Sustainable Communities

Transcription

1 Environmental Studies 116 Sustainable Communities Course Information and Syllabus Fall 2014 Instructor: Robert Wilkinson, Ph.D. Class Time: 7:00pm - 9:50pm Class Location: Buchanan 1920 Office: Bren 4011 Office Hours: 4:00pm - 5:00pm, and by appointment. Required Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse. New York: W.W. Norton ISBN: (paper). web links and Gaucho Space readings Course Description: This course explores the nexus between urban systems and sustainability. We begin with an examination of the topic: What is sustainability in the context of urban systems, and how should these systems be studied in light of sustainability concerns? We will consider the impacts urban systems have on the environmental systems that support them, and we will study the ways we account for costs, benefits, and the environment in our activities relating to urban systems. We will also look at how urban systems are designed, and how decisions are made. Who decides how cities and the related hinterland (now global in scope) are used? What processes are involved and how is sustainability factored into out thinking? We will explore changes that could improve both urban systems and support systems, and we will discuss some of the policy tools available and how they can be employed to accomplish the goal of achieving sustainable communities. Finally, and importantly, we will look at the role of the university in building sustainable communities. This is an interdisciplinary course. Class members will conduct field studies to build an understanding of the concepts and principles discussed in class. Grading: Quizzes (6 pop quizzes worth 25 points each) 150 Midterm Exam #1 200 Midterm Exam #2 200 Attend Public Meeting 50 Site Visit Metabolism 50 UCSB sustainability tour 50 Paper # Paper # Total Points 1000 Extra Credit: Testimony at public hearing 25 NOTE: Please note that the quizzes will count for significant points (150). There will be NO MAKE-UPS on quizzes. You snooze, you loose. Be prepared for each class and you should do well. Your grade will also be based on the written assignments, participation in class assignments, and two midterm tests. This course requires students to do more than read about the world from an ivory tower. You will be required to attend a public meeting dealing with urban issues, and visit components of the urban metabolism (such as a land-fill site, a wastewater treatment plant, water supply system, etc.). We will discuss which meetings and sites qualify. You are encouraged to visit these sites and attend meetings in small groups in order to share the experiences. Options for these assignments are available within easy walking or bicycle distance, or by bus, so you do not need a car. If you drive, plan to car-pool. You will need to PLAN AHEAD for these meetings and site visits. DON T wait until the last minute. I will give extra credit to those who are organized enough and brave enough to get up and speak at the public hearings. It s not as tough as it may sound, and it is great training. We will discuss this option further. Give it serious consideration. I expect full participation in this class. Virtual attendance won t cut it. If you don t plan to attend class every week, please don t sign up. If you attend class regularly, do the reading, and complete the assignments, you should do well.

2 Summary Course Calendar We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them. Livy, Roman Historian October 7 October 14 October 21 October 28 November 4 November 11 November 18 November 25 December 2 December 9 Introduction and Overview: The Sustainability Idea: Understanding Links to Larger Systems Sustainability Right Here in Our Campus Community The Metabolism of Urban Systems, Green Building, and Design for Sustainability A Systems Perspective: Sustainability in an Environmental Context (Paper #1 due) Review MIDTERM #1 Campus Holiday Sustainability and the Economy: Special Event with Peter Barnes, Fixing Capitalism s Deepest Flaws NOTE: class will be held in Corwin Pavilion tonight Equity, Justice, and Sustainability Moving Toward Sustainability: Indicators and Institutions (Paper #2 due) Course Review MIDTERM #2 Start reading right away. You need to have read the material ON THE DAY IT IS LISTED. 2

3 October 7 Sustainability is not something to be defined but something to be declared. It is an ethical guiding principle. Bert De Vries Introduction and Overview: The Sustainability Idea: Understanding Links to Larger Systems We will begin by exploring and defining terms and concepts related to the themes of this class: sustainability, communities, and cities as systems within larger systems. We will examine the following questions: What is the urban environment? What is sustainability in the context of urban systems, and how should urban systems be studied in light of sustainability concerns? What is the role of design in promoting a sustainable world? Can ecological design provide a new way of thinking about the urban environment? Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Preface and Chapter 1 Committee on Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government; Science and Technology for Sustainability Program (STSP); Policy and Global Affairs (PGA); National Research Council, Sustainability for the Nation: Resource Connection and Governance Linkages (free download, just read the preface and summary) Millennium Development Goals UN Sustainable Development Goals (read the Outcome Document) and look over the UN site at Post 2015 Meadows, Donella H How We Talk Can Determine How We Live. (Spring) Population Press Beyond Sustainababble Origins of the Sustainability Concept Reconnecting Cities The Goal of Sustainable Development in Choosing a Sustainable Future: The Report of the National Commission on the Environment, Island Press. Building a Sustainable and Desirable Economy-in-Society-in-Nature (Just read the executive summary) The President s Council on Sustainable Development, 1996, Sustainable America: A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and a Healthy Environment for the Future, Washington DC, pp.iv-vi, 12-13, 17, 19, 22, October 14 The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope. Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America Sustainability Right Here in Our Campus Community UCSB is a community, and we have a plan and many programs addressing sustainability. We have everything from housing and food service to fire and police departments. This class session, and the related field trip opportunities on campus, will explore sustainability efforts at the community scale. Our special guest will be Katie Maynard, UCSB Sustainability Coordinator and Staff to the Academic Senate Sustainability Work Group. Katie is in the Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara. Katie is also Event Manager for the CA Higher Education Sustainability Conference Follow the conference on twitter: You can reach Katie at or kmaynard@geog.ucsb.edu UCSB Campus Sustainability Plan. (click on the PDF) or direct Recommended Resilient Cities Visit the plans and reports page for detailed reports in any one area such as food, transportation, or water: Also look at the Action Today page where you can find out about standard sustainability practices of UCSB as well as recent updates. We actually designed this portion of the site for students, because we found that most of our other documents only talked about what we did in the last year. This site aims to give a more comprehensive look at our practices. For a look at how other campuses are addressing sustainability/sustainable planning, I would recommend looking at the AASHE Resource Center: You can get free access to this database by setting up a login at using any that ends in.ucsb.edu such as your umail account. Learn about Sustainability Research at UCSB on twitter: and 3

4 October 21 A technological society has two choices. First, it can wait until catastrophic failures expose system deficiencies, distortions, and selfdeceptions... Second, a culture can provide social checks and balances to correct for system distortions prior to catastrophic failures. Mahatma Gandhi The Metabolism of Urban Systems, Green Building, and Design for Sustainability We will continue the exploration of urban systems using the notion of metabolism as a way to conceptualize the way cities function. How do urban centers function as systems? What do they consume and what do they expel? How do they do it? What are the impacts? This week we will also explore the topics of green building and design. Is there a better way to design and create the products of our built environment? We will discuss energy use and building design, urban planning, and materials use. Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapters 2-4 Dozens of U.S. Cities Board the Bike-Sharing Bandwagon, Janet Larsen Brown, Lester, Peak Water: What Happens When the Wells Go Dry? Giradet, Herbert Towards the Regenerative City. Lewis Mumford, Cities and the Crisis of Civilization McHarg, Ian, Plight and Prospect (from Design with Nature) McDonough, William Design, Ecology, Ethics, and the Making of Things, in a sermon given at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City Recommended Giradet, Herbert The Metabolism of Cities, in Creating Sustainable Cities, Chelsea Green Publishing Girardet, Herbert The Metabolism of Modern Cities, in Earthrise, Paladin. Smart Growth Guide Van Der Ryn, Sim and Stuart Cowan Preface, Sustainability and Design, An Introduction to Ecological Design, in Ecological Design. Covelo, CA. Island Press. October 28 PAPER #1 DUE TODAY When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. John Muir A Systems Perspective: Sustainability in an Environmental Context From a systems perspective, what is the structure of the urban system? What feedback loops reinforce the present patterns, and why do urban systems do what they do? Where are the leverage points, and how do we access them? Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapters 5-7 Meadows, Donella, et al, Beyond the Limits To Growth, in In Context, Summer Meadows, Donella, et al, The Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World, in Beyond the Limits, 1992, Post Mills, Vermont, Chelsea Green, pp Meadows, Donella, et al, Perspectives, Problems, and Models, in The Limits to Growth, Daly, Herman, The Steady-State Economy: Alternative to Growthmania, April Hardin, Garrett, The Ecolate Filter, in Filters Against Folly, Penguin,

5 November 4 Review of material covered to date in the class. MIDTERM #1 November 11 NO CLASS University Holiday Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapters 8-9 World in Serious Trouble on Food Front, Lester R. Brown Overfishing Threatens Critical Link in the Food Chain, J. Matthew Roney Farmed Fish Production Overtakes Beef, Janet Larsen and J. Matthew Roney, Los Angeles Food Policy Council Recommended Lester R. Brown, Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Earth Policy Institute November 18 We cannot solve the problems we have created with the same thinking that created them. Albert Einstein NOTE: class will be held in Corwin Pavilion tonight Special Speaker: Peter Barnes, Sustainability and the Economy: Fixing Capitalism s Deepest Flaws Peter Barnes is an innovative thinker and entrepreneur whose work has focused on fixing the deep flaws of capitalism. He has written numerous books and articles, co-founded several socially responsible businesses (including Working Assets/Credo), and started a retreat for progressive writers (The Mesa Refuge). He has two sons and lives in Point Reyes Station, California, with his wife, dog and vegetable garden. Barnes grew up in New York City and earned a B.A. in history from Harvard and an M.A. in government from Georgetown. He began his career as a reporter on The Lowell (Mass.) Sun, and was subsequently a Washington correspondent for Newsweek and west coast correspondent for The New Republic. His books include Who Owns the Sky? (2001), Capitalism 3.0 (2006), and With Liberty And Dividends For All (2014). Peter Barnes, (read the intro at this site) With Liberty and Dividends for All (If you would like to read the book, go for it and let me know.) read the three short pieces linked at this page: Beyond Jobs: Our Right to Dividends, Unearned Income, and How Wealth is Distributed Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapter 10 Cobb, Clifford, et.al., If The GDP Is Up, Why Is America Down?, Atlantic Monthly, Oct Redefining Progress, Gross Production vs. Genuine Progress Petit, Charles, The Natural Environment Gets a Price Tag - $33 trillion, May 15, 1997, San Francisco Chronicle, p.a-1. Daly, Herman The Steady-State Economy, in Toward a Steady-State Economy Ralph Estes, What You Count, You Get Recommended Kinsley, Michael and L. Hunter Lovins, Paying for Growth, Prospering from Development, RMI. 5

6 November 25 We need to come together and choose a new direction. We need to transform our society into one in which people live in true harmony-- harmony among nations, harmony among the races of humankind, and harmony with nature... We will either reduce, reuse, recycle, and restore--or we will perish. Rev. Jesse Jackson Equity, Justice, and Sustainability What impact do these patterns have on the larger systems supporting urban centers, local, regional, and global? What are the human factors involved in the patterns of urban settlements? Are they always present, or are there options? What other systems do they impact? How can we make environmental justice a reality? Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapters11-12 Mohai, Paul, David Pellow, and J. Timmons Roberts "Environmental Justice." Annual Review of Environment and Resources 34: Bullard, EJ and Activism Equity Issue Brief The Historical Nature of Cities: A Study of Urbanization and Hazardous Waste Accumulation Bryant, Bunyan Introduction, in Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies, and Solutions. Washington, DC. Island Pres. Bullard, Robert People-of-Color Environmentalism, in Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality. Boerner, Christopher and Thomas Lambert Environmental injustice. (Winter) The Public Interest. Kay, Jane California s Endangered Communities of Color, in Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color. San Francisco. Sierra Club Books. Will these Sustainable Development Goals get us into the doughnut (aka a safe and just space for humanity)? Guest post from Kate Raworth Almost everything you need to know about EJ The Historical Nature of Cities: A Study of Urbanization and Hazardous Waste Accumulation Resources: US EPA, What is Risk Assessment? available at: EJ Milestones December 2 When you ve been climbing a mountain for a long time and the summit seems to be as far away as ever, it can give you new heart for the ascent to look back and see how far you ve come. Harold Gilliam, Earth Day, 1990 PAPER #2 DUE TODAY Moving Toward Sustainability: Indicators and Institutions Various policy options exist to encourage actions consistent with sustainability goals and to discourage those which are not. How do communities plan for sustainability from global to local levels? What are some new concepts and processes for promoting sustainable community planning? How is the U.S. addressing the need for sustainable community planning? Can federal, state, and local governments cooperate to achieve sustainable development? Brown, Lester, World on the Edge: Chapter 13 Brower, David R, CPR for the Earth, Havens, Cities With Boundaries, Making a Difference, in Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run, Harper, Governance in the Long Emergency Hamilton, Kim Model Projects: Village Homes, in Model Projects. Center for Livable Communities McKibben, Bill Enough Already: How reinventing your life can help reinvent the world (Jan-Feb) Modern Maturity, Hart, Maureen Chapter 3: What is an Indicator of Sustainable Community?, in Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators. Second Edition. North Andover, MA: Hart Environmental Data Moving from Individual Change to Societal Change December 9 Course review. MIDTERM #2 6