Senior Seminar Fall 2008 ISP 4860 Section 003 (Bowen) Class 11, November 12 Course web site:

Senior Seminar Fall 2008ISP 4860

Section 003 (Bowen)

Class 11, November 12Course web site: www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/SenSemF08

11/12/08 Senior Seminar F08, Class 11 2

Textbooks

• I will be teaching this course again Winter 2009

• Using same textbooks

• Campus bookstore should be interested in buying them back as used


Agenda

• Late / returned / future assignments• Content:

The credit crunch Sustainability Review Consumption and Waste

• Writing Sentences for Discussion Grammar


New Course resources• www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/SenSemF08

Peridotite for carbon sequestration• CO2 + Peridotite solids• Very common deep in earth, on the surface in

Oman Steep declines in employment and consumer

spending for October and later GM bailout plans from Obama and Pelosi (but

maybe not Bush)• Not popular nationally

American Express becomes a bank for bailout money!

http://www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/SenSemF08


Assignments Coming Up• Due four weeks ago: draft of Chapter 1

(overview) • Due three weeks ago: drafts of

Chapter 2 – status in focus area Chapter 3 – trends in focus area

• Due two weeks ago: revised Chapter 1• Due last week:

Chapters 2 & 3 revised If no Chapter 1, Section Planner for Chapter 1 If you are behind, schedule for catching up


Assignments Coming Up

• Due this week: drafts of Chapter 4: Sustainability in focus area (or lack

of sustainability) Chapter 5: summary of how your focus area

fits into total human footprint• November 19: nothing due• November 26: no class (go to Friday

classes, go to Thursday classes on 11/25)• December 3: Final paper (5 chapters)• December 10: 5-minute oral presentation


Assignment Status• I am getting worried about a pile-up at the

end Not concerned about people who are a few

days late I will not be able to review drafts that come

piling in at the end People who are very late will not have time to

do a good job Grades for these people may be delayed Reminder – a component of the course grade

comes for getting assignments in on time


Grade Letter

• You get two copies

• Me as an example

• For each assignment that you haven’t done (blank or No beside it), fill in the date by which you plan to have it done, or leave it blank if you do not intend to do it

• Turn that copy in this week


Research portfolio

• Self-assessment 12/3


Credit Crunch

• GM in economic free fall, openly asking for federal funds This is very unpopular on national level –

should have been building fuel-efficient cars But people not buying cars now because of

unemployment, lack of credit and economic fears

Most economists say• Bankruptcy is not an option – could not borrow• Failure would be devastating nationally


Credit Crunch

• Credit crunch seems to be stabilizing, even improving slightly

• Consumer confidence and spending declines are now the primary problem

• Worldwide• Economic stimulus probably coming

Aimed at middle class Designed to be spent immediately Will consumer confidence return?


Credit Crunch• Economy: a complicated system that we do

not understand• Without knowing what is wrong, we

don’t know how to fix it.• Ditto for the ecosystem!Link to slide 35


Fossil Fuels

• Two positions:1. We will continue using fossil fuels

We have plenty They can be cleaned up

2. We should move away from fossil fuels We are running out There is no such thing as clean coal and they are

all dirty Conservation and renewable energy will be the

new economy, so let’s get started


Fossil Fuels

Sustainability Review


Sustainability• Needed for a sustainable future:

Population stability Lower environmental impact per person

• Conservation• New methods

Food and water supplies More even distribution of health and economic

development• Need an integrated (interdisciplinary)

approach• Coordinate different approaches, e.g. for-

profit and non-profit


Sustainability

• Health Infectious diseases (“vector-borne”) still not

controlled in poor world• Some treatments very inexpensive• Economic development important for others

Diseases once under control in rich world re-emerging due to obesity, lack of exercise, poor diet

• Diabetes, cardio-vascular• Avoidance of vaccination (DB)


Sustainability• Climate Change (= Global Warming)

Must eventually reduce worldwide carbon emissions to a small fraction of today’s

Will require international cooperation Will it be a burden or an opportunity? Methods:

• Technical: conservation, low-carbon sources (e.g. ethanol, nuclear, solar), sequestration, geoengineering, virtual/digital

• Economic: green business, cap and trade, incentives

May need them all


DB

• Food/fish: eat lower on food chain, must make this acceptable

• Water: conservation, more treatment, suit quality to use Pricing to conserve, or is it a right? On Green Inc blog – using wastewater for

powerplant cooling• Ecosystem: be more cautious for now,

need to learn more, and quickly “End of carbon era” may help


DB• Health

Conflict between market-based solutions and services for poor countries, e.g. for AIDS drugs

In rich countries, work on lifestyle

• Economic development important for improvements in poor world (health, food, water) Education How to get really poor countries “off the

ground?”• Agency


DB

• Consumption and Waste Reduce, recycle, reuse Biodegradable products Lifecycle design

• Urbanization Improve rural life Development Property rights for urban poor


DB

• Population Economic rights for women Economic development Education

Consumption and Waste


State of the Planet

• Not much material – Pp 161 - 165

• Concentrate on supplying non-substitutable goods – not substitutes available Food, water, air

• Substitutable: margarine for butter

• Turnover of goods and services is considered an indicator of progress


Planet in Peril

• Volume of packaging is growing

• Products with short lives (disposables)

• Landfills filling up

• More international transport of wastes Statistics very incomplete Most wastes sent to Africa, then Asia

• Shipbreaking

Dangerous and polluting


The Ship Breakers Of Bangladesh• CBS News 11/5/06


Planet in Peril

• Products becoming more complex Layers of incompatible plastics for containers Harder to recycle

• Conventions: Basel (1980 - international transport of

hazardous wastes) London (1996 – dumping at sea) Rotterdam (1998 – chemical exports) Stockholm (2001 – persistent organic

pollutants)


State of the World

• Corporations better at finding uses for what used to be called waste

• BUT We use one-half trillion tons of stuff per year Less than 1% is still in use after 6 months

• “Factor Four,” “Factor Ten” – goals for reduction in use of resources

• Incandescent light fluorescent LED• Get used to less stuff (DB: ?)


Sustainability

• Reduce, reuse, recycle

• Often less expensive to buy new than to recycle Mass methods in buying new, hand methods

in recycling

• Building in recycling when a product is designed

Writing


Definitions

Definitions, Senior Essay, Fall 2008 Sovereign Wealth Fund Profits accumulating to a countryAlbedo Fraction of solar radiation that is reflectedAnthropogenic Due to human activityArable Farmable, fertileBiodiversity Having a wide range of speciesCommons Area where costs are shared but gain is privateEcosystem Services Services and materials supplied to humans by natureEnvironmental Services Cleaning up after human activityHectare 10,000 square meters 2.5 US acresPotable Safe for drinkingSocial Capital The value of functioning organizations and customsSolvent (financially) Assets exceed liabilitiesSustainability Not using more than Nature can replenishTonne Metric ton, 1000 kilograms 2200 poundsTyphoon Hurricane


Writing #1

• Grammar Review Sentence: Subject, verb, complete thought

• Problem: fragment (incomplete sentence)• Runon: two sentences butted together incorrectly

Who’s Vs whose Every day Vs everyday It’s Vs its Do Vs due Hyphen to join words in compound adjective


Writing #2

• List of sentences

• Discuss / correct sentences

• I will type corrections under each one and post on course web site for your reference.


Writing #3

• Four small groups

• Answer questions from cards

• Answer goes on separate paper

• Report is names plus answers

• Done when report is in


This Just In…Paulson Shifts Focus of Rescue to Consumer Lending (Update 4) By John Brinsley and Robert Schmidt Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to use the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue program to help relieve pressures on consumer credit, scrapping an effort to buy devalued mortgage assets.

''Illiquidity in this sector is raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans and credit cards,'' Paulson said today in a speech at the Treasury in Washington. ''This is creating a heavy burden on the American people and reducing the number of jobs in our economy.''

http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Henry%0APaulson&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1

axp:US


And this too…U.S. Stocks Fall on Best Buy Forecast, Treasury Strategy Shift, by Lynn Thomasson

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell for a third day as Best Buy Co.'s warning of a ''seismic'' slowdown in spending and the Treasury's plan to use bailout funds to bolster consumer credit stoked concern the economic slump is deepening.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BBY%3AUS


And this too..

U.S. Pressures Banks to Lend, Warns on Dividends (Update2) By Scott Lanman and Alison Vekshin

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve and other U.S. regulators told banks to maintain lending to ''creditworthy'' borrowers, and warned against dividend levels that would cut funds available for loans, causing a deeper economic slump. Link back to slide 13

Documents

Senior Seminar Fall 2008 ISP 4860 Section 003 (Bowen) Class 11, November 12 Course web site: