Human Ecology and Sustainable Development

Transcription

1 Human Ecology and Sustainable Development Course number U9240 Fall 2005 Mondays & Wednesdays 10:00 AM 11:50 AM International Affairs Building 1302 Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs Office: Low Library 314 Office Hours: by appointment only (Heidi Kleedtke ) Teaching Associate Nori Tarui Office: B-15 Hogan Hall ( ) Office Hours: To be announced This course will meet once a week in lecture, and once a week in section. Course Description This course describes the interactions between physical ecology and economic development, and stresses the two-way interactions between the physical environment and economic development. Ecological constraints (climate, disease ecology, physical resources such as soils and energy sources, topography and transport conditions) significantly shape the patterns of economic development, demography, and wealth and poverty. At the same time, anthropogenic activities (farming, resource depletion, demographic stresses, energy use) change the physical environment. The course aims to give a rigorous treatment of this two-way interaction, building on a rigorous foundation of earth systems processes to understand the ecological bases of human settlement. Evaluation and Grading There will be one midterm exam, a final exam, and two problem sets. The course grade will be based on: Main Texts Midterm: 30% Problem Sets 20% Final Exam 50% *Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, W.W.Norton & Co., *Angus Maddison, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD, *J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun, W. W. Norton, *Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty, Penguin, 2005.

2 *Alan Strahler and Arthur Strahler, Introducing Physical Geography, Fourth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Prologue, Chapters 1-7, pp *Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well Being: Synthesis, *FAO and World Bank, Farming Systems and Poverty, David Weil, Economic Growth, Pearson, R. Kerry Turner, David W. Pearce, and Ian Bateman, Environmental Economics, Johns Hopkins University Press, Lecture Schedule September 7 (W): The Challenge of Sustainable Development Angus Maddison, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD, 2001, Chapters 1-3 September 12 (M): Economic Geography John Gallup, Jeffrey D. Sachs and Andrew Mellinger, "Geography and Economic Development," in Pleskovic, Boris and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds., Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics 1998 (April), The World Bank: Washington, DC. John Gallup, Andrew Mellinger and Jeffrey D. Sachs, Climate, Coastal Proximity, and Development, Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography, edited by Gordon L. Clark, Maryann P. Feldman, and Meric S. Gertler, Oxford University Press, Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter 1. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, W.W.Norton & Co., September 21 (W): Climate Systems Strahler and Strahler, especially Chapters 6-7 September 28 (W): Basic growth models David Weil, Economic Growth, Chapter 3, Chapter 8 Robert Barro, and Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Economic Growth, Chapter 1, MIT Press, October 5 (W): Poverty Traps and solutions

3 Jeffrey D. Sachs et al. Ending Africa s Poverty Trap, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Issue 1, Jeffrey D. Sachs, The End of Poverty, Penguin, Jeffrey D. Sachs, The Economics of the Green Revolution, unpublished. Oded Galor and David Weil, Population, Technology, and Growth: From the Malthusian Regime to the Demographic Transition and Beyond, American Economic Review, Vol. 90, Issue 4, pp , September Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Does the Mortality Decline Promote Economic Growth? Journal of Economic Growth, Vol. 7, Issue 4, pp , Michael Kremer, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 108, Issue 3, August October 19 (W): The challenges of sustainability *J. R. McNeill, Something New Under the Sun, W. W. Norton, John C. V. Pezzey and Michael A. Toman, The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles, Resources for the Future Discussion Paper 02-03, January Robert Solow, Intergenerational Equity and Exhaustible Resources, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 41, Issue 128 (Special Issue), Joseph Stiglitz, Growth with Exhaustible Natural Resources: Efficient and Optimal Growth Paths, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 41, Issue 128 (Special Issue), Partha Dasgupta and Geoffrey Heal, The Optimal Depletion of Exhaustible Resources, Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 41, Issue 128 (Special Issue), Richard Howarth, Inter-temporal Equilibria and Exhaustible Resources: an Overlapping Generations Approach, Ecological Economics, Vol. 4, Issue 3, pp , Kenneth Arrow et al., Are We Consuming Too Much? Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, Issue 3, Summer October 24 (M): Economics of renewable resources: fisheries, forests, aquifers

4 James A. Brander and M. Scott Taylor, The Economics of Easter Island, American Economic Review, Vol. 88, No. 1, March *Daniel Pauly and Jay Maclean, In a Perfect Ocean, Island Press, R. Kerry Turner et al., Environmental Economics, Part V Mark Kot, Elements of Mathematical Ecology, Chapters 2 and 14, Cambridge University Press, October 31 (M): Economics of non-renewable resources: energy Klaus Lackner and Jeffrey D. Sachs, Sustainable Energy in the 21 st Century, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Issue 2, C.-Y. Cynthia Lin, Optimal World Oil Extraction: Calibrating and Simulating the Hotelling Model, Working Paper, Neha Khanna, On the Economics of Non-Renewable Resources, Department of Economics Working Paper 0102, Binghamton University, January November 7 (M): Population Change Gary S. Becker, Edward L. Glaeser and Kevin M. Murphy, Population and Economic Growth, American Economic Review, Vol. 89, Issue 2, May Joel Cohen, Human Population Grows Up, Scientific American, Vol. 293, No. 3, September Weil, Economic Growth, Chapter 4-5 Jie Zhang, and Junsen Zhang, The Effect of Life Expectancy on Fertility, Saving, Schooling and Economic Growth: Theory and Evidence, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 107, Issue 1, pp , Mark Kot, Elements of Mathematical Ecology, Chapter 1 November 16 (W): Managing Pollution Turner et al., Environmental Economics, Parts IV & VI November 21 (M): Managing biodiversity and ecosystem services Ecosystems and Human Well Being: Synthesis, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005.

5 November 28 (M): Infectious Disease Control David L. Smith and F. Ellis McKenzie, Statics and Dynamics of Malaria Infection in Anopheles Mosquitoes, Malaria Journal, Vol. 3, No. 13, Anthony Kiszewski et al., A Global Index Representing the Stability of Malaria Transmission, American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Vol. 70, No. 5, pp , May Jeffrey D. Sachs and Pia Malaney, Economic Burden of Malaria, Nature, Vol. 415, February December 5 (M): Sustainable farming systems FAO and World Bank. Farming Systems and Poverty, 2001, Chapters 1-2 December 12 (M): Managing Climate Change Wally Broecker, A Business Executive s Guide to Global Warming, class website. S. Pacala and R. Socolow, Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technology, Science, Vol. 305, August Amory Lovins, More Profit with Less Carbon, Scientific American, Vol. 293, No. 3, September Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2001: Synthesis Report Summary for Policy Makers. Klaus Lackner and Jeffrey D. Sachs, Sustainable Energy for the 21 st Century, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Issue 2, Richard Howarth, An Overlapping Generations Model of Climate-Economy Interactions, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 100, No. 3, pp , 1998.