Sustainability Freshman Inquiry Feb. 10, 2010 Jeff Fletcher

Logistics PSU Recycles Service Project –Missing Students see me afterwards –How did the sort go? –HW 3 Due Today –Read Collapse Prologue, Ch. 1 (p. ix - 75) Reading guide on Daily Log –Midterm exam Read Collapse Ch. 2 for next Wednesday Today –Follow-up on Tragedy of the Commons (with prizes!) –Feedback on Carbon Footprints –Wrap up Kolbert –Wrap up other issues

Exercise Each player starts with $100 and can choose to invest from $0 to their current balance. In each round, each member’s investment is subtracted from each member’s balance The total of all the investments from the current round are doubled and then divide evenly among all the players This gives each player a new balance to start a new round We will do several rounds—please do not get ahead of (or behind) me. I will announce when each round starts and stops Player with highest final score wins a prize There is no communication allowed between players

q, fraction of cooperators in a group c = cost of cooperation; b = benefit conferred utility per individual c b fitness to a cooperator, w a fitness to a defector, w s average fitness, w av N-Player PD (Tragedy of the Commons) Individually rational to defect: w s > w a for all q Collectively irrational outcome: w s (0) < w a (1)

Prisoner’s Dilemma (PD) Actor's Fitness (Utility) Individually rational to defect Collectively irrational

Carbon Footprint: Writing The overall goal to communicate effectively: think general reader (who hasn’t seen the assignment) Abstract is standalone summary of report—including results! Intro sets context, gives motivation, and preview of what is coming ASK if don’t know how to do something –How to add or remove things from charts, etc. Level of detail hard to know—so ask us –Need details on how you made estimates –Do not need details on how you made charts, or how you actually used carbonfootprint.com website –One gains experience with these things through practice

Carbon Footprint: Writing cont. Use of bullets in methods Results section needs words that refer to graphs, tables Caption and title on tables, graphs, Be clear on units, annotate pie chart with values (or at least percentages)

Carbon Footprint: Issues –Average in class lower than US average. Why? –Possible explanations: Lifetime development: affluence = more impact University lifestyle Not including everything; miscalculations –Conclusion: “I’m doing better than US average, so I’m done”? Kolbert cake analogy? –Footprint is a ROUGH estimate

Carbon Footprint: Issues cont. Carbon Offsets: This is what these websites are selling and why calculators are provided for free –Choosing carbon offsets (not all equal)Choosing carbon offsets –Carbon offset vendors that sell Gold Standard offsetsGold Standard Planetair, Less, My Climate, Sustainable Travel International, Climate Friendly, Atmosfair, PurePlanetairLessMy ClimateSustainable Travel International Climate FriendlyAtmosfairPure How does burning a gallon of gas (weight 6.3 lbs) produce 20 lbs of CO2? –See: Breathing ~ 1 kg of CO2/day – AA830QKhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid= AA830QK – probings/carbon_virgin_earth_climate_breathinghttp:// probings/carbon_virgin_earth_climate_breathing

World Electricity Availability Country Population w/out access to electricity (Million) % of world total Per capita electricity consumption (kWh) India Bangladesh Indonesia Nigeria Pakistan Ethiopia Myanmar Tanzania Kenya Nepal DPR of Korea Mozambique World Total

Review: Is The Temperature Rising? Raft analogy –Two questions How far to waterfall? When should we get out of the water? –First question scientific; second political –Problems: Skepticism and reluctance to claim facts is inherent to scientific research –Similar to Evolution: “it’s just a theory” Tragedy of the Commons or Prisoner’s Dilemma

Temperature Rising (continued) Thomas Malthus: “gigantic inevitable famine” –Lily pond after 100 days Need to understand that science is not exact, but sometimes we still need to act –The Lessons of Montreal Protocol (1987) in dealing with the Ozone Hole Periodic reviews to adapt to new results Requirements change if evidence changes

Consumerism Story of Stuff –Questions Does the video overstate anything? Can you think of alternative ways of addressing these issues? Critique –Story of Stuff, The Critique Part 3 of 4 Does it deal with the central argument of a linear throughput on a finite earth –Part 4 of 4