Sustainability Freshman Inquiry Feb. 10, 2011 Jeff Fletcher See also: Daily Log PageDaily Log Page

Logistics Extra Credit Opportunities –PSU Social Sustainability Colloquium Friday, Feb 11, 1-3pm, ASRC 660 (Student Rec Center Building) Economics of Happiness... and Beyond Angela Rodgers, SSW, and panel –Groundwork Portland PSU Party, Feb. 25 Read Collapse Prologue, Ch. 2 (p ) –For Tuesday (reading notes) Mercy Corp Fieldtrip Thursday Feb. 17, 2-5pm (including transportation time), $2.50 each –Meet 2:00 at PSU MAX; Catch Yellow Line at 2:08pm. Mentor Lab: –Thursday: Story of Stuff (discuss and critiques) Think about preferences for Collapse chapters –Tuesday: Executive Summary from HW3 & results of suveys and garbage/recycling room assessments

Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Think about Collapse The context of the book The thesis of the book The contribution of the book The method of investigation The “power” of the results The influence of the book/chapter The applicability of the results Summary of the technical development Details of any examples

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 Collapses Chapter 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

Quiz Discussion 1) In your own words, explain what Diamond means when he uses the term "collapse"

Possible Answer Explain what Diamond means when he uses the term "collapse" “…a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time.” (p. 3)

New Orleans 9 th Ward Is New Orleans a modern day Collapse? New Frontline program on New Orleans recovery—one family’s story

Quiz Discussion 2) List some of the reasons Diamond gives to support the claim that "any people can fall into the trap of over- exploiting environmental resources…" (p. 9)

Possible Answer List some of the reasons Diamond gives to support the claim that “Any people can fall into the trap of over- exploiting environmental resources…" (p. 9) (p. 9-10) –Resources seem inexhaustible at first –Signs of resource depletion are hidden in normal (yearly or decade scale) fluctuations –Difficult to get people to exercise constraint on sheared resources (tragedy of the commons) –Complexity of eco-systems makes it hard to predict long term consequences of individual actions

Consumerism Story of Stuff (21:00)Story of Stuff –Questions Does the video overstate anything? Can you think of alternative ways of addressing these issues? Critique –Story of Stuff, The Critique Part 3 of 4 Does it deal with the central argument of a linear throughput on a finite earth –Part 4 of 4