INTRO TO SUSTAINABLE DEVPT SEM
The course is designed to be a free flowing discussion of the principals of sustainable development and the scope of this emerging discipline. This course will also serve to introduce the students to the requirements of the undergraduate program in sustainable development and the content of the required courses in both the special concentration and the major. The focus will be on the breadth of subject matter, the multidisciplinary nature of the scholarship and familiarity with the other key courses in the program. Offered in the Fall and Spring.
- T 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jason Smerdon
CULPA: 4 h-index: 47 Info - 1 points
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE
Sustainability is a powerful framework for thinking about business, economics, politics and environmental impacts. An overview course, Environmental Policy & Governance will focus specifically on the policy elements of sustainability. With an emphasis on the American political system, the course will begin by exploring the way the American bureaucracy addresses environmental challenges. We will then use the foundations established through our understanding of the US system to study sustainable governance at the international level. With both US and international perspectives in place, we will then address a range of specific sustainability issues including land use, climate change, food and agriculture, air quality, water quality, and energy. Over the course of the semester, we will study current events through the lens of sustainability policy to help illustrate course concepts and theories.
ECON & FIN MTHDS FOR SDEV
Prerequisites: Principles of Economics and one semester of calculus. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the skills and methods necessary to understand and evaluate the economic and financial aspects of sustainable development. Throughout the course, students will compare competing objectives and policies through the prism of economic & financial reasoning. Environmental economics and finance are broad areas covering all the multi-faceted and complex interactions between the economic system and the natural environment. Financial markets are the primary source of signals used to direct economic activity in a capitalist global economy. Economic activity is the primary determinant of the quality and sustainability of the natural environment. Students interested in sustainable development who are unfamiliar with economics and who do not develop a facility with economic and financial concepts are severely handicapped in their efforts to increase the level of environmental responsibility embedded in economic activity. This course is intended to provide students with a flying introduction to key analytical concepts required to understand topics in environmental economics and finance and to introduce them to selected topics within the field. The first part of the course (the Analytical Toolbox) is designed to provide a set of portable skills for two sets of students: a) those who will work in fields specifically devoted to sustainable development who, as part of their work, will need to engage with sources of economic & financial information and with discourses where sustainable development is not a focus; and b) students who may end up following careers in organizations where sustainability is not the primary objective. The topics and readings in the second part of the course were chosen to facilitate a critical engagement with the broad intellectual framework underlying sustainable development from the perspective of economics and finance. The topics are intended to create a community of intellectual discourse on sustainable development that will spill over beyond the classroom to the conversations of students and alumni that will far outlive graduation. Offered in the Fall.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Satyajit Bose
CULPA: 4
Info
- 3 points
WORKSHOP IN SUSTAINABLE DEVPT
The upper level undergraduate Sustainable Development Workshop will be modeled on client based graduate-level workshops, but with more time devoted to methods of applied policy analysis and issues in Sustainable Development. The heart of the course is the group project on an issue of sustainable development with a faculty advisor providing guidance and ultimately grading student performance. Students would receive instruction on methodology, group work, communication and the context of policy analysis. Much of the reading in the course would be project-specific and identified by the student research teams. Offered in Fall and Spring. For registration issues contact Cari Shimkus (cshimkus@ei.columbia.edu).
- MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
- TR 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jenna M Lawrence
CULPA: 6
Info
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Instructor:
Radley M Horton
Info - 4 points
CLIMATE CHANGE AND LAW
The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad introduction to the field of climate law in the United States and at the international level. The course begins with an overview of the causes and effects of global climate change and the methods available to control and adapt to it. We then examine the negotiation, implementation and current status of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Copenhagen Accord. The focus then turns to the past and proposed actions of the U.S. Congress, the executive branch and the courts, as well as regional, state and municipal efforts. The Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act will receive special attention. We evaluate the various legal tools that are available to address climate change, including cap-and-trade schemes; carbon taxation; command-and-control regulation; litigation; securities disclosures; and voluntary action. The roles of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, carbon capture and sequestration, and forestry and agriculture each receive close attention. Implications for international human rights, international trade, environmental justice, and international and intergenerational equity are discussed. The course concludes with examination of the special challenges posed by China; proposals for adaptation and geoengineering; and business opportunities and the role of lawyers. Offered in the Spring.
- M 1:10 p.m.-3:40 p.m.
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Instructor:
Sheila Foster
Info - 3 points
DISASTERS AND DEVELOPMENT
Prerequisites: EESC 2330; SDEV W2300. Human welfare status is very unevenly distributed throughout the globe - some of us live very comfortable lives, others remain in desperate poverty showing little progress away from their condition. Between are countries that are rapidly developing and converging toward the welfare of the richest. At all levels of economic development human activities place significant pressure on the environment and threatens all of Earth’s vital functions and support systems for human life. This challenge requires timely responses based on solid understanding of the human/environment interface, technological and economic approaches to mitigate adverse effects on the environment, and routes to understanding the complex dynamics of the coupled human/natural systems that can chart a pathway to improvement in the lives of the poorest and continued well-being for those who have achieved prosperity without forcing natural systems into decline or massive fluctuation. This course offers undergraduate students, for the first time, a comprehensive course on the link between natural disaster events and human development at all levels of welfare. It explores the role that natural disasters might have and have had in modulating development prospects. Any student seriously interested in sustainable development, especially in light of climate change, must study the nature of extreme events - their causes, global distribution and likelihood of future change. This course will cover not only the nature of extreme events, including earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and droughts but also their transformation into disaster through social processes. It will ultimately help students to understand the link between such extreme events, the economic/social shock they represent and development outcomes. The course will combine careful analysis of the natural and social systems dynamics that give rise to disasters and examine through group learning case studies from the many disasters that have occurred in the first decade of the 21st century. Offered in the Spring (odd years only).
- MW 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
- 3 points
ENERGY LAW
This course concerns the regulation of energy, energy resources, and energy facilities. Among the topics will be the regulation of rates and services; the roles of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the state public utility commissions; and the interaction with environmental law. Attention will be devoted to energy resources (such as oil, natural gas and coal) and to generating, transmission and distribution facilities. The current and future roles of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and nuclear energy will receive special attention, as will the regulation and deregulation of electricity.
- T 4:20 p.m.-6:10 p.m.
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Instructor:
Michael Gerrard
CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
GIS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMNT
This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of theoretical concepts underlying GIS systems and to give students a strong set of practical skills to use GIS for sustainable development research. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a system of computer software, data and analysis methods used to create, store, manage, digital information that allow us to create maps and dynamic models to analyze the physical and social processes of the world. Through a mixture of lectures, readings, focused discussions, and hands-on exercises, students will acquire an understanding of the variety and structure of spatial data and databases, gain knowledge of the principles behind raster and vector based spatial analysis, and learn basic cartographic principles for producing maps that effectively communicate a message. Student will also learn to use newly emerging web based mapping tools such as Google Earth, Google Maps and similar tools to develop on-line interactive maps and graphics. The use of other geospatial technologies such as the Global Positioning System will also be explored in this class. Case studies examined in class will draw examples from a wide ranges of GIS applications developed to assist in the development, implementation and evaluation of sustainable development projects and programs. On completion of the course, students will: 1. use a variety of GIS software programs to create maps and reports; 2. develop a sound knowledge of methods to search, obtain, and evaluate a wide variety of spatial data resources; 3. develop skills needed to determine best practices for managing spatial data resources; 4. use GIS to analyze the economic, social and environmental processes underlying the concept of building a sustainable world; 5. Gain an understanding of the limits of these technologies and make assessments of uncertainty associated with spatial data and spatial analysis models. Offered in the fall and spring.
- W 10:10 a.m.-12:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Kytt J Macmanus
Info - 3 points
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
For advanced undergraduates only.
Using a case study approach, this course will offer a focused study of climate change adaptation policy, exploring dimensions of adaptation across sectors and scales. With a thematic focus on pervasive global inequities, students will also consider challenges associated with international development and disaster risk management. An inter-disciplinary framework will enrich the course, and students will learn about perspectives from the natural sciences, law, architecture, anthropology, humanitarian aid, and public policy.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN SDEV & CLIMATE
COLD WAR CLIM ENCOUNTERS
A novel course on the history of understanding of global climate crisis during the Cold War period and a role of science in the agenda of global climate change aims to demonstrate the connections of present state of knowledge and policy with the trajectory of the past. How much this past (s) could and should be useful is the focus of the discussions in the class. The discussions are based on historical narratives, including the history of institutional landscape of science, impacts of individual scientists, imaginaries of the future in the past. All narratives are imbedded in a larger socio-economic and political context. The unique dimension of the course is the inclusion of Soviet climate science which is considered as a global force with a significant knowledge circulations and participation in international organizations. The course is useful for climate students as well as for history and political science students.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Julia Lajus
Info - 3 points
Building Climate Justice: Co-Creative Co
BUILDING CLIMATE JUSTICE
This course will educate students and support effective coastal resilience planning and climate justice through social and data science learning and data acquisition and analysis, making use of emerging technologies and best practices for collaboration with environmental and climate justice practitioners.
Instruction is provided in two areas: i. Climate adaptation planning & climate justice; and, ii. Data science: acquisition, analysis and visualization. Students and instructors will work with participating community-based climate and environmental justice organizations to collect and analyze biological, geographic and socio-economic data relevant to local resilience needs. Once this data has been acquired or generated and quality-assured, the students and community partner organizations will prepare it for presentation to federal, state and local planning officials, to help ensure that the resilience goals and related concerns identified by our community partners will be fully reflected in future planning by those officials.
Upon completion of the course, students will better understand the challenges involved in creating and implementing collaborative, data-informed, multi-stakeholder plans for coastal resilience and ecosystem restoration in today’s increasingly climate-disrupted world. Successful completion of this course will partially fulfill the
Analysis and Solutions to Complex Problems
coursework requirement within the Undergraduate Major in Sustainable Development.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
- 3 points