Sustainability Freshman Inquiry Feb. 3, 2010 Jeff Fletcher

Logistics PSU Recycles Service Project –This Sunday at 1pm (~1.5 hours) Due Next Monday Wednesday –Read Collapse Prologue, Ch. 1 (p. ix - 75) Reading guide on Daily Log –Midterm exam Questions about midterm Today –Finish Viewing Frontline: HEATFinish Viewing Frontline: HEAT –Discuss –The Story of Stuff –Tragedy of the Commons (next time with prizes!) Mentor Session Today –How did sharing (out loud) HW #2 go? Volunteers to bring laptops

Welcome to Halfway Have way through winter term and course Feb 3 LOD = 9:51 –(longer by 2:41 per day) Back on Jan 3 LOD = 8:49 –(longer by only 1:00 per day) Looking ahead March 3 = 11:15 –(longer by 3:10 per day) SPRING is coming! (despite climate change)

Frontline: HEAT (Themes) Lobbying of congress (political will?) –By corporations –By interest groups (sometimes funded by corporations) Perceptions vs. Reality (How do we know?) –Clean Coal through carbon capture and sequestration? –Zero-emission cars? –No impact of renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro, bio-fuel—ethanol)?

Frontline: HEAT (US Role) Need more power plants because “US demand will rise 41% by 2020” US more CO2 release from cars than Europe, India, Japan, China combined! Exxon-Mobil –biggest corporation in world –trillions invested in oil extraction Why do other countries have: –Less dependence on oil (Japan, Europe)? –More public transport? –More invested in solar, wind, nuclear? An economy centered on consumption/consumerism? What is the “low hanging fruit” in terms of CO2 reduction? –What is your role? –What about your role in democratic collective action?

U.S. Obstructionism How much power should one person (president) have in setting the global warming agenda? –Frontline: Hot Politics: Censorship (6:21)Hot Politics: Censorship 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

The Day After Kyoto: Ch 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 ( ) –All G8 Countries Science Academies Joint Communication (2005) “threat of climate change is clear and increasing”

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