March 01, 2013 horticulture - less technologically advanced pastoralism - emphasis on movement (like hunting and horticulture) - break

apart and come back easily - more complex - more calories than hunting - rely intensively on trade (unlike hunting and horticulture) - more integrated with non-pastoralists intensive agriculture - brings possibility of much greater social complexity - supports larger populations - harder work is required to maintain soil quality March 06, 2013 - hunting type environments have more of a impact if a family is irritated than a normal society - can be alienated - harsh consequences - difficult to find "perfect" examples of each of these types - each adaption is influenced by others - artificial complex systems overlap with one another - all types of adaptations need communication and language - essential for success - language distinguishes humans from all other species - domestication - human control over reproductive pathways of different species - hunters and gatherers have tendencies of domestication Hunters and gatherers prefer to stay that way instead of crossover to pastoralism/agriculture because it allows for much greater moving around landscapes --- the amount of effort to move into these adaptations is significantly harder than agriculture/pastoralists - hunters work 2-3 hours a day; agriculture 8-10; pastoralists can be considered as 24 hour work sometimes - hunting is "more fun" March 08, 2013 wickedness* important - causes/drivers of HE problems - relates to state of the earth itself - indication of the problem of the HE state of the earth as a very complex problem - bellamy reading from social science perspective; wwf reading from ecological perspective Bellamy: - social science has lost touch of our material basis for existence - anthropocene: -anthropos (human); cene (timeline) - we are now the driving forces behind change; humans are fundamental in terms of shaping the conditions we live in - social science has "lost touch" with problems as opposed to natural science - Marxist perspective gives a useful tool to analyze HE problems - historical materialism - analyzes different ways of how people make a living over time - capitalism is not the only way people have made a living - economic liberalism is based on valuing comsumption - Marxist perspective challenges it

- red indicates closeness; black not; grey - synergistic effects - effects that kick in and reinforce the problem

WWF report - takes ecological economics perpective - "reformist report" - we can tinker with the capitalist system - does not view this at the problem - sees a possibility of tweaking the capitalist system to save the world - tipping point indicates a near impossibility of reversing the damage done to the earth March 11, 2013 Guest lecture: migration and biodiversity; Dr. Jim Robson biodiversity: variety of life at different levels migration and environment - what about environmental change in areas people migrate from? nature regrows Oaxaca - communal driven - Malthusian perspective - more people less biodiversity Migration reasons - hard work due to mountain areas - expansion of corn importing from US to Mexico left people without jobs - many migrated to Los Angeles - population pyramid; almost inverted - top heavy PES - payment for environmental services tree diversity will decrease with forest resurgence March 18 review: dcds - diversity complexity dynamics scale How are HE problems wicked? 1. Multiple problem definitions - not everyone can agree what exactly the problem is - diversity of problem - as a result, conflicts arise and no solution can be formulated until the problem definition is agreed on 2. Have no clear end point - we can never definitively say that they are solve - can re-emerge again - hard to sustain effort to continue to deal with problems - people lose interest 3. embedded within other problems - must know things on a global scale - while most problems are dealt with on a particular scale, the solutions cannot always be applied to other broader scales 4. Each problem distinct - no perfect way to solve problem - no technical solution - distinct across time and space

5. Path dependency - ways problems were solved in the past constrain us in the future - history pushes us in certain directions Institutions symbolic systems - set of ideas that influence a group - provide a structured relationship - suppresses agency Kyoto accord - institutional failure - people agreed on a set of rules - no one followed them and no repercussions corruption - example of institutional failure individual self-interest - use for technology essay - leads to ecological degradation if not constrained properly - if people are given no constrained access, depletion of resources can and will occur - setting up constraints is a political institutional challenge March 20 Bellamy foster view on capitalism is biased - system based on accumulation of various form of capital - ecological problems not addressed exchange vs. use value * - expansion of entertainment business limits our ability to entertain ourselves capitalism's human-ecological contradictions - separation (Moran) - commodification - things previously done at home now a commodity - boundaries to barriers - anything that should be seen as boundary as just a barrier that can be overcome - often, boundaries contain information on limitations of the earth's capacity to regenerate itself - capitalism tends to ignore carrying capacity April 05 Final Exam Structure - 3 hours 1) 30 multiple choice (30 marks) 2) 2 paragraph answer questions (20 marks) - key concepts from second half of course - ie, wickedness, interactive governance, malthusianism, etc. - choose from 5 3) 1 substantial essay answer question (30 marks) - essay questions posted online - length: recommended 1000 words, 6 paragraphs

Ecosystem-based approaches (refer to Slocombe) - identifies systems that overlap - ecological thinking interested in various connected things that come together around a particular HE problem - suggests that each particular ecosystem has its own particular characteristics that demand their own particular solutions - green arrow: feedback to responses - humans are part of natural ecosystems - ecologists see the world similarly to governance thinking (DCDS) - both considered with holism, complex systems - ecologists see the world not as changing in steady linear ways, but rather changing abruptly, suddenly - ecologists see HE systems as complex systems - fundamentally shapes our capacity to manage - resilient system - one that can absorb random shocks - relates to adaptive learning - precaution principle - "cost effective" part of definition important - important to ecosystem-based approach - need to consider efficiently ex: climate change & taking action - many debates on whether humans are the cause for climate change, if there is any (significant) climate change Population, Development & Equity - development aims to reduce poverty and increase the quality of life of all people April 10 Consumption and production (Kates) - * triple bottle line - satiation - finding a balance point in how much we need - trying to lower that balance point - sublimation - taking satisfaction in non-material things - use values: taking satisfaction from actually doing/making the things that we need (ie, sewing your own clothes, hunting your own meat, etc.) - if a society values taking satisfaction out of meditation/prayer, sublimation becomes key wicked problem: trying to change those values Nakajima and Vanderburg - we're at a historical moment to rethink energy and material systems - 'preventative engineering' - tries to incorporate triple bottom line thinking into engineering - three key strategies (in order of preference): - selling services instead of physical goods (ie, xerox, kobo readers - designing for take-back and remanufacture: in-process recycling - allows for maximization of use principles based on ecology and ecological economics discussion based on second essay question

Course Summary: course purpose: breadth/defamiliarization *wickedness - we are all involved with problems that are not easy to solve i love you cutie babes <3 Essay questions A. Explain the importance of taking into account multiple disciplinary perspectives when trying to understand and address human ecological problems. Use examples to support your argument. B. With reference to ideas and examples from the course, do you think that capitalism can be reformed so as to achieve human ecological sustainability? If so suggest how. If not make an argument for why not. Be as specific as possible in your answer. C. Explain how the complex systems approach presented in the first part of the course helps in the analysis of human ecological problems and in providing a framework for responding to those problems. Use examples to support your argument.