ENST20901: Spring 2010 | Schedule, V. 1.1

Mission: This Schedule page provides a road map to the implementation of ENST20901, CRN 20217. This is the page you need to follow to keep abreast of our course. The schedule embeds course learning modules to guide your study.

Important Dates

The Academic Calendar for the Spring 2010 semester displays important dates to keep in mind. Please note the due dates for ENST20901 below:

• February 22: sustainability graphic organizer is due by class time. See the instructions for this assignment, which counts as 16 points toward your final grade.
• March 12-19: Report on Part I: the global crisis and the disabling analysis report counts as 32 points toward your final grade and should be sent as an attachment to enst209@gmail.com.
• April 26 and May 3: Presentations of civil society organizations and the Goldman Prize winners. See instructions for this assignment. The presentation counts as ten points toward your final grade.
• May 3 through May 10: Final report on the enabling analysis: see assignment. The final report counts as 32 points toward your final grade.

Orientation and the business of the course:

1. Introductions, yours and ours: roster
2. essential course materials: syllabus and schedule
3. World Sustainability web site and Wiki Bulletin Board
4. contact information, especially enst209@gmail.com
5. How to do well here: tips and traps. Q. and A.
6. We will view together the 2009 film Home.

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 class time on February 22 and carries 16 points.

Class activities for February 1:

1. Film: Banking on Disaster and discussion
2. Based on the film, we will play the Rainforest Game: please see Rainforest Scenarios to guide our role playing.
3. We will review the readings below, with emphasis on Brundtland.

In class on February 8, we must examine the meaning of Sustainable Development, sustainability, and World Sustainability. This is basic to our course. Please read for class:

1. Take a brief educational tour of sustainability.
2. Review Professor Wayne Hayes: The short wiki page on paradigms
3. Professor Hayes provides context and background on his wiki on Brundtland.
4. Browse the Brundtland Report and sample its findings and logic. 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."
5. 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."
6. Recommended: The Archeology of the Development Idea by Wolfgang Sachs

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 March 12.

Class activities:

1. Professor Hayes will review Part I of Brown, Plan B 4.0, defining the global crisis. We will view an interview with Lester Brown. Examine his Earth Policy Institute web site.
2. Professor Hayes will explain the debate on the Limits to Growth and review Professor Michael Edelstein's PowerPoint on the Ecological Crisis.
3. Frontline documentary on energy and climate change: Heat
4. We will review together the memo by Wolfgang Sachs, Fairness in a Fragile World: A Memo on Sustainability.

Please read for class:

1. Lester Brown, Plan B 4.0, Preface and chapters 1 through 3
2. Professor Hayes: notes supplementing Brown on Beyond the Oil Peak, Global Warming, Natural Systems Under Stress and on The Social Divide
3. See Professor Hayes's wiki page on Limits to Growth.
4. Recommended: See my working paper on the dynamics within the global crisis.
5. 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 chart Professor Hayes prepared to de-code the article.
6. Examine my Statement of Concern.

The graphic organizer is due by class time on February 22 as an attachment to an email to enst209@gmail.com. The assignment is explained on the wiki, will be explained in class and distributed by on the wiki assignment and here.

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.

Class activities include these resources that should be read before class:

1. The History Channel offers a scenario about life after Peak Oil.
2. Professor Hayes presentation: Framing the Disabling Analysis.
3. View and study the important case study close to home but of national importance: The Toxic Legacy web site by Jan Barry.
4. Hayes presentation: Economic Globalization.
5. Recommended but not required: The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace

The report on Part I of the course is due on March 12.

Class activities:

1. Q. and A. on essay assignment
2. Hayes lecture on Strategic Sustainability;
3. Transition from the disabling analysis to the enabling analysis;

This class closes Part I of ENST209. Note: March 15 is spring break, no class.

Part II: Creating World Sustainability ^

March 22: The Enabling Analysis & the Emergence of Civil Society

1. Overview of Part II, Creating World Sustainability
2. Excerpts from film, Gandhi
3. Presentation by Prof. Wayne Hayes: How Can We Transition to World Sustainability?
4. Overview of the Goldman Prize.
5. Groups will meet to advance preparation for final presentations.

Class lecture and discussion, based on readings:

1. Paul Hawken, graduation address, University of Portland, May 19, 2009 and his speech at Bioneers about his book, Blessed Unrest.
2. View PBS Wide Angle: The Burning Season.
3. Progress reports on Goldman Prize winners

Class activities:

1. Professor Hayes lecture and discussion on Economic Strategies for Sustainability
2. McKibben, Deep Economy, Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Afterword
3. Group meetings for preparation of presentations.

We will transition from the eco-economy to student presentations on April 27. Class on April 27 and May 4 will be devoted to the presentations.

The paper on the enabling analysis is due between May 3 and May 10, the assigned exam date for this course.

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The World Sustainability Web Site | © Michael Edelstiein, Ph.D. and Wayne Hayes, Ph.D.
Initialized: 1/2/2010 | Last Update: 03/08/2010