Sustainability Freshman Inquiry

Feb. 8, 2011

Jeff FletcherSee also: Daily Log Page

Logistics• Extra Credit Opportunities

• Read Collapse Prologue, Ch. 2 (p. 79-119)– For Tuesday (reading notes)

• Mercy Corp Fieldtrip Thursday Feb. 17, 2-5pm (including transportation time), $2.50 each

• Mentor Lab:– Tuesday: Comparing countries, regions;

visual representation of data (Hans Rosling) – Thursday: Story of Stuff

Colbert Report

• Cat Fight on Global Warming – (10:00 or last 5:00)– http://www.examiner.com/climate-change-in-

national/colbert-report-features-science-catfight-over-manmade-climate-change

• Look for arguments (and techniques of arguing) that you hear on both sides

Recognizing Common Fallacies

• Part of being a good critical thinker is recognizing common fallacies in arguments:– Argumentum ad hominen– False Anomalies– Questionable Arguments by Elimination– Illicit Causal Inferences– Unsupported Analogies or Similarities– Un-testable Explanations– Redundant Predictions– Ad Hoc Rescues

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”

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

Catastrophe Chapter 9

• Last 15 years China economy doubled• Spring term we will look at alternatives to Gross

Domestic Product (GDP)• How do we help developing countries skip

ahead (like cell phones)• By example? By assistance? Internal social engineering?• Another example of social engineering

– http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/china-green-tax-polluters

• Carbon capture and storage?

Catastrophe Chapter 10• Typical reaction of industry—same with Ozone

– Resist– Claim needs global action, so we can’t do anything that would

hurt competitiveness (the Tragedy of the Commons argument)– Maybe it’s a good thing or doesn’t matter

• With Ozone “easier to get a tan”• CO2 good for plants

• With Ozone we may have been lucky, but what about CO2?– Already set in motion, longer lag times, harder problem requiring

MUCH more change in human behavior• Development of Human Society Result of Stable Climate

– Last 10,000 years (from 8,000 BC to present)• Last quote is good description of Tragedy of the

Commons

Catastrophe Afterward

• Hurricane Katrina– Power of hurricanes has on average doubled

in last 30 years– Everything that happened in New Orleans

was predicted by experts, but policy makers did not listen

Example Communities

• Group Exercise– Chapters 1, 6, and 9 describe particular

communities (in Alaska, The Netherlands, and Vermont) and how they are dealing with the threat of climate change.

– For your assigned community discuss what general points the author is illustrating by using this particular example.

• Be sure to discuss how these general points relate to the book’s theme of climate change.