Sustainability Freshman Inquiry

Feb. 3, 2010

Jeff Fletcher

Logistics• PSU Recycles Service Project

– This Sunday at 1pm (~1.5 hours)• Due Next Monday Wednesday

– Read Collapse Prologue, Ch. 1 (p. ix - 75)• Reading guide on Daily Log

– Midterm exam• Questions about midterm• Today

– Finish Viewing Frontline: HEAT– Discuss– The Story of Stuff– Tragedy of the Commons (next time with prizes!)

• Mentor Session Today– How did sharing (out loud) HW #2 go?

• Volunteers to bring laptops

Welcome to Halfway

• Have way through winter term and course• Feb 3 LOD = 9:51

– (longer by 2:41 per day)

• Back on Jan 3 LOD = 8:49– (longer by only 1:00 per day)

• Looking ahead March 3 = 11:15 – (longer by 3:10 per day)

• SPRING is coming! (despite climate change)

Frontline: HEAT (Themes)

• Lobbying of congress (political will?)– By corporations– By interest groups (sometimes funded by

corporations)

• Perceptions vs. Reality (How do we know?)– Clean Coal through carbon capture and

sequestration?– Zero-emission cars?– No impact of renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro,

bio-fuel—ethanol)?

Frontline: HEAT (US Role)• Need more power plants because “US demand will rise 41% by

2020”• US more CO2 release from cars than Europe, India, Japan, China

combined!• Exxon-Mobil

– biggest corporation in world– trillions invested in oil extraction

• Why do other countries have:– Less dependence on oil (Japan, Europe)?– More public transport?– More invested in solar, wind, nuclear?

• An economy centered on consumption/consumerism?• What is the “low hanging fruit” in terms of CO2 reduction?

– What is your role?– What about your role in democratic collective action?

U.S. Obstructionism• How much power should one person (president) have in

setting the global warming agenda?– Frontline: Hot Politics: Censorship (6:21)

• Small Groups– Have things changed with Obama presidency? If so, how?

• Does economic downturn impact this?

– What should the role of government science be in a democracy?• How separate from the administration that happens to be in power?

– What is the responsibility of individuals?• Individual behavior vs. supporting collective behavioral change

mechanisms?

• Groups report

The Day After Kyoto: Ch. 8

• 1992 Rio Earth Summit (Bush I signed)• UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

– Common but Different Responsibilities– Kolbert’s Cake Analogy

• Greenhouse gas “intensity”• Scientific consensus

– 900 scientific articles, 0 disputed anthropogenic warming (1993-2003)

– All G8 Countries Science Academies Joint Communication (2005)

• “threat of climate change is clear and increasing”

Consumerism

• Story of Stuff– Questions

• Does the video overstate anything?• Can you think of alternative ways of addressing these

issues?

• Critique– Story of Stuff, The Critique Part 3 of 4

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgLrZc7cws8• Does it deal with the central argument of a linear throughput

on a finite earth

– Part 4 of 4• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XeW5ilk-9Y&NR=1