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Sustainability

This announcement provides important information about upcoming events, extra credit opportunities, chapter assignments, and discussions for the sustainability class.

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Sustainability

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  1. Sustainability Winter 2009 Class 3 Jeff Fletcher

  2. Announcements • Tonight Monday (1/12) • Big Questions Series 6:00 pm (go before or after mentor session) • Good Extra Credit Event

  3. Announcement 2 • This Thursday 7PM Thursday, January 15, 2009 Holistic Design: A Philosophical Framework • I have 6 tickets—see me, but only if you really plan to go • Good extra credit activity

  4. Next Time (Wed. 1/14) • Library visit—go directly there on Wednesday (Room 160)

  5. Collapse Chapter Assignments • Chapter 3: The Last People Alive: Pitcairn and Henderson Islands • Chapter 4: The Ancient Ones: The Anasazi and their Neighbors • Chapter 5: The Maya CollapsesChapter 6: The Viking Prelude and Fugues • Chapter 7: Norse Greenland’s Flowering • Chapter 8: Norse Greenland’s End • Chapter 9: Opposite Paths to Success • Chapter 10: Malthus in Africa: Rwanda’s Genocide • Chapter 11: One Island, Two Peoples, Two Histories: Dominican Republic and Haiti • Chapter 12: China, Lurching Giant • Chapter 13: "Mining" Australia

  6. In class Wed we didn’t finish. • Please review the rest of the questions and answers on your own and we will briefly discuss on Monday.

  7. Question • What typical course of events do people usually think of in a collapse?

  8. Possible Answers (p. 6) • Population growth forced people to adopt intensified means of agricultural production (irrigation, double-cropping, or terracing), and to expand farming onto marginal lands, • Unsustainable practices led to environmental damage, • Marginal lands had to be abandoned. • Consequences: • food shortages, • starvation, • wars over resources, • overthrows of governing elites by disillusioned masses. • Population decrease through starvation, war or disease. • Society lost political, economic, and cultural complexity it had developed at the peak.

  9. Question • According to Diamond, in addition to the 5 point framework for understanding collapse, what 4 new environmental problems face us today?

  10. Possible Answers • According to Diamond, in addition to the 5 point framework for understanding collapse, what 4 new environmental problems face us today? (p. 7) • Human caused climate change • Buildup of toxic chemicals in the environment • Energy shortages • Full utilization of the Earth’s photosynthetic capacity

  11. Question • Explain how the following factors not only lower, but increase risk of collapse for modern societies: • Powerful technology • Globalization • Modern medicine

  12. Possible Answers (p. 8) • Powerful technology • solve problems • have un-intended destructive effects • Globalization • Disaster relief • Collapse anywhere affects here at home • Disease travels quickly • Modern medicine • Cures or prevents disease • many people depend on it for their survival

  13. Question • Explain the term “comparative method” or “natural experiment” and describe its importance to this book.

  14. Possible Answers (p. 17-10) • Science depends upon replicable controlled experiments • Is it ethical to experiment on large populations by withholding food or killing them to study the effects? • Comparative studies identify factors, then study societies where the factors are naturally present or absent • Use statistical methods when the sample sizes are large enough • Depends upon lots of accurate information about many details • often hard to know these details about past societies.

  15. Question • Are there Modern Day Collapses?

  16. Possible Answers (p. 22) • Are there Modern Day Collapses? • Haiti • Somalia • Rwanda • The Soviet Union • What about today’s headlines • Unrest in Pakistan • Unrest in Kenya

  17. Question • Based on your reading of the Prologue, do you think that Diamond is an objective researcher? Why or why not?

  18. Collapse Ch. 1: Montana • You will have ~15 minutes to prepare a 3 minute presentation on a section of Ch. 1 • Montana's Economic History. pg. 27-mid 35 • Mining. pg. 35-top 41 • Forests. pg. 41-top 47 • Soil. pg. 47-49 • Water pg. 49-53 • Native & Non-native. pg. 53-56 • Differing Visions. pg. 56-lower 63 • Attitudes towards regulation. pg. 63-65 • 4 Stories. pg. 66-72

  19. Your Brief Presentation • A short presentation that identifies the important messages (or key ideas) of that section of Chapter 1. • A "Visual" that illustrates the key ideas (poster paper and markers provided). • Be sure each team members name appears on the visual and hand in at the end • Answers questions from Jeff, Ross and the Class about your section.

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