• Discuss meeting times (and location)
• Introduce Wiki
• Discuss class structure and grading
• Discuss topics
• Discuss assignment
  • Topic suggestions

-          Agency vs. institution

-          Human motivations

-          Large corporations/world trade/globalization

-          Biofuels/alternative energy

-          Economic growth/steady state economy

-          Governance: government vs. non-gov initiatives (e.g. carbon credit trading)

-          Distribution of resources/justice/social issues (also population growth)

-          Internalizing costs

-     Ecosystem services

• An outline of the class from which you can also select a topic

Basic discussion of underlying concepts:

• What are resources?
• Which are necessary (food, water, shelter, energy) and which aren’t?
• What is sustainability (narrow vs. more comprehensive definition)?
• Overview of management of natural resources (some history and comparison to traditional cultures)
• Private Property and the tragedy of the commons.
• Development and economic growth
• Steady-state economy (http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html, Herman Daly)
• Externalities – values and services that don’t make it into the calculations of economists

Water (also water filtering, retention and similar services)

• Fresh water availability (most importantly for drinking and irrigation)
• Water retention (both for availability/fertility and for flood prevention)
• Desertification (also see agriculture)
• Water pollution and purification (non-point pollution see agriculture and point-source – industry (cover?))
• Fisheries (fresh and salt water)
• Marine environment (in particular fisheries and marine protected areas)
• Invasive species

Forests

• Sustainability as “not cutting more wood than growths back” vs. biological sustainability (ie maintaining the biological functions and integrity of the forest)
• Deforestation
• Sustainable forestry: governmental vs. market-based approaches: forest certification 

Agriculture/grazing

• Supplying enough food for survival
• Pests, pesticides and monocultures
• Energy input
• Land change: Deforestation, overgrazing, soil loss, over-fertilization or nutrient depletion, irreversible damage, desertification.

Energy and minerals

• Biofuels (connection to agriculture and possibly forestry)
• Fossil fuels
• Alternative energy and the environment

Evaluating sustainability:  

• indicators/measures, what is a resource?
•  What counts and how do we count it? E.g. viewscape and recreational opportunities.
• What is degradation and how do we measure it? How is it different from disturbance? And is all disturbance equal (natural vs. human disturbance)?
• Are we part of or apart from nature?
• Recovery and resilience – what are they and how do we measure them?

Managing biodiversity

• Protected species
• Protected areas
• Protecting processes

Change

• Land use change
• Climate change
• From traditional (locally organized) to modern (centrally organized) management