York University Faculty of Environmental Studies

ongjate

 

Ecological Economics

ENVS 6115  HNES 206

Mondays, 2:30-5:30 pm

Brian Milani <bmilani@web.ca>

Image Courtesy of  Seppo Leinonen and his EnvironMental Cartoon Gallery

 

Book Bibliography (review due April 20)

 

Schedule & Readings

 

Week 1.  February 23   Overview and Introductions

 

Week 2. March 2  Paradigms & Perspectives

Herman Daly, Ecological Economics: The Concept of Scale and Its Relation to Allocation, Distribution and Uneconomic Growth. 2003 CANSEE conference, Jasper Alberta

 

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Ellie Perkins,  Feminist Ecological Economics And Sustainability, Journal of Bioeconomics (2007) 9:227–244  

 

Brian Milani, What Is Green Economics? ,  GreenEconomics.net

        also published in Synthesis / Regeneration, #37 (Spring 2005)

and Race, Poverty & the Environment: A journal for social and environmental justice

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

 

Week 3. March 9   Dematerialization / Economic Growth

Peter A. Victor and Gideon Rosenbluth, Managing Without Growth, Ecological Economics 61 (2007)

 

Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh,  Seeding the Sustainable Economy, pp. 3-17, State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy, New York: W.W. Norton/Worldwatch, 2008

 

Sandra Rothenberg, Sustainability through Servicizing, MIT Sloan Management Review, Winter 2007

 

Ester van der Voet, Lauran van Oers, and Igor Nikolic, Dematerialization: Not Just a Matter of Weight, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 8, Number 4

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Week 3.5.  March 16    

            Dental Holiday  

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Week 4. March 23   Detoxification

Anne Platt McGinn, (2000). Why Poison Ourselves? A precautionary approach to synthetic chemicals,  image008(Worldwatch paper No. 153). Washington DC: Worldwatch Institute.

 

David Morris, The Once and Future Carbohydrate Economy, The American Prospect, March 2006

 

Martin LaMonica, "Green Chemistry's 'Race to Innovation'," CNET, Nov. 12, 2007

 

Optional:

Anastas & Warner, 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, US EPA website

 

Sandra Steingraber, The Pirates of Illiopolis: Why your kitchen floor may pose a threat to national security, Orion magazine, May/June 2005

 

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Toward a Just and Sustainable Solar Energy Industry, SVTC white paper, January 14, 2009

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

 

Week 5.  March 30    Decentralization: Design / Flow / Scale

Helen Lewis and John Gertsakis, Introduction: Design + Environment: A global guide to designing greener goods, Greenleaf Publishers, 2001

 

Walter R. Stahel, “The Utilization-Focused Service Economy: Resource Efficiency and Product-Life Extension  The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems, Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1994

 

Redefining Progress, Bay Localize et al,  Building a Resilient and Equitable Bay Area: Toward a Coordinated Strategy for Economic Localization, report, Nov. 2006

 

David Morris, The Smart Grid: Why Obama's Plan to Help Renewable Energy May Backfire and Aid Big Coal, AlterNet, February 6, 2009

 

Jouni Korhonen, “Some Suggestions For Regional Industrial Ecosystems – Extended Industrial EcologyEco-Management and Auditing, 8, 57–69 (2001)

 

John T. Lyle, “Urban Ecosystems”, In Context magazine, Spring 1993

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Week 6.  April 6  Exchange-Value: Money, Finance & the Casino Economy

 Hazel Henderson, Reforming Global Finance: The New Financiers, Ethical Markets, February 2009

 

Thomas Greco, excerpts from Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender,

     Chapter 1: What's the Matter with Money?  and  Chapter 4: What is Money?  p. 16-25, p. 26-37

 

j0283608Richard Douthwaite, Chapter 2: People-Produced Money,  in The Ecology of Money, Dublin: Feasta, June 2006

 

John Bellamy Foster, The Financialization of Capitalism, Monthly Review 58, 11 (April 2007); reprinted as chapter 4 of Foster and Magdoff's The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and consequences, NY: Monthly Review Press, 2009

 

Herman Daly on the Credit Crisis, Financial Assets, and Real Wealth, The Oil Drum, Oct. 13, 2008

 

Joseph Stiglitz, 9 Reasons Obama's Fiscal Plan Fails Both Markets and Taxpayers, AlterNet March 26, 2009

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Optional:

Anderson, Cavanagh, Collins, Muhammad and Pizzigati, Second Chance: A Sensible Plan for Getting the Recovery Right, report of the Inequality and the Common Good project of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington DC: January 2009

 

New Green Deal Group, A New Green Deal: Joined-up policies to solve the triple crunch of the credit crisis, climate change and high oil prices, New Economics Foundation, July 2008 j0231846

 

Ellen Brown, Credit where Credit is Due: The Direct Way to Fix the Credit Crisis,  www.webofdebt.com, January 2009

 

Jennifer Dauksha-English,  Principles of Financial Permaculture

 

Ellen Brown,  Cash-starved States need to play the Banking Game: North Dakota shows how, www.webofdebt.com, March 2009

 

Chuck Collins, Talking Points on the Economic Meltdown, paper of the Inequality and the Common Good project of the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington DC: Oct. 27, 2008

 

David Korten, Beyond the Bailout: Agenda for a New Economy, Yes! magazine, Winter 2008-09

 

David Korten, Whose Bailout?: Main St. before Wall St., column, Yes! magazine, Winter 2008-09

 

Tim Cohen-Mitchell, Community Currencies at a Crossroads: New Ways Forward, New Village Journal,  issue 2,

 

Week 7.  April 13    Use-Value: Work, Production, Justice & Service

Robert Pollin, How a Green Economy Is an Antidote to Casino Capitalism, New Labor Forum, April 2, 2009

 

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Michael Renner, Creating Jobs, Preserving the Environment, from State of the World 2000, NY: W.W. Norton/Worldwatch Institute

 

Emily Badger, What Shade of Green Best Suits the Economy?, Miller-McCune Research, Jan. 22, 2009

 

Van Jones and Ben Wyskida, “Green-Collar Jobs for Urban America: Oakland looks for a greener path toward prosperity,” Yes! magazine, Winter 2007

 

Growing a Green Economy: Green Tech can restore American manufacturing, Duke U. Research

            (see full report—Manufacturing Climate Solutions—if desired, in Optional section below)

 

Philip Mattera et al, High Road or Low Road? Job quality in the new green economy, report for Good Jobs First, February 2009  (skim)

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Optional:

Wayne Roberts, Growing Labour: Time to stop rewarding downsized companies and start fuelling productivity with organic people power,  Toronto: NOW mag, Vol. 27 No. 27, March 6-13, 2008

 

Apollo Alliance, Make it in America: The Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan, March 2009

              --full report Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan--GreenMAP

 

Gary Gereffi et al, Manufacturing Climate Solutions: Carbon-reducing technologies and US jobs, Duke Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness, 2008-2009

 

Omar Freilla, Green Development for Environmental Justice and Healthy Communities, Green Worker Co-ops report, 2005

 

Danaher, Biggs & Mark interview Van Jones, The Future of Cities: How Sprawl and Racism are Intertwined, AlterNet, October 23, 2007

 

Tara Lohan & Joshua Holland, Van Jones: How we can lead our country out of crisis, AlterNet, Oct. 28, 2008

 

Week 8. April 20    The Network Economy / Wikinomics

Yochai Benkler, A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge, Chapter 1 of The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale U. Press, 2005 j0286755.gif

 

Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Introduction and Chapter One “Wikinomics: The Art & Science of Peer-Production,” from Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (Portfolio/Penguin, 2006)

 

Laurence Lessig, “Some Like It Hot: Piracy & culture,” Wired magazine, Issue 12.03 (March 2004)

 

Bryan Zandberg, "Canada Sleeps through War to 'Save the Internet'," Jan. 17, 2007

 

Stan Cox, "War, Murder, Rape...All for your cell phone," AlterNet, Sept. 14, 2006

 

Scott Thill, "Google: Good or Evil when it comes to the Environment?," AlterNet, July 3, 2008

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Optional:

Brian Milani, "A Postindustrial Green Economy: New Productive Forces and the Future of the Academic Left," chapter from TECHNONATURES: Environments, Technologies, Spaces and Places in the 21st Century, eds: Damian White & Chris Wilbert; Wilfred Laurier Press: forthcoming  (April 2009)

 

j0237770James Boyle, "The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain," Law and Contemporary Problems, Vol. 66: 33, 2004

 

Jonathan Leake and Richard Woods, "Revealed: the Environmental Impact of Google Searches," The Sunday Times (London), January 11, 2009

 

Jeffrey Chester: “Google: Search and Data Seizure,” The Nation, Sept. 28, 2007

 

 

One Global Understanding of Re-Use: Common Definitions, StEP/United Nations University, Solving the E-waste Problem white paper, March 2009

 

p2pne News, "Obama Must 'Recognize Consumer Rights'," April 2, 2009

 

Michael Geist, "Songwriters rewrite bid for legalized file sharing," Toronto Star, March 23, 2009

 

 

Week 9. April 27   Indicators of Real Wealth

main reading:

John Talberth, “A New Bottom Line for Progress,” Chapter 2, The State of the World 2008, NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2008

 

Also review three (3) articles or websites from those below, based on your interests:

Constanza et al, "The Value of the World's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital," Nature vol. 387, May 15, 1997

 

Moran et al, "Measuring Sustainable Development Nation by Nation," Ecological Economics 64 (2008)

 

 

Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators (browse)

 

Redefining Progress / Earth Day Network, Sustainability Starts in Your Community: A community indicators guide, 2002

 

Tomalty, Alexander, Anielski et al, Ontario Community Sustainability Report 2007, Pembina Institute

 

Toronto Community Foundation, j0437364Toronto's Vital Signs 2008, Toronto Star overview, Oct. 7, 2008

 

Maureen Hart, Sustainable Measures website (browse)

 

Susan Burns, “Keeping our Eye on the Goal: How to measure corporate sustainability progress,” Natural Strategies.com

 

Global Reporting Initiative (browse)

 

Joachim H. Spangenberg,  "Integrated Scenarios for Assessing Biodiversity Risk," Sustainable Development  15, 343–356 (2007)

 

Peter Montague, "Why risk assessment is not a good way of determining safety," Rachel's Environment and Health Biweekly, August 17, 2000, reprinted on Organic Consumer's Association website

 

Robert T. Lackey, "If Ecological risk assessment is the answer, what is the question?" Health and Ecological Risk Assessment. 3(6):921-928, 1997, reprinted on US EPA website

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

Week 10. May 4.   Consumption

Michael Renner, “Moving Toward a Less Consumptive Economy”, Chapter 5, pp. 96-119, from the State of the World 2004,  NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2004

 

Dara O’Rourke, “Market Movements: Nongovernmental Organization Strategies to Influence Global Production and Consumption  Journal of Industrial Ecology, vol. 9, no. 1-2, Winter/Spring 2005

 

homer1.gifTerraChoice, Seven Sins of Greenwashing: Environmental Claims in Consumer Markets 2009

 

Jacquelyn Ottman, Consumers With a Conscience, chapter 2 of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation, New York: NTC-McGraw-Hill, 1998

 

Nelson Lichtenstein, Wal-Mart: Template for 21st Century Capitalism (skim)

 

Optional

Gary Gardner, Erik Assadourian and Radhika Sarin, "The State of Consumption Today," Chapter 1 of the State of the World 2004,  NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2004

 

Tim Jackson, "The Challenge of Sustainable Lifestyles," chapter 4 of The State of the World 2008, NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2008

 

Lisa Mastny, “Purchasing for People and the PlanetChapter 6, pp. 122-142, from the State of the World 2004,  NY/Washington: Worldwatch Institute, 2004 

 

Interra Project Overview

 

Forbidden:

Rev. Billy, The Church of Stop Shopping: Preacher with an Unknown God

 

Powerpoint Presentation

 

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Papers Due May 18.  Electronic format preferred. Attachment sent to Brian.

 

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