MAE 124/ESYS 103:   The Human Earth

Spring 2008 Schedule

Week 1: Introduction
Reading/class preparation:
  1. Bradsher and Barboza, "Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts a Global Shadow", The New York Times, June 11, 2006.
  2. Brown, Preface, Ch. 1, Ch. 5;
March 31: Introduction to the course.  Handouts: syllabus for 1 pm section, syllabus for 2 pm section, survey  
April 2: Tragedy of the commons
April 4:  Air pollution
April 4 (2 pm):  Guest lecture:  Professor Paul Dayton (SIO), ``Fisheries and the tragedy of the commons''
Week 2.  Water resources
Reading/class preparation (for Monday):
  1. Summary of the Hydrologic Cycle http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercyclesummary.html
  2. "Water Resources and Population" http://atlas.aaas.org/pdf/51-54.pdf
  3. Brown, Ch. 4 "Emerging Water Shortages"
Reading/class preparation (for Wednesday):
  1. "California's water crisis": http://aquafornia.com/californias-water-crisis/ up to but not including the section titled "What are the available alternatives"
  2. "Why the Delta Matters"; http://aquafornia.com/archives/588
Reading/class preparation (for Friday):
  1. "Editorial: 'It just makes dollars and sense" http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/14688182.html
  2. "Nor any drop to drink" http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10259055
  3. "As supplies dry up, growers pass on farming and sell water" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/23/financial/f133811S29.DTL
April 7: Natural Hydrologic Processes, General Water Issues.  Paper 1 assigned. See also the writing guide, criteria for peer evaluation, and additional information.
April 9:  Local water history, infrastructure, and issues for the future.  Guest lecture:  Ivan Golakoff, San Diego County Water.  Quiz 2 distributed as "take-home". Due Friday. See also clarification
April 11:  Agriculture and Urban Water Transfers. Quiz 2 due at start of class.
April 11 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Dr. Dan Cayan (SIO), `` Water Resources for California and the West'' .
Week 3:  Energy
Reading/class preparation:
  1. Weisz, Basic Choices and Constraints on Long-Term Energy Supplies, Physics Today, July 2004, p. 47.
  2. Brown, Ch. 2 "Deteriorating Oil and Food Security";
April 14: The fossil fuel economy:  oil, coal, and natural gas. Don't forget Paper 1 outline due 11:59 pm on the 15th. See turnitin instructions.
April 16:  Peak oil, energy supply, energy demand
April 18:  Other impacts of fossil fuel dependence:  environment, infrastructure, and foreign policy.
April 18 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Professor Richard Somerville (SIO, and IPCC contributing author), `` Climate Change'' .
Week 4:  Global Warming and Climate Change
Reading/class preparation:
  1. IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Summary for Policymakers, 17 November 2007.
  2. Brown, Ch. 3
April 21:  Increased CO2 and the greenhouse effect
April 23:  Global warming:  predictions and impacts.
April 25:   Sea level rise.
April 25 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Professor Ralph Keeling (SIO), `` Carbon Cycle'' .

Week 5:  Population, Land Degradation, and Agricultural Impacts

Reading/class preparation (for Monday):
  1. Population and the Environment Web site. http://pop-env.berkeley.edu/index.htm Please read all sections from the Introduction through Family Planning.
  2. Ridley, K., "Can soap operas save lives?, Ode Magazine, April 2006, http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/32/can_soap_operas_save_lives/
  3. Brown, Ch. 6.
Reading/class preparation (for Wednesday):
  1. Hazell, P. B. R., Green Revolution: Curse or Blessing?, International Food Policy Research Institute, 2002. http://ifpri.org/pubs/ib/ib11.pdf
Reading/class preparation (for Friday):
  1. Oxford Analytica, "Food Shortage Rises with Prices", Forbes.com, 15 April 2008. http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/04/14/food-prices-china-biz-cx_0415oxford.html
April 28:   Malthus and population growth
April 30:  Agriculture
May 2:  Land degradation.
May 2 (2 pm):  Midterm Exam. (Gille 1 pm section: Pepper Canyon 122; Taylor 2 pm section: York 2622)
 
Week 6: Sustainability
Reading/class preparation:
  1. Sachs and Reid, 2006. "Investments Toward Sustainable Development", Science, 312(5776), p. 1002. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;312/5776/1002. Struggling with access to the journal Science? UCSD has a subscription, and you should be able to access it from any computer on campus, or from home if you use the UCSD proxy server or VPN. See here for details.
  2. Myers, 1997. "Consumption: Challenge to Sustainable Development ...", Science, 276(5309), pp. 53-55. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/276/5309/53. (Also look at the response by Vincent and Panayotou on the same date as the original article (and same web page) and at the follow up letters by Stern and Dietz and by Alcock dated 13 June 1997: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;276/5319/1629d.)
  3. Hickman, 2006. "Is it OK ... to use an MP3 player?", Guardian (UK), October 17, 2006. http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/ethicalliving/story/0,,1924202,00.html. (For the full report referred to in this article, see http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/files/DigitaleuropeMusiccasestudy.pdf.)
  4. Two articles on life cycle assessment of your choosing. See our list.
  5. Pacala and Socolow, 2004. "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies", Science, 305(5686), pp. 968-972. http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/305/5686/968.
  6. Brown, Ch. 7.
May 5:  Sustainability and the triple bottom line
May 7:  Life cycle assessment. LCA Handout. Week 6 quiz distributed.
May 9:  Ecological footprints and global change wedges. Week 6 quiz due in class.
May 9 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Professor Paul Linden (MAE), `` Green Buildings'' .

Week 7: Land Use and Urban Planning

Reading/class preparation (for Monday):
  1. Dick, Gregory, "Green Building Basics", California Integrated Waste Management Board, 2006.
  2. Kamenetz, A., "The Green Standard?", fastcompany.com magazine, issue 119, October 2007.
  3. Brown, Ch. 10.
Reading/class preparation (for Wednesday):
  1. California Performance Review, "Streamline the Environmental Review Process to Discourage Sprawl and Revitalize Older Developed Urban Areas", Volume 4, Ch. 4, Infrastructure, Recommendation 37, 2005.
  2. Ewing, R., et al., 2007.. Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, Ch. 1, Urban Land Institute, October, 2007.
  3. Sadler, M., 2008. Height Fight on Chapala, Santa Barbara Independent, March 13, 2008.
Reading/class preparation (for Friday):
  1. Brown, Ch. 8
May 12:  Green Buildings and LEED Certification. Paper 2 assigned. See also additional information.
br> May 14:  Urban planning (Smart Growth)
May 16:  Carbon Mitigation Wedges: Expanding Thinking for Paper 2. If you can't make it to class, please be sure to complete the mitigation wedge assignment (due May 23).
May 16 (2 pm):  No class (Field trip to Birch Aquarium at Scripps not possible.)

Week 8:  Energy and Climate Change

Reading/class preparation:
  1. Spath and Mann, Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production via Natural Gas Steam Reforming, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Technical Report, NREL/TP-570-27637, Februay, 2001. (from http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/energy_analysis.html. You may also be interested in their Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Hydrogen Production via Wind/Electrolysis.)
  2. Brown, Ch. 11, Ch. 12.
May 19:  Alternative energy
May 21:  Carbon sequestration (and more alternative energy)
May 23:   Carbon sequestration and geo-engineering
May 23 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Kristin Blacker and Kim McIntyre (UCSD Sustainability Initiative), `` Sustainability at UCSD'' .
Week 9:  Transportation
Reading/class preparation:
  1. Curitiba, Brazil: Three decades of thoughtful city planning,, dismantle.org
  2. McKibben, Curitiba: A Global Model For Development, CommonDreams.org, 8 November 2005.
  3. Brown, Ch. 10 (pp. 196-202), Ch. 11 (pp. 225-228), Ch. 12 (pp. 243-246).
  4. Optional on the Aptera: Fikes, B. J., 2007, Prototype gets 300 mpg, company says, qualifies for car-pool lane, North County Times. Hagerman, E, 2007. 1 Gallon of Gas, 100 Miles $10 Million: The Race to Build the Supergreen Car, Wired Magazine.
  5. Even more optional on the Tesla Roadster: Lam, B., 2008, Three Tesla Electric Car Reviews, Gizmodo.
May 26:  Memorial Day:  No Class
May 28:  Personal vehicles:  electric cars, natural gas, hybrids
May 30:  Transit systems, Redesigning urban transport.
May 30 (2 pm):  Guest lecture: Brian d'Autremont (UCSD Transportation), `` Parking and Public Transportation at UCSD'' .
Week 10:  Balancing Population with Food and Water Resources
Reading/class preparation:
  1. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2005. What you can do about global warming.
  2. Ecectronic Frontier Foundation, 2002. Contacting Congress (& Other US Policymakers): Making Your Voice Heard by US Federal Legislators, the White House, State Legislators and Governors
  3. Brown, Ch. 7 (reread pp. 136-144) Ch. 9, Ch. 13 (especially pp. 285-287).
  4. Optional: Britell, J., 2001. Organize to Win: A Grassroots Activist's Handbook
  5. Optional: US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007. What You Can Do.
June 2:  Revising population: Reducing poverty, improving education, feeding the world.
June 4:  Strategies for moving forward
June 6:  Exam review. What to expect for the final exam. (Virtual handout: summary of weekly objectives
June 6 (2 pm):  No class .
final exam:  1 pm and 2 pm sections:  Thursday, June 12, 11:30 am-2:30 pm, Pepper Canyon Hall 109
Please note that the final exam coincides with the US Open at Torrey Pines, so allow extra time to negotiate traffic. The final exam will be held as scheduled. In accordance with UCSD policy, no allowance will be granted for students arriving late to an exam.