70049 - Global Environmental Challenges

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide the tools to understand the main ecological challenges that impact the economy and politics of our generation. At the end of the course the student is expected to employ the acquired skills to discuss global climate change; the management of forests, fisheries, clean air and water; and biodiversity.

Course contents

Humans have become a force of nature reshaping environmental processes on a planetary scale. This course identifies and describes ecological issues that poses a challenge for sustainability. It studies their interconnection with economic and political processes. The program builds around three topics: local and global commons, biodiversity, and global warming.

 

1. Introduction: Which ecological processes currently pose a challenge for sustainability. Historical case of the societal collapse in Easter Island.

Part one: RENEWABLE RESOURCES

2. Fisheries and the dynamics of a renewable resorce. What are the biological laws of a renewable resource? Fisheries neatly illustrates these processes.

3. The tragedy of the commons. What is a commons? Economics of common property resources.

4. Policies for managing the commons and the international treaty to protect whales. Legal and economic property rights, Pigouvian taxes, negotiable quotas.

5. The community management of forests and pastures in medieval Italy. Presentation of a case study from the Alps.

6. The ozone layer and water eutrophication as renewable resources. Applications of biological and economic dynamics of renewable resources to two specific problems. The Montreal protocol for preserving the ozone layer in the athmosphere; eutrophication of lakes and seas because of agricultural fertilizers with nitrogen and phosphorous.

 

Part two: BIODIVERSITY

7. The complexity of an ecosystem. When many species interact, they dynamic can become complex as described by prey-predator models. Australia as a laboratory to illustrate the impact of alien species on the economy and the ecosystem.

8. How a society collapses. Now we have the tools to understand the historical case of Easter Island presented in the introductory lecture.

9. Loss of biodiversity on a planetary scale. Mass extinction of species. Ecosystem services. Convention on Biodiversity. What is the resilience of a system.

10. Environmental indicators. Ecological footprint, adjusted GDP, ecosystem services.

 

Part three: CLIMATE CHANGE

11. Climate change: causes and possible future scenario. Increases in global temperature is the most important environmental challenge of this generation. Scientific basis and possible economic and political impacts.

12. The Kyoto treaty

13. The shadow of the future. How patient are we to save today in order to have a brighter future? One of the most important parameters to decide on environmental issues is understanding how much weight to give to future consequences of today's actions. Intergenerational equity.

14. Policies to tackle global warming .

15. Public opinion and climate change

Readings/Bibliography

There is no required textbook. Required readings are papers, scientific report of international organizaitons, and book chapters that will be available on the course webpage at

http//www2.dse.unibo.it/casari/

username: economia, password: economia

Teaching methods

Lectures with blackboard an slides presentation

Student presentations

Role-play activities

Assessment methods

Mid-term written exam
In class group presentation
Oral exam

Teaching tools

Slide presentations

Role-play activities

Movie

Links to further information

http://www2.dse.unibo.it/casari/teaching.html

Office hours

See the website of Marco Casari