Energy and Resources Group

Introduction to interdisciplinary analysis as it is practiced in the ERG. Most of the course consists of important perspectives on energy and resource issues, introduced through a particularly influential book or set of papers. The course also provides an introduction to the current research activities of the ERG faculty as well as practical knowledge and skills necessary to successfully complete graduate school in an interdisciplinary program.

Critical, cross disciplinary analysis of specific issues or general problems of how people interact with environmental and resource systems. More than one section may be given each semester on different topics depending on faculty and student interest

Economists through history have explored economic and environmental interactions, physical limits to growth, what constitutes the good life, and how economic justice can be assured. Yet economists continue to use measures and models that simplify these issues and promote bad outcomes. Ecological economics responds to this tension between the desire for simplicity and the multiple perspectives needed to understand complexity in order to move toward sustainable, fulfilling, just economies.

Motivation: What is the history and evolution of environmental thinking and writing? How have certain "environmental classics" shaped the way in which we think about nature, society, and development? This course will use a selection of 20th-century books and papers that have had a major impact on academic and wider public thinking about the environment and development to probe these issues. The selection includes works and commentaries related to these works that have influenced environmental politics and policy in the U.S. as well as in the developing world. Through the classics and their critiques, reviews, and commentaries, the class will explore the evolution of thought on these transforming ideas.

How existing agencies and policy makers incorporate new concerns into their deliberations, and how agencies given the mandate to address the newer concerns seek to fold their priorities into the existing institutional and policy structures

Fundamentals of exploratory data analysis and hypothesis testing for environmental scientists, with emphasis on characterizing and evaluating uncertainty. Introduction to selected topics relevant to environmental analysis, including error propagation, design of experiments, and Monte Carlo methods. Microcomputer laboratories, using real environmental data, explore concepts and techniques presented in lecture.

The history of America is inextricably bound to the history of modern sociotechnical systems, among which the automobile in particular stands out for its impacts on energy use, the environment, and the shape of American cities. Organized around a social, technical, and political history of the American automobile, this course will examine the co-evolution of the automobile, the industries that support it, and the politics and social structure of American society (with an emphasis on California). We will also take an interdisciplinary look at the profound cultural effects of the automobile, not only as a technical object, but also as a visible and contested social and cultural artifact, the locus of persistent conflict between American individualism and formal and informal modes of regulation and collective action.

Characteristics of electric generating technologies based on renewable resources: hydroelectric, wind solar thermal, photovoltaic, biomass, geothermal, wave, and tide power. Physical and engineering aspects; the utility perspective; criteria for implementation: cost, reliability, output profiles, operating characteristics, modularity, resource availability, environmental impact, utility regulatory issues

Human disruption of biogeochemical and hydrological cycles; causes and consequences of climate change and acid deposition; transport and health impacts of pollutants; loss of species; radioactivity in the environment; epidemics

Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.