Lecture 2: January 14, 2010

• Inter-related problems
• Environment & poverty
• Environment & health

Announcements:

• make sure that you can see the course when you log in on MyPSU
• the mini-quiz will appear and be available on Blackboard after class
• review the course notes and reading
• learn the vocabulary from the first two lectures
• take the quiz

1. The problem with inter-related problems

• underlying belief in cause and effect, try to identify cause and then fix it
• sometimes the conditions and effects are so inter-related it's hard to get a handle on where to start

quick review and example: Demographic transition

These factors have been related to the fertility transition:

• availability of family planning (birth control)
• delay first birth until later years
• women gain access to education
• women gain access to jobs and economic
• women gain political rights and higher social status
• government incentives for having smaller families (or penalties for larger families)
• decreased utility of having many children in a agricultural economy
• increased value placed on supporting and educating children so that they can work in the industrial economy

This issue has many connections to other problems we will be discussing this term:

example article from Economist

five points

• human population as a big factor in the environmental impact
  • lower, controlled growth can be managed better
  • Africa is late on the demo transition
  • not much time to get it right
• options for choosing economic development paths
  • mixture of skills that comes with urban and more educations
  • as population growth slows, more people of working age to contribute
• agriculture, land use, and technology
  • less food per person now
  • multiple small plots can't use the technology necessary
• water resources are in danger
  • especially with climate change and population growth
• age structure of the population and resources can lead to civil unrest and bad governance
  • age diagram

Demographic dividend/bonus in Africa Economist Aug 29, 2009

Important for many reasons, including international stability.

Look at this with multiple perspectives

systems -

values -

choice -

 

case study on demographic transition

Values and world views

a set of values that is coherent with how you view the structure of the environment

another way to slice it - (van Asselt and Rotmans 1996)

based on myths of nature and whether this applies to humans

nature myth nature is:	world view	choice of action
robust	hierachist	control comes from well-structured regulations
fragile	egalitarian	prevention, prudence, precaution
independent of human activity	individualist	new opportunities come from the market

Serious problems arise if your society's world view doesn't match how the world really works.

 

2. Environmental conditions and poverty

environment and poverty notes

3. Environmental conditions and human health

ecosystem services provide for humans

MEA

degraded environmental conditions may lead to diseases or injury

air pollution

water pollution

climate and insects --> malaria

 

MEA framework - page 5

malaria

4. circular problem

• From Bateson 2002 pg 18
• "How is the world of logic, which eschews "circular argument," related to a world in which circular trains of causation are the rule rather than the exception?"

Nicaragua example of how it is all tied together

images of the place and work

Nicaragua - map and ecozones

multiple perspectives on Bramadero

Nicaragua

Oregon for comparison

ecozones

slide show

Framework framework - diagram

5. Discuss examples from I = P * A * T

population

affluence

technology

Assignments

Read the chapters on Values and Choice.

The choice chapter is an outline under revision.

Read the Wiki and Encyclopedia of the Earth pages.