Assignment 1 (Due September 16) – Looking at your home country, a country you most associate with, or a country in which you have an interest, prepare an 8 to 10 page PowerPoint presentation (which you will present in class) describing what you (and others for that matter) perceive to be the country’s most serious environmental concern (other than climate change). Be sure to describe the issue in detail and provide a summary of how the problem is currently being addressed (if it is at all). Be sure to cite at least five (5) references.

Week 3

September

7, 9

Evaluating Trade-Offs: Benefit-Cost Analysis and Other Decision-Making Metrics Continued

Valuing the Environment: Methods

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 3 and 4

Chapter 3 Lecture - Evaluating Trade-Offs: Benefit-Cost Analysis and Other Decision-Making Metrics (PPT)

Chapter 4 Lecture – Valuing the Environment: Methods (PPT)

Handout-The Equimarginal Principle of Cost Effectiveness

Required Readings: Cost Benefit Analysis of a Net-Zero Energy Housing in Qatar

Additional Reading: Environmental Impacts of Food Production How to Perform a Cost Benefit Analysis

Videos: Intro to Cost-Benefit Analysis (Conservation Strategy Fund Series)

Week 4

September

14, 16

Valuing the Environment: Methods Continued

Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 4 and 5

Chapter 4 Lecture – Valuing the Environment: Methods (PPT)

Chapter 5 Lecture- Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development (PPT)

Required Readings: Hedonic Pricing Method The Cost of a Human Life, Statistically Speaking

Videos: Economics: How to Calculate the Value of Life Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Intro to Valuation Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Contingent Valuation Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Travel Cost Method Our Sustainability Challenges. The why, the what and the how

Weeks 5 and 6

September

21,23, 28,30

Presentations

Week 7

October

5, 7

Depletable Resource Allocation: The Role of Longer Time Horizons, Substitutes, and Extraction Cost

Energy: The Transition from Depletable to Renewable Resources

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6 Lecture - Depletable Resource Allocation: The Role of Longer Time Horizons, Substitutes, and Extraction Cost (PPT)

Chapter 7 Lecture - Energy: The Transition from Depletable to Renewable Resources (PPT)

Websites: Our World in Data

Videos: Economics of Sustainability What is Sustainable Development? Videos: Animation of Hydraulic Fracturing – One View Fracking 101: Why Fracked Gas is Dirty and Dangerous (Another View)

Midterm Exam Assigned - Due Date: October 28

Week 8, Sunday, October 12, 2025 – Thursday, October 16, 2025

Fall Break, No Classes

Week 9

October

19, 21

Recyclable Resources: Minerals, Paper, Bottles, and E-waste

Water: A Confluence of Renewable and Depletable Resources

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 8 and 9 (PPT)

Chapter 8 Lecture - Recyclable Resources: Minerals, Paper, Bottles, and E-waste (PPT)

Chapter 9 Lecture - Water: A Confluence of Renewable and Depletable Resources (PPT)

Required Readings: How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled The Truth Behind Trash: The scale and impact of the international trade in plastic waste Heinz rolls out newly designed ketchup bottle that could set new standard for packaging: We can't continue to do things as we have in the past Environmental Problems of Modern Cities Water Statistics in the State of Qatar

Websites: UN-Water Water.org

Videos: Are Future Water Wars Inevitable? Journey 2050: Water World's Largest $62BN Artificial River Network: China’s South to North Water Diversion Project

WEEK 10

October

26, 28

A Locationally Fixed, Multipurpose Resource: Land

Common-Pool Resources: Commercially Valuable Fisheries

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 10 and 12

Chapter 10 Lecture - A Locationally Fixed, Multipurpose Resource: Land (PPT)

Chapter 12 Lecture - Common-Pool Resources: Commercially Valuable Fisheries (PPT)

This chapter will rely heavily on the following videos. Please make sure to watch!

Videos: Fishing (Sustainable Yield) Fisheries Economics & Policy: Maximum Economic Yield The Simple Economics of an Open-Access Fishery

Assignment 2 (Due November 18) – Construct a 10 to 15-minute slide presentation on how to address a specific environmental problem that is of most concern to you. (You may do this in a group of two or three). However, you need to narrow your topic and use sound economic principles. You will be asked to present in class. We will discuss more about what is expected in class.

WEEK 11

November

2, 4

Ecosystem Goods and Services: Nature’s Threatened Bounty

Economics of Pollution Control:

An Overview

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 13 and 14

Chapter 13 Lecture - Ecosystem Goods and Services: Nature’s Threatened Bounty (PPT)

Chapter 14 Lecture - Economics of Pollution Control: An Overview (PPT)

Required Reading: Ecotourism: Pros and Cons

Videos: Can Eco-tourism Help Save the Ocean? Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Classes of Values

WEEK 12