This course explores the political challenge of motivating 6.3 billion people to respond to global environmental problems in a world where there is no international government to coordinate diverse, changing, and often conflicting social preferences and practices.  Drawing on recent research in political science and related fields, we will analyze international responses to issues such as climate change, ozone depletion, intellectual property rights, deforestation, trade in endangered species, whaling, urbanization, globalization, consumption, and sustainable development.  Students will critically engage these topics with concepts and methodologies emerging from the fast-growing literatures on international institutions, transnational activism, multi-level governance, green foreign policy, environmental valuation, local resource regimes, and science-policy linkages.

Required Texts

• Garrett Porter, Janet Welsh Brown, and Pamela S. Chasek, Global Environmental Politics, Third Edition, Westview Press, 2000.
• Paul F. Steinberg, Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia, MIT Press, 2001.
• The World Bank, World Development Report 2003: Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World, Oxford University Press, 2002.
  

Course Requirements

Course Schedule

WHAT IS GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS?

Tuesday, Aug. 31      
Introduction and Course Overview
No assigned readings

Thursday, Sept. 2
Planetary Problems I: Population

Video:

• "World in the Balance: The Population Paradox"

Readings:

• William C. Clark, Managing Planet Earth, pp. 1-11 in Managing Planet Earth, W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, 1990.
• Peter M. Vitousek, Harold A. Mooney, Jane Lubchenco and Jerry M. Melillo (1997) Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems, Science 277(5325):494-499.
  

Tuesday, Sept. 7
Planetary Problems II: Global Overviews
Group presentations on climate change, freshwater resources, toxics, deforestation, biodiversity, desertification, fisheries, and stratospheric ozone.

Readings:

• Separate readings to be assigned to each group.

Thursday, Sept. 9
Worldwide Responses

Readings:

• Global Environmental Politics, Chapter 1 (pp. 1-16 only) and Chapter 2 (pp. 35-60 only)
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 3.
  

Tuesday, Sept. 14
The Role of Political Analysis

Readings:

• Ian H. Rowlands, Classical Theories of International Relations, in Urs Luterbacher and Detlef F. Sprinz (eds.), International Relations and Global Climate Change, MIT Press, 2001.

Come prepared to compare the methods and epistemology of the following two articles:

• Detlef Sprinz and Tapani Vaahtoranta (1994) The Interest-Based Explanation of International Environmental Policy, International Organization 48(1):77-105.
• M. J. Molina and F. S. Rowland (1974) Stratospheric Sink for Chlorofluoromethanes: Chlorine Atom-Catalyzed Destruction of Ozone, Nature 249:810-812.
  

WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Thursday, Sept. 16
Environmental Ethics

Readings:

• Peter Singer (1974), All Animals Are Equal, Philosophical Exchange 1:103-116. 
  
• Mark Sagoff (1984) Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce, Osgoode Hall Law Journal 22: 297-307.  Sections I, II, and III only.
• Bill Devall and George Sessions, Deep Ecology, Gibbs Smith Publishers, 1985, pp. 65-70.
• Mari Skare (1994) Whaling, Environment 36(7):12 (15pp.).
  

Tuesday, Sept. 21
Perspectives from Developing Countries

Video:

• "Hear Our Voices - The Poor on Poverty"

Readings:

• The World Commission on Environment and Development ("The Brundtland Commission"), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 43-60. 
  
• Vandana Shiva (2000) North-South Conflicts in Intellectual Property Rights, Peace Review 12(4):501-508.
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 2.
  

Thursday, Sept. 23
Economic Valuation
Come prepared to discuss the Erlich-Simon debate from Tierney article.

Readings:

• Kenneth J. Arrow et al. (1996) Is There a Role for Benefit-Cost Analysis in Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulation?, Science 272(5259):221-222.
• J. Tierney, Betting the Planet, New York Times Magazine, December 2, 1990.
• EPA Finds Life Worth the Same at Age 70, The Baltimore Sun, May 8, 2003.
  

HOW CAN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION BE ACHIEVED IN AN ANARCHIC WORLD SYSTEM?

** Environmental ethics essay due Monday September 27 at 4 p.m.**

Tuesday, Sept. 28
Institutions, Market Failures, Collective Action Problems

Readings:

• Clark C. Gibson, Margaret A. McKean, and Elinor Ostrom, Explaining Deforestation: The Role of Local Institutions, Chapter 1 in Gibson et al., eds., People and Forests Communities, Institutions, and Governance, MIT Press, 2000.

Thursday, Sept. 30
Multi-Level Governance

Readings:

• Robert D. Putnam (1988) Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games, International Organization 42(3):427-460.
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 1.
  

Tuesday, Oct. 5
International Environmental Regimes

Readings:

• Global Environmental Politics, Chapter 3.  Skip climate change section pp. 112-124 (to be read for next class).
• Additional reading on treaty-making process to be announced.
  

Thursday, Oct. 7
Negotiating Environmental Treaties        

International negotiation simulation in class: “Dante’s Island.”

Readings:

• Global Environmental Politics, pp. 112-124.
• Daniel Bodansky, International Law and the Design of a Climate Change Regime, pp. 201-220 in Urs Luterbacher and Detlef F. Sprinz (eds.), International Relations and Global Climate Change, MIT Press, 2001. (More readings next page.)
• Dale Jamieson, Climate Change and Global Environmental Justice, pp. 287-307 in Clark A. Miller and Paul N. Edwards (eds.), Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance, MIT Press, 2001.
  

Tuesday, Oct. 12
Discussion of Negotiation Exercise
No assigned readings

Thursday, Oct. 14
The Impact of Environmental Regimes        

Readings:

• Abram Chayes and Antonia Handler Chayes (1993) On Compliance, International Organization 47 (2):175-205.
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 4.
  

Assignment: an inside-out perspective on international impacts.

Tuesday, Oct. 19
Fall break            


HOW DO NON-GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS SHAPE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL DECISIONS?

Thursday, Oct. 21
Environmental Advocates

Readings:

• Paul Wapner (1995) Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics, World Politics 47(3):311-340.  
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 5 and pp. 198-200 ("Leadership and Constraints").
  

Tuesday, Oct. 26       
Midterm 1

Thursday, Oct. 28       
Scientists

Readings:

• Peter Haas (1992) Banning Chlorofluorocarbons: Epistemic Community Efforts to Protect Stratospheric Ozone, International Organization 46(1):187-224.
• Paul N. Edwards and Stephen H. Schneider, Self-governance and Peer Review in Science-for-Policy: The Case of the IPCC Second Assessment Report, pp. 219-337 in Clark A. Miller and Paul N. Edwards (eds.), Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance, MIT Press, 2001.  
  

Tuesday, Nov. 2           
Multinational Corporations

Readings:

• Gary Gereffi, Ronie Garcia-Johnson and Erika Sasser (2001) The NGO-Industrial Complex, Foreign Policy 125:56-65.
• James Maxwell and Sanford L Weiner (1993) Green Consciousness or Dollar Diplomacy? The British Response to the Threat of Ozone Depletion, International Environmental Affairs 5(1):19-41.
  

Browse overview and company profiles at http://www.pewclimate.org/companies_leading_the_way_belc/.  
Enter the search term "greenwash" in Google and browse the results.

NATIONAL RESPONSES

Thursday, Nov. 4
Foreign Policy and the Environment: The United States

Readings:

• Robert Paarlberg, The Eagle and the Global Environment: The Burden of Being Essential, pp. 324-341 in Robert J. Lieber (ed.), Eagle Rules? Foreign Policy and American Primacy in the 21st Century, Prentice Hall, 2001.
• Gary C. Bryner. Congress and the Politics of Climate Change, pp. 111-130 in Paul G. Harris (ed.), Climate Change and American Foreign Policy, St. Martin's Press, 2000.
• William Cronon, When the G.O.P. Was Green, New York Times, January 8, 2001.
  

Tuesday, Nov. 9
Foreign Policy and the Environment: Developing Countries

Readings:

• Michael Ross, Conditionality and Logging Reform in the Tropics, pp. 167-197 in Robert O. Keohane and Marc A. Levy (eds.), Institutions for Environmental Aid: Pitfalls and Promise, MIT Press, 1996.

FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL...AND BACK AGAIN

Thursday, Nov. 11        
Climate Change and Los Angeles

Readings:

• Automakers Drop Suits on Air Rules, The New York Times, August 12, 2003.
• EPA State & Local Climate Change Program
• Additional readings to be announced.
  

Tuesday, Nov. 16
Managing Common-Property Resources        

Readings:

• Elinor Ostrom et al. (1999) Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges, Science 284(5412):278-282.
• Clark C. Gibson and C. Dustin Becker, A Lack of Institutional Demand: Why a Strong Local Community in Western Ecuador Fails to Protect Its Forests, Chapter 6 in Gibson et al., eds., People and Forests: Communities, Institutions, and Governance, MIT Press, 2000.
  

Thursday, Nov. 18
Midterm 2


HOW CAN WE RECONCILE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY AND ECOLOGICAL HEALTH?

Tuesday, Nov. 23
Trade and the Environment
    
Readings:

• Duncan Brack, Environmental Treaties and Trade: Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the Multilateral Trading System, pp. 271-298 in Gary P. Sampson and W. Bradnee Chambers (eds.) Trade, the Environment, and the Millennium, United Nations University Press, Tokyo, 2002.
• Additional selections from Sampson and Chambers to be announced
• WTO Environment Committees Stuck on Role of MEA Secretariats, Eco-Labelling, Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest, July 10, 2003.
  

Thursday, Nov. 25
No class - Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, Nov. 30
Sustainable Development in the South

Readings:

• The World Bank, World Development Report 2003: Sustainable Development in a Dynamic World, Oxford University Press, 2002.  Chapters 6 (urban) and 5 (rural), in that order.

Thursday, Dec. 2       
No class – Prepare for presentations

Saturday, Dec. 4
9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.   
Proposed time for group presentations on CITES

Tuesday, Dec. 7
Sustainable Development in the North

Readings:

• Jack Manno, Commoditization: Consumption Efficiency and an Economy of Care and Connection, pp. 67-99 in Thomas Princen, Michael F. Maniates and Ken Conca (Eds.), Confronting Consumption, MIT Press, 2002.
• Michael Maniates, Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?, pp. 43-66 in Confronting Consumption.
  

Thursday, Dec. 9 
Future Trends:  Environmental Globalization

Readings:

• Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye Jr. (2000) Globalization: What's New?  What's Not?  (And So What?), Foreign Policy 118:104-119.
• Environmental Leadership, Chapter 6.