11.122 - Environment and Society:

Managing the Environmental

and Social Impacts of Industrial Society

Fall 2002

3-0-9 HASS

web.mit.edu/11.122/www/

 

Class Sessions:                                                                                            Prof. Dara O'Rourke

Tuesday-Thursday 3:30-5:00 p.m.                                                               Room 9-328, dorourke@mit.edu

Room 1-134                                                                                                 Office Hours: Tuesday 5:00-7:00

 

Schedule of Topics and Readings

Readings can be found in: Books (B) available at the COOP, the Reader (R), and the Web (W)

 

 

Date

@

Topic

Readings

Assignment

Environment and Society

9/5

 

Introduction to the Course

No Readings

Turn in bio.

9/10

W

 

 

 

 

W

 

State of the Environment

Brown, Lester, ³The Economy and the Earth,² Chapter 1 in Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, New York: W. W. Norton, pp: 3-26, 2001. Available at: http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm

 

Worldwide Fund for Nature, Living Planet Report 2002, pp:1-20. available at: http://panda.org/livingplanet/lpr02/downloads.cfm

 

 

9/12

B/W

 

 

 

W

Industry and the Environment

Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, ³The Next Industrial Revolution,² and ³Waste Not,² Natural Capitalism, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp:1-21, pp: 48-61, 1999.

 

Redefining Progress, The Ecological Footprint, available at: http://www.rprogress.org/progsum/nip/ef/ef_main.html

 

 

9/17

R

 

 

R

 

Technology and Democracy

Sclove, Richard, Democracy and Technology, Chapters 1 and 2, New York: The Guilford Press, pp.: 3-24, 1995. 

 

Mander, Jerry, ³Technologies of Globalization,² in Mander and Goldsmith (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp: 344-359, 1996.

 

Calculate your Ecological Footprint.

9/19

R

 

 

R

 

 

 

R

Globalization

Stiglitz, Joseph, ³The Promise of Global Institutions,² in Globalization and Its Discontents, New York: W.W. Norton, pp.: 3-22 2002.

 

French, Hilary, ³Coping with Ecological Globalization,² Chapter 10 in State of the World 2000, The Worldwatch Institute, New York: W. W. Norton, pp: 184-202, 2000.

 

Goldsmith, Edward, ³Global Trade and the Environment,² in Mander and Goldsmith (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp: 78-91, 1996.

 

 

9/24

R

 

 

 

 

R

Environmental Regulation

Kraft, Michael E., and Norman J. Vig, ³Environmental Policy from the 1970s to 2000: An Overview,² in Vig and Kraft (eds.) Environmental Policy ­ New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, pp:1-31, 2000.

 

Mazmanian, Daniel A., and Michael E. Kraft, ³The Three Epochs of the Environmental Movement,² in Mazmanian and Kraft (eds.) Toward Sustainable Communities ­ Transition and Transformations in environmental Policy, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp; 3-41, 1999.

 

 

9/26

R

 

 

 

R

 

 

R

Pollution Regulation

Gottlieb, Robert and Maureen Smith, ³The Pollution Control System: Themes and Frameworks,² Reducing Toxics, Washington, D.C.: Island Press, pp:10-24, 1995.

 

Fiorino, Daniel J., ³Challenges,² Making Environmental Policy, Berkeley: UC Press, pp:1-21, 1995.

 

Hammitt, J.K., ³Data, Risk and Science, Foundations for Analysis² in M. Chertow and D. Esty (eds.) Thinking Ecologically, The Next Generation of Environmental Policy, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp.: 150-169, 1997.

 

 

Case Studies

10/1

R

 

 

Better Living Through Chemistry?

Thornton, Joe, ³Organochlorines Around the World,² and ³The Damage Done: Health Impacts in People and Wildlife,² in Pandora¹s Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp:23-55, 116-154, 2000.

 

Regulation Problem Set.

10/3

R

 

 

R

 

 

 

Toxic Ignorance

Roe, David and William Pease, ³Toxic Ignorance,² The Environmental Forum, May/June, pp.: 24-35, 1998.

 

Steingraber, Sandra, ³The Social Production of Cancer: A Walk Upstream,² in Hofricter (ed.) Reclaiming the Environmental Debate ­ The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp:19-38, 2000.

 

Video:

Trade Secrets

10/8

R

 

 

W

 

 

 

W

 

Biotech and Food

Rifkin, The Biotech Century ­ Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, New York: Penguin Putnam, pp: 1-36, 1998.

 

Mann, Charles, ³Biotech Goes Wild,² Technology Review, July/August, 1999, available at: http://www.techreview.com/articles/july99/mann.htm

 

Friends of the Earth, ³Genetically Modified Food,² policy briefing,  http://www.foe.org.uk/campaigns/food_and_biotechnology/gm_food/

 

 

10/10

W

 

 

R

 

 

R

Biotech and You

Bereano , Philip, ³Don¹t Take Liberties With Our Genes,² available at: http://www.gene-watch.org/programs/Taking_Liberties.html

 

Walker, Casey, ³An Interview with Rich Hayes,² Wild Duck Review, vol. V, no. 2, Summer, pp.: 19-25, 1999.

 

Hayes, Richard, ³The Threat of the New Human Techno-Eugenics: An Overview,² unpublished manuscript, August 1999, 14 pages.

 

 

10/17

W

 

 

 

W

 

 

 

W

 

 

 

W

 

 

Computer Production

Cook, Christopher D., and A. Clay Thompson, ³Silicon Hell,² The San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 26, 2000, available at: http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/30/siliconhell.html

 

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, ³Right-to-know a littleŠ Exposing double standards in global high-tech production,² available at http://www.svtc.org/cleancc/pubs/2000report.htm, Dec. 19, 2000.

 

Goldberg, Carey, ³Where Do Computers Go When They Die?² The New York Times, March 12, 1998, available at: http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/comprec/nytimes98/12die.html

 

Matthews, H. Scott, et. al., ³Disposition and End-of-Life Options for Personal Computers,² Green Design Initiative Technical Report #97-10, Carnegie Mellon University, July, 1997, available at: http://www.ce.cmu.edu/GreenDesign/comprec/index.html 

 

 

10/22

W

 

 

 

W

 

 

 

 

W

 

 

 

W

 

 

E-Commerce and the Internet

Hendrickson, Chris, H. Scott Matthews and Luis Ochoa, ³Environmental Implications of E-Commerce, the Internet and the New Economy,² available at: http://www.ce.cmu.edu:80/GreenDesign/research.html

 

Davis, Christopher. ³CMU researchers say e-commerce could be environmentally friendly. Findings indicate delivery process needs to be tweaked.² Bizjournal.com, Dec. 8, 2000, available at: http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2000/12/11/focus4.html

 

Leahy, Stephen, ³E-commerce: friend or foe of the environment?² Environmental News Network, Monday, December 11, 2000, available at : http://www.enn.com/features/2000/12/12112000/ecommerce_40648.asp

 

Levitt, James, ³The Interconnected Futures of the Internet and Conservation,² White Paper for the Internet and Conservation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, available at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/icp/icp_white_paper.htm

 

Electronics Problem Set.

10/24

R

 

 

 

You Are What You Eat

Schlosser, Eric, ³The Most Dangerous Job,² and ³What¹s In the Meat,² in Fast Food Nation, New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. pp.:169-224, 2001.

 

 

10/29

W

 

 

 

 

W

 

Equity and Environment

Motavalli, Jim, ³Toxic Targets ­ Polluters that Dump on Communities of Color are Finally Being Brought to Justice,² E ­ The Environmental Magazine, July-August, 12 pages, 1998, available at: www.emagazine.com/july-august_1998/0798feat1.html

 

Faber, Danny, ³Unequal Exposure to Ecological Hazards ­ Environmental Injustices in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,² Report, Northeastern University, January 16th, 2001, pp: i-viii and 38-41, available at: www.nupr.neu.edu/news/0012/environment.pdf

 

Video:
A Civil Action

10/31

W

 

 

R

 

 

 

 

W

 

The Return of Sweatshops

O¹Rourke, Dara, ³Sweatshops 101,² Dollars and Sense, September, 2001.

 

Bonacich, Edna, and Richard Appelbaum, ³The Return of the Sweatshop,² Introduction to Behind The Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp:1-25, 2000.

 

Maquila Solidarity Network, ³How Our Clothes Are Made,² available at: http://www.maquilasolidarity.org/resources/indexlabour-label.htm

 

 

11/5

R

 

 

 

R

 

 

W

 

 

 

 

W

Sweatshops and You

Bonacich, Edna, and Richard Appelbaum, ³Workers,² Chapter 6 in Behind The Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp:164-199, 2000.

 

Press, Eyal, ³Sweatshopping,² in Ross (ed.) No Sweat, New York: Verso, pp: 221-226, 1997.

 

Academic Consortium on International Trade,² Letter to University Presidents,² available at: http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/rsie/acit/Documents/Anti-SweatshopLetterPage.html#documents

 

Scholars Against Sweatshop Labor, ³Statement to University Presidents,² available at: www.umass.edu/peri/sasl/statement.PDF

 

Sweatshop Survey.

Responses

11/7

W

 

 

 

 

W

Rethinking Regulation

National Academy of Public Administration, Environment.gov ­ Transforming Environmental Protection for the 21st Century, Washington, DC: NAPA, pp: 17-29, 183-194, November 2000, available at: http://www.napawash.org/napa/environdotgov.pdf

 

Rondinelli, Dennis, ³Rethinking US Environmental Protection Policy,² Nov. 2000, pp: 5-7, 24-33. available at: http://endowment.pwcglobal.com/publications_GrantDetails.asp?GID=86

 

 

11/12

R

 

 

 

 

R

 

 

 

 

W

Rethinking Regulation

Brown, Lester, ³Tools for Restructuring the Economy,² Chapter 11 in Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, New York: W. W. Norton, pp: 233-251, 2001. Available at: http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm

 

Fung, Archon, and Dara O¹Rourke, ³Reinventing Environmental Regulation from the Grassroots Up: Explaining and Expanding the Success of the Toxics Release Inventory,² Environmental Management, vol. 25, no. 2, pp.:115-127, 2000.

 

Visit www.scorecard.org.

 

Evaluate your home zipcode with Scorecard.

11/14

B

Corporate Strategies

Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, ³Making the World,² ³Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier,² and ³Muda, Service, and Flow,² Natural Capitalism, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp:62-81 and 111-143, 1999.

 

 

 

 

11/19

R

 

 

 

R

Corporate Strategies

McDonough, William and Michael Braungart, ³Putting Eco-Effectiveness into Practice,² in Cradle to Cradle, New York: North Point Press. Pp.: 157-186, 2002.

 

Allenby, Braden R., Industrial Ecology ­ Policy Framework and Implementation, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp:40-53, 1999.

 

 

11/21

R

 

 

 

 

R

 

 

Community Strategies

Darnovsky, Marcy, ³Green Living in a Toxic World: The Pitfalls and Promises of Everyday Environmentalism,² in Hofricter (ed.) Reclaiming the Environmental Debate ­ The Politics of Health in a Toxic Culture, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp:219-237, 2000.

 

Morris, David, ³Communities ­ Building Authority, Responsibility, and Capacity,² in Mander and Goldsmith (eds.) The Case Against the Global Economy, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, pp: 434-445, 1996.

 

Video: Fenceline

11/26

R

 

 

B

 

 

 

W

Community strategies

O¹Brien, Mary, Making Better Environmental Decisions ­ An Alternative to Risk Assessment, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp: 3-15, 2000.

 

Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, ³Once Upon a Planet,² Natural Capitalism, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp:309-322, 1999.

 

Albert, Michael, ³What Are We For?² available at: http://www.zmag.org/What%20Do%20We%20Want.htm

 

 

12/3

 

Class Presentations

No Reading

Presentations

12/5

 

Class Presentations

No Reading

Presentations

12/10

 

Summary and Conclusions

No Reading

Term Projects Due