

Students with Disabilities, Special Needs, or Having Difficulties: Here is the Haverford Office of Disability Services' Statement, which I affirm:

"Haverford College is committed to supporting the learning process for all students. Please contact me as soon as possible if you having difficulties in the course. There are also many resources on campus available to you as a student, including the Office of Academic Resources, and the Office of Disability Services. If you think you may need accommodation because of a disability, please contact Gabriela Moats, Coordinator of Accommodations, Office of Disabilities Services at he-odsAThaverford.edu. If you have already been approved to request accommodations in this course because of a disability, please meet with me privately at the beginning of the semester with your verification letter."

Writing response papers: Here are guidelines on what I’m looking for, and what I’m not looking for, but other teachers might be: https://sites.google.com/site/tjdonahu/home/writing-response-papers

How to understand and use theories: Puzzled? You're not alone! Even the professionals find this difficult. Click here for some tips on how to do it: https://sites.google.com/site/tjdonahu/home/using-theories

How to do political philosophy: The approach used in this course is political philosophy. For some tips on how to do it, click here:

https://sites.google.com/site/tjdonahu/home/political-philosophy-why-and-how

REQUIRED BOOKS (On sale at the Bookstore, or through Alibiris, Abebooks, Powell's, etc.)

[1] John S. Dryzek, The Politics of the Earth: Environmental Discourses, 3^rd ed. (Oxford UP, 2013)

[2] Robert E. Goodin, Green Political Theory (Oxford: Polity, 1992)

[3] Stephen M. Gardiner, A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change (Oxford University Press, 2011)

RECOMMENDED BOOKS (On sale at the Bookstore, or online)

[1] Debating the Earth: The Environmental Politics Reader, 2^nd Edition. Edited by John Dryzek and David Schlosberg (Oxford UP, 2005)

[2] Environmental Ethics: An Anthology, ed. Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003)

[3] Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2002)

[4] Bryan G. Norton, Toward Unity among Environmentalists (Oxford University Press, 1991) I recommend buying this used through online booksellers.

[5] The Ethics of Consumption, ed. David A. Crocker and Toby Linden (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998)

[6] Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft of Research (University of Chicago Press, 2008). Available online through all of the Tri-College Libraries.

[7] Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments (Hackett, 2008)

GUIDES TO WRITING GOOD PAPERS: THE PROSE, THE PROBLEM, AND THE ARGUMENT

[1] Richard Lanham's Paramedic Method.

It transforms slow-starting sentences with obscure subjects into sentences with clear actors and actions.

[2] The Bennett rules for writing decent prose in theoretical papers.

Jonathan Bennett says: Prefer verbs to nouns. Prefer adverbs to adjectives. Avoid intensifiers ( like "very" or "extremely"). Use sparingly the abstract nouns--big words from Latin and Greek ending with "--ation," "--ity," "-ism," "-ology," "-nomy," etc.--; don't cram a sentence full of them.

[3] Joseph M. Williams and Gregory G. Colomb, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Longman, 2010).

Explains why and when to use Lanham's Method and Strunk and White's rules; and when to break them. Explains how to organize information in a sentence: put the familiar at the front, and the new at the end. Also explains how to make paragraphs coherent: each paragraph should have a point sentence articulating its main point, and this should come either at the end of the paragraph's introductory sentence, or at the paragraph's end.

[4] "From Questions to Problems," Section II.4 of Wayne Booth et al., The Craft of Research.

Crucial for writing research papers. You need more than a topic. You need more than a research question. You need more than a thesis. You need a research problem, which tells a definite audience what is the bigger question they can't fully answer until they've followed your answering of your research question.

[5] Anthony Weston, A Rulebook for Arguments (Hackett, 2008).

RECOMMENDED REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND READING ON OUR PROBLEMS

[1] The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta [plato.stanford.edu]

A free resource which is probably the most comprehensive encyclopedia of philosophy ever compiled. Authoritative articles by scholars.

[2] The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. Hugh LaFollette (Wiley, 2013)

[3] The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, ed. David Miller (Blackwell, 1987)

[4] The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 1st edn (1987); 2nd edn (2008) [dictionaryofeconomics.com]

One of the most comprehensive dictionaries of economics ever. Authoritative articles by scholars.

[5] A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, ed. Dale Jamieson (Blackwell, 2001)

[6] Stephen Smith, Environmental Economics: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2011)

[7] Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows, Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update (Chelsea Green, 2004)

[8] Julian L. Simon, The Ultimate Resource 2 (Princeton UP, 1998)

[9] Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Crisis of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It (Rodale, 2006)

[10] Bjorn Lomborg, Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming (Vintage, 2007)

[11] David Archer and Stefan Ramsdorf, The Climate Crisis: An Introductory Guide to Climate Change (Cambridge UP, 2010)

[12] Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Oxford UP 2001)

[13] Nicholas Stern, The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review (Oxford UP 2007)

[14] The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society, ed. J. Dryzek, R. Norgaard, D. Schlosberg (Oxford UP, 2011)

[15] Roger Scruton, Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously about the Planet (London: Atlantic Books, 2012). US Edition: How to Think Seriously about the Planet: The Case for an Environmental Conservatism (Oxford UP, 2012)

[16] Movebank.

Online databases of data tracking animal migrations and movements. Useful for those interested in biodiversity,

the functions of ecosystems, and animal rights.

SCHEDULE

Session 1. (Week 1. September 3). Introduction to the Course. Problems of the Ethics, Politics & Economics of the Earth. One Such Problem: How Best to Understand the Ethical Dimensions of the Climate Crisis? (1) The View that It Is Principally a Colossal Ethical Failure in which We Are All Complicit. (2) The View That It is Principally a Challenge to Responsible Stewardship by Us, Understood as Nations; and an Overview of the Debate Between Climate-Change Catastrophists and Climate-Change Skeptics.

Suggested (not required) readings:

Stephen M. Gardiner, "Preface," "Introduction: The Global Environmental Tragedy," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. xi-xiv, 3-15.

Roger Scruton, "Global Alarming," Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously about the Planet (London: Atlantic Books, 2012), pp. 38-71. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Avner de-Shalit, "Where Philosophy Meets Politics: The Concept of the Environment," The Environment: Between Theory and Practice (Oxford UP, 2000), pp. 37-45. [Available on Moodle.]

Asks whether the concept of the environment is an essentially contested concept, like freedom or justice.

Kimberly K. Smith, African American Environmental Thought: Foundations (University of Kansas Press, 2007)

Session 2. (Week 2. Sept 8). (1) What Role Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Play in Understanding the Ethical Dimensions of the Climate Crisis, and Why Do Economists Disagree So Sharply on the Costs of Climate Change? (2) What Does Environmental Justice Require? (3) A Problem of Environmental Justice: Poisoning Colombian Peasants’ Coca Crops to Prevent Americans from Consuming Cocaine.

Come prepared to discuss:

John Broome, "The Ethics of Climate Change," Scientific American, June 2008, pp. 69-73. Usefully explains why Nicholas Stern and William Nordhaus make diverging projections on the economic costs of global warming and various policy packages: they discount future costs at quite different rates.

Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Introduction," in Shrader-Frechette, Environmental Justice, PP. 3-21, READ pp. 3-18 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Grace Livingstone, "Why US Drugs Policy Doesn’t Work," America’s Backyard: The United States and Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the War on Terror (London: Latin American Bureau, 2009): 167-187. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 3. (Week 2. September 10). (1) Another Problem of Environmental Justice: Do Citizens Have a Duty to Ensure Equal Protection from Environmental Risks Produced by Their Country to People in Other Countries? (2) Why All the Fuss about the Environmental Crisis? The Promethean Response: "It’s Not So Bad, and What Is Bad Will Be Solved by Markets and Human Ingenuity." (3) A Survivalist Interpretation of Species Extinctions: Have We Created an Irreversible Process that Will Destroy the Wild, So that All Remaining Species Will Be Especially Compatible With a Human-Covered Planet? What Moral Attitude Should We Take Toward this Anthropocentric Future?

Come prepared to discuss:

Shrader-Frechette, “Developing Nations, Equal Protection, and the Limits of Moral Heroism,” Environmental Justice, pp. 163-183. [Available on Moodle.]

Bjorn Lomborg, “The Truth about the Environment,” Debating the Earth: An Environmental Politics Reader, ed. Dryzek and Schlosberg (Oxford UP, 2005): 74-79. [Available on Moodle.]

Stephen M. Meyer, “The End of the Wild,” Boston Review 29 (Summer 2004): 1-17, READ to top of p. 14 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Kristin Shrader-Frechette, "Native Peoples and the Problem of Paternalism," in Environmental Justice, pp. 117-133.

[Available on Moodle.]

Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World (Oxford UP 2001)

Session 4. (Week 3. September 15). Are We Headed for Environmental Catastrophe? What Are the World-Views Concerning How to Understand It and Deal with It? (1) The Survivalist Response: “We’re Headed for Catastrophe If We Don’t Make Radical Changes.” (2) The Promethean Response: “Markets and Human Ingenuity will Take Care of It, So There’s No Genuine Crisis!” (3) Are There Ecological Limits to Economic Growth?

Read in this order:

John Dryzek, “Looming Tragedy: Limits, Boundaries, Survival,” The Politics of the Earth, READ pp. 25-43 ONLY

Dryzek, “Growth Unlimited: The Promethean Response,” The Politics of the Earth, READ pp. 52-63 ONLY

Kenneth Arrow et al, “Economic Growth, Carrying Capacity, and the Environment,” Science 268 (April 1995): 520-521. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...Click here for context and further readings

Session 5. (Week 3. September 17). (1) The Promethean Argument from Substitutability against Survivalism: Once a Resource Is Depleted, We Can Often Substitute to a Replacement, And We Can Increase the Productivity of Our Remaining Resources through Market Incentives. (2) The Precautionary Principle of Risk Management: "Better Safe than Sorry!" Can the Principle Be Used to Salvage Survivalism? Should We Think That Where an Activity Poses Some Risk of Serious Harm to Society, However Slight, then the Burden of Proving that We Should Continue as Usual Rests with the Risk-Skeptic?

Come prepared to discuss:

Robert M. Solow, "Is The End of the World at Hand?" in The Economic Growth Controversy, ed. A. Weintraub et al (International Arts and Sciences Press, 1973), pp. 39-61, READ pp. 39-55 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Famously challenges the survivalist predictions that prolonged further growth without radical changes will spell catastrophe, on the ground that they falsely assume that natural resources will not become more productive, and that we cannot substitute to other resources once a resource is depleted.

Cass R. Sunstein, “Beyond the Precautionary Principle,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 151 (2003): 1003-1058, READ pp. 1011-1035 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Kristin Shrader-Frechette, “Review of Cass R. Sunstein, Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle (Cambridge UP, 2005),” Ethics & International Affairs 20 (2006): 123-125. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...Click here for context and further readings

Session 6. (Week 4. September 22). Catch up session. Re-read the September 17 readings.

Optional reading: Is the Debate Between Survivalists and Prometheans Driven as Much by Their Disagreement on Questions of Value as on Questions of Fact? Are Facts and Values Entangled? If So, How? And What Consequences Would that Entanglement Have for Economic Theory? Can Economics Be Separated from Ethics?

Optional reading:

Vivian Walsh, "Sen after Putnam," in The End of Value-Free Economics, ed. Hilary Putnam and Vivian Walsh (London: Routledge, 2012): 28-110, READ pp. 28-51, 57, AND 69-76 ONLY. [Available on Moodle, and at bottom of this page.]

So you'd like to know more about the optional reading...

Click here for a history of positivism, the philosophical school most closely associated with the fact-value dichotomy rejected by Putnam, Sen, and Walsh.

Peter J. Hammond, "Some Assumptions of Contemporary Neoclassical Economic Theology," in Joan Robinson and Modern Economic Theory, ed. George Feiwel (NYU Press, 1989): 186-257. [Available on Moodle.]

Gunnar Myrdal, The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory (London: Routledge, 1953)

Maurice Dobb, Theories of Value and Distribution since Adam Smith: Ideology and Economic Theory (Cambridge UP, 1973)

Gunnar Myrdal, Value in Social Theory: A Selection of Essays on Methodology, ed. Paul Streeten (Harper & Brothers, 1958)

Holmes Rolston, "Disvalues in Nature," The Monist (1992): 250-278. [Available on Moodle.] An interesting attempt to close the gap between fact and value by arguing from the premise that there are disvalues--bad things--that occur in nature: like suffering and predation. These disvalues are naturally and so objectively bad. But if some disvalues are natural and objective, then some values are natural and objective. But to be natural and objective makes you count as a fact. So some values, the argument concludes, are facts.

Session 7. (Week 4. September 24). (1) The Sustainable-Development Response to the Environmental Crisis. (2) How Does the Current Global Economic Order Fail to Be Sustainable? Do the Environmental and Equity Costs of a Commitment to Rapid Economic Growth Outweigh the Benefits? What Would a Sustainable Global Economic Order Look Like? (3) The Market-Solutions Response to the Environmental Crisis.

Come prepared to discuss:

John S. Dryzek, “Greener Growth: Sustainable Development,” The Politics of the Earth, READ pp. 147-150 and 155-159 ONLY

John B. Cobb, Jr., "Toward a Just and Sustainable [Global] Economic Order,” in Environmental Ethics, ed. Light and Rolston, pp. 359-370. [Available on Moodle.]

John S. Dryzek, “Leave It to the Market: Economic Rationalism,” The Politics of the Earth, READ pp. 122-138 ONLY

So you'd like to know more...

On sustainability, check out the readings for Sessions 14 and 15.

Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen, "Human Development and Economic Sustainability," World Development 28 (2000): 2029-2049. [Available on Moodle.]

Roger Scruton, "Market Solutions and Homeostasis," Green Philosophy: How to Think Seriously about the Planet, pp. 137-182. [Available on Moodle.] Argues from a conservative perspective that markets should be one part of solutions to environmental problems, but faults economic rationalism for failing to distinguish between big business and small business, and having insufficient sympathy for small business and local control.

Robert E. Goodin, "Selling Environmental Indulgences," Kyklos 47 (1994): 574-596. [Available on Moodle.] Challenges one of the most popular proposals of economic rationalism: the selling by governments of emissions permits to businesses, who can then trade them on an open market. Argues that there is a strong analogy between the selling of such permits and the medieval Catholic Church's selling of indulgences for sins--which sold forgiveness for wrongdoing. Explores the many objections to selling indulgences, and to what extent those objections apply to selling emissions permits.

Session 8. (Week 5. September 29). (1) Preservation or Conservation? Should We See Animals and Natural Objects as Economic Units, or as Bearers of Rights?The Debate between Gifford Pinchot and John Muir over Conservation versus Preservation. (2) How Aldo Leopold Tried to Reconcile Preservation and Conservation with an Ecologically-Grounded Conservation.

Come prepared to discuss:

Bryan G. Norton, “The Environmentalists’ Dilemma,” Toward Unity among Environmentalists, pp. 3-13. [Available on Moodle.]

Norton, “Moralists and Aggregators: The Case of [John] Muir and [Gifford] Pinchot,” Toward Unity among Environmentalists, pp. 17-38. [Available on Moodle.]

Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” Environmental Ethics, ed. Light and Rolston, pp. 38-46. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Norton, “Conservationists and Preservationists Today,” Toward Unity among Environmentalists, pp. 61-73. [Available on Moodle.]

Asks what are the paradigms or world-views to which different camps of environmentalists subscribe? What empirical evidence is there for a dichotomy among the world-views of current environmentalists?

Mark Sagoff, "Environmentalism: Death and Resurrection," The Economy of the Earth: Philosophy, Law, and the Environment, 2nd ed. (Cambridge UP, 2008): 194-208. [Available on Moodle.]

Tells a history of the U. S. environmentalist movement, according to which the ecological wing and the nature-as-divine wing more or less agreed until 1970, and so environmentalism had a large popular base. After 1970, the two began to disagree, and new environmental NGOs emphasized Washington lobbying and the creation of a class of environmental lobbyists, while cutting their ties with the grassroots. But sees signs that sections of the environmental movement are re-engaging with the nature-as-divine impulse, and reconnecting with the grassroots.

Session 9. (Week 5. October 1). (1) Biodiversity: What Is It? What’s So Good about It? (2) Is There An Alternative to the Triage Approach to Prioritizing Which Species to Preserve? (3) Are Our Environmental Problems Examples of the Tragedy of the Commons?

Come prepared to discuss:

Bryan G. Norton, “A Rationale for Preserving Species: An Apology and a Taxonomy,” Why Preserve Natural Variety (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988): 3-22. [Available on Moodle.]

Norton, “Avoiding Triage: An Alternative Approach to the Priorities Problem,” Why Preserve Natural Variety, pp. 258-269.

[Available on Moodle.]

Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science (1968). [Available here.]

So you'd like to know more...

Kristin Shrader-Frechette and E. D. McCoy, “Biodiversity, Biological Uncertainty, and Setting Conservation Priorities,” Biology and Philosophy 9 (1994): 167-195. [Available on Moodle.]

Elinor Ostrom, "Reflections on the Commons," Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge UP, 1990): 1-28. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 10. (Week 6. October 6). Re-read October 1 readings. Then do (1) Should Rich Countries Close their Doors to Would-be Immigrants from Poor Countries for Fear of the Possibility that Devastating Environmental Consequences and Resource Over-use Would Follow?

Come prepared to discuss:

Garrett Hardin, "Living on a Lifeboat," BioScience (1974). [Available here.]

Optional For Those Interested: (2) Saving Nature and Feeding People: How to Balance Them?

Alan Carter, “Saving Nature and Feeding People,” Environmental Ethics 26 (2004): 339-360, READ pp. 339-358 ONLY.

[Available on Moodle.]

Session 11. (Week 6. October 8). (1) Consumption: What Sorts of Constraints on It Should We Accept for the Environment’s Sake? (2) A Middle Ground Between Malthusian-Survivalist and Cornucopian-Promethean Views of the Limits to Consumption.

Come prepared to discuss:

Herman E. Daly, "Consumption: Value-Added, Physical Transformation, and Welfare," in The Ethics of Consumption, ed. Crocker and Linden (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), pp. 19-27. [Available on Moodle.]

Mark Sagoff, "Do We Consume Too Much?" The Economy of the Earth, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2008): 110-136. [Available on Moodle.]

Allen L. Hammond, "Limits to Consumption and Economic Growth: The Middle Ground," in The Ethics of Consumption, ed. Crocker and Linden, pp. 63-67. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Partha Dasgupta and Geoffrey Heal, "The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources," Review of Economic Studies 41 (1974): 3-28. [Available on Moodle.]

FALL BREAK. WEEK 7.

Session 12. (Week 8. October 20). (1) Is Our Present Economy Hooked on Enormous Consumption Because It's Necessary for Growth? (2) What Would Be the Likely Politics of Trying to Move to a No-Growth Society? Of Being in Such a Society? What Would Be the Likely Politics of Trying to Move to a Sustainable-growth Society? Of Being in Such a Society?

Come prepared to discuss:

Douglas Booth, "Conspicuous Consumption, Novelty, and Creative Destruction," Hooked on Growth: Economic Addictions and the Environment (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), READ pp. 11-33 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

David Luban, "The Political Economy of Consumption," in The Ethics of Consumption, ed. Crocker and Linden (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), pp. 113-130. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Michael Schudson, "Delectable Materialism: Second Thoughts on Consumer Culture [the Puritan Critique and the Quaker Critique]," in The Ethics of Consumption, ed. Crocker and Linden (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), READ pp. 249-258 ONLY.

[Available on Moodle.] Discusses the Quaker critique and the Puritan critique of the consumer society.

Luis A. Camacho, "Consumption as a Topic for the North-South Dialogue," in The Ethics of Consumption, ed. Crocker and Linden, READ pp. 552-559 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.] Asks how mass consumption in the global North affects the global South, and whether there is a distinctively Southern view of consumption.

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT THREE RESPONSE PAPERS.

Session 13. (Week 8. October 22). (1) What Environment-related Duties of Justice Do We Owe Future Generations? Is Sustainability One of them? (2) Is Sustainable Growth Impossible? If So, Should We Opt for a No-Growth Sustainable Development? (3) Do Growth Economists See the Environment as a Subsystem of a Limitless Economy, while Ecological Economists See the Economy as Subsystem of the Environment?

Come prepared to discuss:

Brian Barry, “Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice,” in Environmental Ethics: An Anthology, ed. Light and Rolston, pp. 487-499, READ pp. 487-497 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Herman E. Daly, "Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem," in Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics, ed. Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend (MIT Press, 1993): 267-273. [Available on Moodle.]

Herman E. Daly, " Review of W. Beckerman, Small Is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens," Population and Development Review 21 (1995): 665-675, READ pp. 665-668 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Karl Mannheim, “The Sociological Problem of Generations,” [1923] in Younger than Jesus: The Generation Book, ed. Lauren Cornell (New Museum/Steidl, 2009): 163-195. Available through the hyperlink.

Wilfred Beckerman and Joanna Pasek, "Brian Barry's Approach [to Justice between Generations]," Justice, Posterity, and the Environment (Oxford UP, 2001): 40-44. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 14. (Week 9. October 27). (1) Does Sustainability Mean Not Worsening Future Generations' Chances of Being as Well Off as We Are? Or Does It Mean Preserving Certain Natural Goods for Future Generations? (2) Does Demanding Sustainable Development of All Countries Mean Asking Poor Countries to Sacrifice Desperately Needed Growth, and So Unfairly Keeping them Far Less Rich than the Rich Countries?

Come prepared to discuss:

Bryan G. Norton, "Ecology and Opportunity: Intergenerational Equity and Sustainable Options," in Fairness and Futurity: Essays on Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice, ed. Andrew Dobson (Oxford UP, 1999): 119-150, READ pp. 119-141 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Wilfred Beckerman, "Poverty and the Environment in the Third World," Small Is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens (1995): 25-39. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Darrel Moellendorf, "A Right to Sustainable Development," The Monist 94 (2011): 433-452. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 15. (Week 9. October 29). (1) In the Longer Run, Does "Unsustainable" Economic Growth Lead to Environmental Improvements, So that Richer Societies, with More Experience of Continued Economic Growth, Have Better Environments than Poorer Societies, with Less Continued Growth? (2) Does the Sustainability Principle Harm Poor Countries by Leading Rich Countries to Tax their Imports on the Grounds that the Poor Countries Don't Meet Sufficient Standards of Environmental Protection? (3) Was the Concept of Sustainable Development Originally a Discourse of Resistance by People in the Global South, and Then Hijacked as Sustainability by People in the Rich North in Order to Help Legitimize Neoliberal Globalization?

Come prepared to discuss:

Wilfred Beckerman, "Income Levels and the Environment," Small Is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens (1995): 41-53. [Available on Moodle.]

Wilfred Beckerman, "Sustainable Development and Protectionism," A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth (Independent Institute, 2002): 57-62. [Available on Moodle.]

David Carruthers, "From Opposition to Orthodoxy: The Remaking of Sustainable Development," in Debating the Earth: An Environmental Politics Reader, ed. Dryzek and Schlosberg (Oxford UP 2005): 285-300. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

V. Rukmini Rao, "Women Farmers of India's Deccan Plateau: Ecofeminists Challenge World Elites," in Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works, 2nd edition. Ed. David Schmidtz and Elizabeth Willott (Oxford UP, 2011), pp. 194-201. [Available on Moodle.]

Wilfred Beckerman, A Poverty of Reason: Sustainable Development and Economic Growth (Independent Institute, 2002)

A critique of sustainable development, arguing that current sustainability programs unacceptably impoverish people

and prevent future people from escaping poverty, and actually harm the environment.

Session 16. (Week 10. November 3). What Do Greens Want?

Come prepared to discuss:

Robert E. Goodin, "Green Corollaries," Green Political Theory, pp. 54-77.

Robert E. Goodin, "Green Heresies," Green Political Theory, pp. 78-83.

PAPER PROPOSAL DUE IN CLASS.

Session 17. (Week 10. November 5). Green Political Principles and Green Values.

Come prepared to discuss:

Goodin, "The Thesis," in Green Political Theory, READ pp. 13-18 ONLY.

Robert E. Goodin, "A Green Theory of Value," in Green Political Theory, pp. 19-55.

Session 18. (Week 11. November 10). Deep Ecology and Ecological Feminism.

Come prepared to discuss:

Arne Naess, “The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects,” in Environmental Ethics, ed. Light and Rolston, pp. 262-274, READ pp. 264-273 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Karen J. Warren, “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism,” Environmental Ethics 12 (1990): 125-146, READ pp. 125-138 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Val Plumwood, “Being Prey [Surviving A Crocodile Attack],” Utne Reader, July-August 2000. [Available here.]

We’ll watch in class the first part of “Crocodile” Dundee, directed by Peter Faiman (1986). We’ll then hold a discussion of Plumwood’s ecofeminist critique of the film.

So you'd like to know more...

Ramachandra Guha, "Radical American Environmentalism [i.e., Deep Ecology] and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique," Environmental Ethics 11 (1989: 71-83. [Available on Moodle.]

Deborah Slicer, "Is There an Ecofeminism-Deep Ecology Debate?" Environmental Ethics 17 (1995): 151-169. [Available on Moodle.]

Karen J. Warren and Jim Cheney, "Ecological Feminism and Ecosystem Ecology," Hypatia 6 (1991): 179-197. Examines 10 similarities between ecofeminism and the science of ecology. [Available on Moodle.]

Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (London: Routledge, 1993)

Session 19. (Week 11. November 12). Perspectives from the Poor, the Indigenous, and Conservatism

Come prepared to discuss:

Ramachandra Guha, “The Environmentalism of the Poor,” in Debating the Earth, ed. Dryzek and Schlosberg, pp. 463-480, READ pp. 463-465 AND 470-477 ONLY. [Available on Moodle.]

Fabienne Bayet, “Overturning the Doctrine [of Terra Nullius]: Indigenous People and Wilderness—Being Aboriginal in the Environmental Movement,” in Debating the Earth, pp. 496-504. [Available on Moodle.]

Roger Scruton, "Conservatism," in Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge, ed. Andrew Dobson and Robyn Eckersley (Cambridge UP, 2006): 7-19. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Joan Martinez-Alier, "The environmentalism of the poor: Gold, oil, forests, rivers, biopiracy," The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (Edward Elgar, 2002): 100-152. [Available on Moodle.] An extraordinary survey of a wealth of cases of the world's poor working to defend their environment from degradation.

Click here for images and discussion of terra nullius and justifications of rights to colonial territory.

Session 20. (Week 12. November 17). (1) Is Localist Eco-Conservatism a More Genuinely Environmentally Friendly Ideology than Globalist Eco-Progressivism? (2) Can and Should Our Ethical Principles and Aesthetic Judgments about the Environment Be Priced on the Basis of Willingness-to-Pay and then Entered into a Utility Calculus that Environmental Economists Say Should Decide Questions of Policy? Or Should We Reject Willingness-to-Pay Calculations in Favor of Decisions that Balance Different Principles?

Come prepared to discuss:

Roger Scruton, "Conservatism," in Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge, ed. Andrew Dobson and Robyn Eckersley (Cambridge UP, 2006): 7-19 [Moodle.]

Mark Sagoff, "At the Monument to General Meade or On the Difference between Beliefs and Benefits," Price, Principle, and the Environment (Cambridge UP, 2004): 29-56. [Available on Moodle.]

So you'd like to know more...

Dale Jamieson, "The Nature of the Problem," in The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society, ed. Dryzek, Norgaard, and Schlosberg (Oxford UP, 2011): 38-55. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 21. (Week 12. November 19). (1) The Climate Crisis as an Ethical Failure: Overview of Climate Change as a Perfect Moral Storm Composed of Three Interlocking Storms: The Global Storm, the Intergenerational Storm, and the Theoretical Storm. (2) The Key Exacerbator of the Perfect Storm: the Problem of Moral Corruption. (3) The Consumption Tragedy: Is Our Consumption Behavior Absurd or Shallow, Rather than Self-Interested?

Come prepared to discuss:

Stephen M. Gardiner, "A Perfect Moral Storm," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 19-48.

Gardiner, "The Consumption Tragedy," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 49-72.

So you'd like to know more...

See the Jamieson article mentioned above.

Avner de-Shalit, "Climate Change Refugees, Compensation, and Rectification," The Monist 94 (2011): 310-328. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 22. (Week 13. November 24). The Global Storm of Climate Change: (1) Is an Optimistic Public Goods Analysis Reasonable? (2) Is the Global Storm a Tragedy of the Commons?

Come prepared to discuss:

Gardiner, "Somebody Else’s Problem?" A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 75-102.

Gardiner, "A Shadowy and Evolving Tragedy," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 103-124.

So you'd like to know more...

Check out the de-Shalit article above.

THANKSGIVING BREAK. NO SESSION WEDS NOVEMBER 26. ENJOY THANKSGIVING, AND THINK ABOUT FINAL PAPERS!

Session 23. (Week 14. December 1). (1) Conclusion of the Global Storm. (2) The Second Interlocking Moral Storm: The Intergenerational Storm.

Come prepared to discuss:

Gardiner, ""A Shadowy and Evolving Tragedy," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 124-140.

Gardiner, "The Tyranny of the Contemporary," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 143-164.

Session 24. (Week 14. December 3). The Intergenerational Storm Continued: (1) The Nature of the Pure Intergenerational Problem. (2) Applications of the Problem. (3) Does the Possibility of Abrupt Climate Change Make Action More, Rather than Less, Difficult?

Come prepared to discuss:

Gardiner, "The Tyranny of the Contemporary," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 164-184.

Gardiner, "An Intergenerational Arms Race?" A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 185-209.

Session 25. (Week 15. December 8). The Third Interlocking Moral Storm: The Theoretical Storm: Weaknesses of Cost-Benefit Analysis and Discounting as Tools for Understanding the Climate Crisis.

Come prepared to discuss:

Gardiner, "Cost-Benefit Paralysis," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 247-291.

So you'd like to know more...

Mark Sagoff, "The Poverty of Climate Economics," in The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society, ed. Dryzek, Norgaard, and Schlosberg (Oxford UP, 2011): 55-67. [Available on Moodle.]

Session 26. (Week 15. December 10). The Role of Moral Corruption in the Perfect Moral Storm of Climate Change.

Come prepared to discuss:

Gardiner, "Jane Austen vs. Climate Economics," A Perfect Moral Storm, pp. 301-338.

We will watch in class the opening scenes of Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee (1995).

FINAL PAPER DUE 19 DECEMBER AT NOON.