Assignment 1 (Due May 20) – Looking at your home country, a country you most associate with, or a country in which you have an interest, prepare an 5 to 7 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 and you may do it in a group of at most 2 (at least 10 slides).

May

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

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapter 3

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

Handout-The Equimarginal Principle of Cost Effectiveness

Additional Reading: How to Perform a Cost Benefit Analysis

Websites: Resources for the Future-Topics/Environmental Economics

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

May

Valuing the Environment: Methods

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Lecture - Valuing the Environment: Methods (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

May

17 and 18

Dynamic Efficiency and Sustainable Development

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

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 5 and 6

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

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

Websites: Our World in Data

Videos: What is Sustainable Development?

Interesting Articles: Already Home to a Dam That Slows Earth’s Rotation, China Is Now Building an Even Larger $165 Billion Power Giant The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy

May 19

Energy: The Transition from Depletable to Renewable Resources

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

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 7 and 8

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

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

Required Readings: When Fossil Fuels Run Out, What Then? What is Fracking and Why is it Controversial? How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled

Videos: Animation of Hydraulic Fracturing – One View Fracking 101: Why Fracked Gas is Dirty and Dangerous (Another View) The War on Plastic isn’t Working – Recycling Myths Exposed

May

20 and 21

Presentations

Midterm Exam Assigned - (Exam Due June 7)

May

24 and 25

Water: A Confluence of Renewable and Depletable Resources

A Locationally Fixed, Multipurpose Resource: Land

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapters 9 and 10

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

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

Required Readings: Environmental Problems of Modern Cities

Additional Reading: 10 things to Know About the Impacts of Urbanisation

Websites: UN-Water Water.org

Videos: Why Jakarta is sinking Are Future Water Wars Inevitable? Countries Are Building Economic Empires by Controlling Water Supply Journey 2050: Land Use Journey 2050: Water

May 26 to June 1 - Eid Break

June

Common Pool Resources: Commercially Valuable Fisheries

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapter 12

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

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

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

June

Ecosystem Goods and Services: Nature’s Threatened Bounty

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapter 13

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

Required Reading: Ecotourism: Pros and Cons Writing a single 100-word email with ChatGPT

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

Assignment 2 (Due June 14) – Construct a 10 to 15-minute slide presentation on how to address a specific environmental problem that is of most concern to you other than the general problem of water scarcity or air pollution. (You may do this in a group of two or three). However, you need to narrow your topic and use sound economic principles. You can focus on a specific country, but Do NOT do the same country or issue you did for Assignment 1. You will be asked to present in class. We will discuss more in class about what is expected and I will make sure each group addresses different issues so it is best to let me know your topic early.

June

Economics of Pollution Control:

An Overview

Text: (TL) Reading: Chapter 14

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

Required Reading: Carbon Tax - Pros and Cons What is Carbon Offsetting? Qatar Airways Launches Voluntary Carbon Offset Programme for Passengers