ENST20902 and ENST20903: Spring 2010 | Schedule, V. 1.1

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This Schedule page provides a road map to the implementation of both

This is the page you need to follow to keep up with the flow of our course. See also the course Wiki Bulletin Board. The schedule may change occasionally, so check back often.

Important Dates ^

The Academic Calendar for the Spring 2010 semester displays important dates to keep in mind. Please note the due dates for ENST20902 and ENST20903 below:

January 21: Orientation and Business of the Course

After our introductions and some business, our first session provides a detailed overview of the course to establish expectations and to assist your planning and preparation.

  1. Introductions, yours and ours: roster
  2. Orientation, overview, and business of the course: syllabus, schedule, Wiki Bulletin Board: We will go over the flow of the course in detail.
  3. Contact information, especially enst209@gmail.com
  4. How to do well here: tips and traps; Q. and A.
  5. We will view together the 2009 film Home.

January 28: Introducing Sustainability I

We begin to explain what World Sustainability means in the context of ENST209. Class activities:

  1. View documentary, Banking on Disaster.
  2. Discussion, form groups, and play the Rainforest Game: please see Rainforest Scenarios.
  3. We will conclude with a debriefing of what we have learned from the film and the role-playing game.

February 4: Introducing Sustainability II

We will explain sustainability in a historical context. We will start with a lecture by Professor Edelstein, Evolution of the Concept of Sustainability, presented from our course wiki. Please read for class and be prepared to discuss:

  1. Browse the Brundtland Report and sample its findings and logic. This is a seminal historical document.
  2. Read the important Overview, noting the way that sustainable development was framed and the language used to define sustainable development, quoted below. Read the Brundtland section on sustainable development carefully. Note the Report's succinct working definition of sustainability: "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." To complement this section, read Gus Speth's essay at Worldwatch Institute, section on "Three Paths Into the Future."
  3. See Professor Hayes's overview of Brundtland and the origins of Sustainable Development, which lays out important concepts for the course.
  4. Wiki on Intergenerational Concerns
  5. Wiki on Limits to Growth: note links and uploads within this page
  6. Wiki on Triple Bottom Line

February 11: World Sustainability

We will continue the lecture by Professor Edelstein, Evolution of the Concept of Sustainability and and Professor Hayes, Limits to Growth. Review these course materials:

  1. Powerpoint presentations on paradigms of sustainability prepared by Professor Michael Edelstein
  2. Wiki presentations on limits to growth
The graphic organizer is due by class time on February 18 as an attachment to an email to enst209@gmail.com. The assignment is defined in the wiki, explained in class, and will be distributed as an email attachment.

February 18: Defining the Global Crisis

Class activities:

  1. Film: Al Gore: An Inconvenient Truth
  2. Professor Hayes will review Part I of Brown, defining the global crisis.

February 25: Defining the Global Crisis, Continued

Class cancelled due to blizzard.

March 4 & 11: The Disabling Analysis & Economic Globalization

Class activities:

  1. Lester Brown, Plan B 4.0, Preface and chapters 1 through 3. Professor Hayes has copious notes on Brown: notes supplementing Brown on Beyond the Oil Peak, Global Warming, Natural Systems Under Stress and on The Social Divide. The references are generic, since the construction of Brown's books from Plan B 2.0 through Plan B 4.0 has changed.
  2. Read and study Wolfgang Sachs, Fairness in a Fragile World: A Memo on Sustainability. This article is foundational for ENST209 and must be read carefully. Use either the complete version or the shorter version. Also see the presentation prepared by Prof. Edelstein to de-code the article.
  3. Lecture: Professor Edelstein explains the Disabling Dynamic. Michael Edelstein, Contaminated Communities, chapters 1 - 5.
  4. View and study the important case study close to home but of national importance: The Toxic Legacy web site by Jan Barry. We will discuss this case in class.
  5. Professor Hayes presentation: Framing the Disabling Analysis.
  6. Examine Professor Hayes' Statement of Concern
  7. Hayes presentation: Economic Globalization

The essay on Part I of the course is due in class on March 12 but will automatically extended until March 19.

Part II: Creating World Sustainability ^

March 11: Introducing the Enabling Analysis

March 18 is spring recess: no class.

March 25: The Enabling Analysis & the Emergence of Civil Society

We start the enabling analysis and begin the preparation of your presentations in this transitional class meeting. Class activities:

  1. Lecture by Prof. Edelstein on Civil Society, Social Learning and Environmental Justice. Please read Edelstein, Contaminated Communities Chapters 6 and 7.
  2. Read Paul Hawken, graduation address, University of Portland, May 19, 2009 and his speech at Bioneers about his book, Blessed Unrest.
  3. Hayes slide presentation: Getting Sustainability
  4. Examine Professor Hayes's wiki: approach to framing the enabling analysis.
  5. Organizational meeting for groups for presentation of the enabling analysis.
  6. Please examine the Goldman Prize for sustainability and scan its list of recipients. Refer to Professor Hayes's wiki page on Civil Society Organizations.
  7. View and discuss The Story of Stuff and Cap and Trade.

April 1: Eco-Economy and Building World Sustainability ^

Class activities: Please examine the class from November 12, for we have holdovers which we shall conclude than move on to:

  1. Professor Hayes lecture and discussion on ecological economics
  2. McKibben, Deep Economy, Ch. 1 and 2, pp. 1-94 (view Prof. Hayes's review of McKibben)
  3. McKibben, Deep Economy, Ch. 3, 4, 5, and Afterword, pp. 95-232
  4. Group meetings for preparation of presentations.

April 8: Policy Prescriptions for Creating a Sustainable World

Class activities:

  1. Professor Hayes explains what Strategic Sustainability might involve.
  2. Presentation by Prof. Edelstein, Local Roots of World Reconciling the Local and Global.
  3. Presentation by Prof. Wayne Hayes: How Can We Transition to World Sustainability?
  4. Prof. Hayes will make a presentation on Brown, Chapters 7-13, pp. 131-288.
  5. Group meetings for preparation of presentations

April 15: To be announced

April 22: Concluding the Enabling Analysis

Class activities:

  1. Final group meetings for preparation of presentations
  2. View PBS Wide Angle: The Burning Season.

April 29 and May 6: Student Presentations | Final Paper Due

The student presentations will conclude World Sustainability. The presentations will count as half of your participation grade, 10%. We will assign the sequence and schedule the presentations before the Thanksgiving break.

The paper on the enabling analysis is due on May 3, the assigned exam date for this course.


The World Sustainability Web Site | © Michael Edelstiein, Ph.D., Wayne Hayes, Ph.D.
Initialized: 1/10/2007 | Last Update: 03/03/2010