World Sustainability ENST20951 #30076
Summer 2010
Schedule, V. 1.0
Mission: This Schedule page provides
a road map to the implementation of ENST20951, CRN 30076.
This is the page you need to follow to keep abreast of our
course. The schedule embeds course learning modules to
guide your study.
This on-line course, like in-class summer courses, runs five weeks.
Each week therefore must provide the content equivalent
to three weeks of fall or spring semester courses. The calendar week is
an appropriate measure to determine your activities, so will be used to
plan the design and flow of ENST20710. You must not fall behind.
Our summer session I course officially starts on May 25 and ends on June
24. Please note the due dates below:
May 25: Orientation and Business of the Course
Please become familiar with the tools and web pages essential for
the course:
- Examine the syllabus carefully. The
syllabus is a founding document of the course.
- Review this page, our schedule. Use this page for planning how
you will approach the course and allocate time.
- Return frequently to the
World Sustainability
Bulletin Board at the
wiki for my summer
courses. The Bulletin Board is a major tool to keep you abreast
- To contact Professor Hayes, please use the dedicated gmail
account: wkhayes@gmail.com.
- To introduce the tone and substance of this course, please view the 2009
film, Home.
Week #1: Introducing Sustainability, May 26 -
May 31 ^
Learning Goal #1: As displayed in
the Syllabus, the first goal of ENST209 is to demonstrate your thorough
understanding of the concept of sustainability. You will
indicate this in the first assignment, a sustainability
graphic organizer and a short essay, defined in a separate
memo. This essay is due by the end of the day on May 31 and
carries 16 points.
The course starts with a historical and critical treatment of
Sustainable Development. The substance and the nuance of this
story is essential in this section of the course. Please study:
- Take a brief educational tour
of sustainability.
- Review Professor Wayne Hayes: The short wiki
page on paradigms
- Professor Hayes provides context and background on his wiki
on Brundtland.
- Browse the Brundtland Report and
sample its findings and logic. Spend an hour or so reviewing its
substance and tone. This is the seminal historical document
that defined Sustainable Development. It built on a history and left
a legacy. 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."
- Read and study 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.
To complement this section, read Gus Speth's essay
at Worldwatch Institute, section on "Three Paths Into
the Future."
- Recommended: The
Archeology of the Development Idea by Wolfgang
Sachs
This section ends with your composing a
sustainability
graphic organizer and short essay that demonstrate a grasp of
sustainability as defined in ENST209. This assignment counts 16 points and is
Week #2: Defining the Global Crisis, June 1 - 4 ^
An essay
that explains both the global crisis and the disabling analysis will
be due on June 14. This essay counts 32 points, as explained in the syllabus.
Learning Goal #2: The student will demonstrate
an empirical grasp of the nature and extent of the
current global crisis. The student will coherently explain
timely and comprehensive aspects that indicate the
extent of the unsustainability of our current civilization
and anthropogenic systems. This goal will culminate
with an essay, counting 32 points, that explains how
the student interprets and analyzes the nature and
extent of the global crisis of sustainability. Instructions
for this assignment are found on our class wiki. The paper is
due on June 14.
Please read and study:
- Will Steffen, Paul J. Crutzen, and John R. McNeill, "The
Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great
Forces of Nature?," Ambio,
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Vol. 36, No. 8, December,
2007. This bold article defines a new era in Earth history, the
Anthropocene, the successor to the Holocene.
- Lester Brown, Plan B 4.0, Preface and chapters 1 through 3.
This provides a timely round-up of challenges to the biosphere and
human inhabitation of Earth. Notice that this book is classified as
science/environment. Brown carries weight for his diagnosis, but does
not comment extensively on political or economic aspects. I will supplement
Brown with my lecture notes, below.
- Professor Hayes: notes supplementing
Brown on Beyond the Oil
Peak, Global
Warming, Natural Systems
Under Stress and on The
Social Divide
- See Professor Hayes's wiki
page on Limits to Growth.
- Recommended: See my working paper on
the dynamics within the global crisis.
- Read and study Wolfgang Sachs, Fairness in a Fragile World: A Memo
on Sustainability. This seminal article is foundational for
ENST209 and must be read carefully. Use either
the complete
version to page 64 and the conclusion or the shorter
version. Also see the chart Professor Hayes prepared to de-code
the article. (Note, Environmental Studies majors
and students who are serious about this course
should examine the whole report, at least selectively.
This is among the best single treatments of the
material of ENST20951.)
Week #3:
The Disabling Analysis & Economic Globalization, June 7-11
^
Learning Goal #3: A critical interpretation
of how modern civilization resists, even obstructs, sustainability: Students
will explain how modern civilization creates barriers that resist sustainability.
This culminates in a summary report of the global crisis and the disabling
analysis, ending this part of our course. See the instructions
for this assignment.
Weeks 4 & 5: Creating World Sustainability, June
15 - 25^
Learning Module #4, the enabling analysis, should be the most
challenging and engaging part of World Sustainability: How can citizens
and organizations make decisions and gain skills helpful in making their lives
sustainable, promoting sustainable communities, and achieving a sustainable
world. What public policies can be formulated and implemented that promote
world sustainability?
The Enabling Analysis & the Emergence of Civil Society
Policy Prescriptions for Creating a Sustainable World
Class activities:
- Please read Brown: Chapters 4 and 5, pp. 79-142
- Professor Hayes presentation
on Brown, Chapter 4 and Chapter
5, climate and energy.
- Please read Brown: Chapters 6-10, pp. 143-268.
- Professor Hayes presentation on
Brown, Chapters 7-10.
Local Roots of World Sustainability
Eco-Economy and World Sustainability ^
The World Sustainability Web Site | ©
Wayne Hayes, Ph.D.
Initialized: 1/10/2007 |
Last Update:
06/09/2010