1. Sustainability Freshman Inquiry Feb. 8, 2011 Jeff Fletcher See also: Daily Log PageDaily Log Page

2. 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

3. 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-changehttp://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

4. 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

6. 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”

7. 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

8. 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- pollutershttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/china-green-tax- polluters Carbon capture and storage?

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.