Objectives:

For this week, you should carefully read through the syllabus and the orientation for the course. 

By the end of this week:

• students will understand the course policies, course structure, different types of assignments, and their contribution to final grades;
• students will introduce themselves to the class and read introductions of classmates.

Lesson 1 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

In the following pages, you will find important information about the course structure, requirements, scheduling, and technical requirements and assistance.

Course Structure:

This course will be conducted entirely online. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. In this course, registered students will need to navigate between several online environments.

These include:

• this site - the instructional materials in this site include weekly course materials, including course Introduction and Orientation (Week 1), the syllabus, and several other helpful supplemental pages;
• Canvas - Penn State's course management system; in this course, we'll use Canvas for our course calendar, to communicate, to access some of the readings and films, to submit assignments, and to post grades.
• Perusall [1] - an online platform that creates a shared learning environment through collaborative annotations on a PDF. This is were you will complete all reading assignments. You can find detailed instructions on how you will use Perusall for this course in the Perusall guidelines tab in the Important Course Information module for details. 

Course Description:

Geography 430 examines the human use of resources and ecosystems, the multiple causes and consequences of environmental degradation, and adaptive institutional and policy arrangements as prerequisites for resilient and sustainable management and development in different parts of the world. The major objective of this course is to help geographers, earth scientists, and other professionals develop an awareness and appreciation of the multiple perspectives that can be brought to studies of human use of the environment and of the ways in which resource-management decisions are made in human society. This is a capstone course that encourages students to place their individual major and technical skills within the context of multiple approaches to environmental decision-making and management in complex and dynamic social-ecological systems. GEOG 430 is designed as a collective/social learning experience. This implies that the professor and students share responsibility for the learning process and take advantage of collective skills, insights, experiences, and efforts of each other. As in system dynamics, this requires both commitment and flexibility and the willingness to explore foreign territory. As part of this philosophy, learning consists not only of information flow from professor to student but also from student to student and student to professor. 

Learning Objectives for the Course:

• Describe the changing relationships between people and their environments, the causes and consequences of environmental degradation, strategies for building a more sustainable world, and the methods and approaches that scholars have used to describe human-environment interactions.
• Explain the complexity of human-environment systems.
• Interpret, analyze and communicate effectively regarding human-environment interactions in their lives as students, professionals, and citizens (critical thinking and synthesis of ideas, map interpretation, searching for and finding and assessing academic sources and writing).
• Analyze and critique competing approaches intended to achieve environmental conservation and sustainability.

All of the materials will be embedded in the course website and posted on Canvas corresponding to the appropriate lesson. You are not required to purchase a textbook for this class.

Course Assignments:

Please read the syllabus in Canvas to ensure you understand the assignments due in this course! 

Typical Schedule of Weekly Activities:

Within any given week, most assignments can be completed on your schedule. Weekly materials on Canvas unlock every Friday at midnight and reading assignments will be due the next Sunday at midnight, giving you 10 days to complete them. Please check Canvas for specific due dates and announcements.

Topics by Week:

• Lesson 1 - Introductions
• Lesson 2 - Global Environmental Change and Planetary Boundaries
• Lesson 3 - Complex Social-Ecological Systems
• Lesson 4 - Environmental Governance
• Lesson 5 - Environmental Justice
• Lesson 6 - The Food-Energy-Water Nexus and Environmental Impacts of Agriculture
• Lesson 7 - Food (Food Security, Food Sovereignty, and Agroecology)
• Lesson 8 - Energy
• Lesson 9 - Water
• Lesson 10 - Biodiversity Conservation
• Lesson 11 - Land Use Change
• Lesson 12 - Climate Change
• Week 13 to 15 - Course Wrap Up

Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class. Canvas supports several types of communication, as described below. Registered students have Penn State email accounts (<Access Account ID>@psu.edu) that they need to monitor for any official communications that come from the University or from the Penn State World Campus.

Announcements

These are messages from your instructor that contain important information. Current announcements can be accessed through the Announcements link in Canvas. Announcements may highlight assignment due dates, changes to due dates, tips for how to do well on future assignments, and other essential course information. Announcements are made when the instructor needs to communicate with the class, including to notify the class of changes to due dates and the syllabus.

Communications from the University and from the World Campus

Occasionally, the University or the World Campus needs to communicate with students. To do so, they use the @psu.edu email address that each registered student has been given and not Canvas course email. In addition, a letter, in PDF format, that reports your final course grade will be automatically generated and sent to your @psu.edu email address. It is important that you regularly monitor your @psu.edu email account.

Setting Communication Preferences

Canvas Profile and User Settings let you control your personal information in Canvas. Take a few minutes to personalize your Canvas profile by following the instructions below. Follow the instructions on the Canvas Profile and User Settings page to customize important aspects of your profile including, but not limited to, your preferred email address(es) and text (SMS) contact method for course notifications, your time zone, and your profile picture.

You have the option to select how, when, and for what information you would like to receive notifications. This can be very helpful when keeping track of items such as discussion posts, assignment due dates, and exams. Visit the Canvas Notification Preference Support page (link is external) and follow the instructions for setting up your notification preferences. 

Click on the 'Profile' link. Set your notification preferences.

To ensure that your Canvas email messages forward to your regular email account immediately, check the "Notify me right away" option (the checkmark) for each item under "Conversations" in Notification Preferences.

In the Time Zone drop-down menu, select a time zone for your course.

Consider downloading the Canvas App!

There has been a troubling increase in the number of cases of academic integrity violations, which span from honest mistakes to  cases where students know the behavior is "copying" or purchasing work but still do it anyway.

All of the following are forms of academic integrity violations:

• copying and pasting without quotations
• failing to cite the source of your ideas
• copying and pasting into an online "paraphrasing tool"
• presenting someone else's material as your own
• using someone else's material from a study help site
• purchasing assignments or essays
• seeking or sharing information about the questions or answers on a quiz or exam
• other forms of cheating or dishonesty

Throughout the course, you will be regularly writing and submitting written assignments. Every element of a submission should be either (1) your original work, or (2) a properly cited idea of somebody else's. If you want to mention somebody else's idea in your work, you should follow an established set of rules for doing so. In this class, we use the APA citation style for all citations done in all assignments. More information can be found in the 'Quick Guide to Citations' in the 'Resources' menu. Be aware that the material you submit for this course will be compared with online material using tools like Turnitin.

In terms of quizzes, you must not have in your possession any preliminary information about the specific quiz questions or correct/incorrect answers to them. Yes, they are open-book quizzes, but the only things you can refer to is raw course materials and your own notes about them. Sharing answers with classmates or seeking answers on websites such as Course Hero is an intentional violation of academic integrity.

Penn State does not exempt you from consequences even when the violation was done without sufficient knowledge ("honest mistakes"). So, please make yourself aware of what constitutes a breach of academic integrity.

Please have a look at Penn State resources (Undergrad Advising Handbook [2] and a web page from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences [3]) to see what academic integrity is and what consequences it might bring when breached.

Information to Avoid Common Mistakes

1. Please use both (1) an in-text citation and (2) an end-of-the-document citation (a.k.a. reference list, works cited list) per one work cited. For full credit, you must use BOTH in-text citations and a reference list at the end of your assignments.
2. When you are borrowing somebody else's idea in a word-for-word manner ("direct quotes"), use quotation marks along with an in-text citation. Failing to do so constitutes a breach of academic integrity. 

Example:

As the heroine of Little Women notes, Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents.
(Wrong)

As the heroine of Little Women notes, "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" (Alcott, 1868, pg. #).
(Correct)

Citation (end-of-the-document) information that frequently gets left out

In this course, we seek to provide a learning experience to practice proper citing of other people's works. Some websites, for example, deliberately omit some  essential citation information. It is up to you to make sure that you provide complete citation information in your submissions of weekly questions and reactions, current event discussions, and the final essay.

Typically, the citation on a website lacks the following information about the cited material you need to fill in for your assignments:

For Articles:

1. Full journal name - it is NOT the same as the name of the web database service. No Science Directs or Wileys, please.
2. Journal volume and issue number

For Books and Book Chapters

1. Full publisher information (e.g., city of publication)
2. A book chapter citation should include both (a) the title of the whole book, and (b) the title of the specific chapter you are borrowing ideas from

Web-based, non-print resources

1. Add a web address when it is an exclusively web-based resource (e.g., YouTube video clip).

An example of a citation of a journal article:

In the below image, the first (wrong) one is a Google Scholar citation copy and pasted without any revision. The second (correct) one is still a Google Scholar citation, but I added missing information by doing an additional search. This example is meant to show that you MAY use Google Scholar or another citation generator, BUT more often than not, you need to ADD to or EDIT your citation generator result to have a complete citation.

Video Guides to APA Citation (begins at 4:10):

Video Guides to Scholastic Research:

• How to use the Penn State CAT Search [5]

Helpful Hint:

If you are not familiar with the Penn State University Libraries website [6], I strongly encourage you to explore this extremely valuable website to learn about other research resources available to you as a student. The Penn State University Libraries website offers additional resources, in addition to citation help, under their 'How To' section. Refer to this page for more information on citations, scholastic research skills, and tutorials.

Keep these tips in mind when preparing to be successful in an online course:

Treat online learning as you would a face-to-face class

You should devote at least the same amount of time to your online courses as you would to attending lectures on campus and completing assignments. Other good study habits, such as attending class (logging on) regularly and taking notes, are as important in an online course as in a lecture hall.

Intentionally schedule your time

You should devote 10-12 hours weekly to completing lesson readings and assignments. Your learning will be most effective when you engage with the course daily.

Engage, Engage, Engage

Take every opportunity to interact with the content, the instructor, and your classmates by completing assignments and participating in discussion forums and group activities!

Be organized and keep up

Keep in sync with what is happening in the course and stay on top of deadlines and upcoming assignments. If you fall behind, it can be difficult to catch up.

Ask for help

Ask for guidance when needed. Email the instructor directly through Canvas.

Other Resources

The links below will connect you with other resources to help support your successful online learning experience:

• Tips for Being a Successful World Campus Student [7]

  This website links to many resources on everything from taking notes online to managing your time effectively. Please note that you must be a World Campus student to receive some of the support services mentioned on this website.

• Penn State World Campus Technology Resources [8]

  This website provides resources to help you learn to use technology, access Penn State tools, and purchase and download software.

• Penn State World Campus Blog [9]

  This blog features posts by Penn State staff and students on a variety of topics relevant to online learning. Learn from online students, alumni, and staff members about how you can get the most out of your online course experience.

• Penn State iStudy for Success! [10]

  The iStudy online learning tutorials are free and available to all Penn State students. They cover a broad range of topics including online learning readiness, time management, stress management, and statistics - among many others. Check out the extensive list of topics for yourself to see what topics may be of most use to you!

• LinkedIn Learning at Penn State [11]

  This website provides access to an extensive free online training library, with tutorials on everything from creating presentations to using mobile apps for education. There is a wealth of information here - all provided free of charge to Penn State faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students.

Summary

We’ll begin this semester with the first chapter from one of the leading Human-Environment Geography textbooks. This chapter is meant to make sure we are all on the same page. It offers a great introduction to some of the major themes we will encounter during the semester and will help you to understand what Human-Environment Geography is and how it might relate to some of the more specific issues we talk about in this course. 

Tasks for this week:

• Complete the online material for Lesson 1 (You have reached the end of the mateiral for Lesson 1, please see Canvas for the reading and assignments).
• Please check the Lesson 1 Overview for a full list of tasks.

Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Feel free to start reading matierial in Lesson 2 in order to get a head start for next week....

Global Environmental Change and Planetary Boundaries:

We start the course this week by thinking about the major environmental problems facing our planet and the historical development of our thinking about the factors that drive global environmental degradation and change. You will start by reading about Thomas Malthus and his theories about overpopulation. You will then read about ideas that counter this argument, including arguments that consumption and technological innovation are equally important to how many people and environment or the planet can support. This material will set you up to engage critically with the Course Material for the week.

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• How many people is too many?

• Have we exceeded the tipping point of global environmental change and can we ever revert back to previous environmental conditions?

• Are socio-economic disparities the main contributing factor to overpopulation issues? Or are there other factors we need to consider?

Lesson 2 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Malthusian Theory

Thomas Malthus was an English doctor and philosopher, born in England in 1766. His “An Essay on the Principle of Population” [14] proposed that population growth eventually will place catastrophic pressure on resource use - leading to famines, conflict, and other stress. Malthus suggested that population pressures lead to resource overuse, famine and misery, in particular, because exponential population growth outstrips food production. He argued that famine and misery in turn lead to vice (such as theft). 

Driven by some of the pressing issues of his day, Malthus was particularly interested in connecting the predicament of England’s poor to these issues of resources use and proposed imposing restrictions on the poor, suggesting that the poor practice sexual abstinence. Malthus took issue with England’s Poor Laws (a kind of welfare system for those unable to work). He argued that supporting the poor with social welfare only postponed the inevitable famine and conflict and placed undue pressure on the rest of society. He argued that the laws (social security) simply exacerbate the predicament of the poor by enabling the population to increase even more and requiring even more food to feed even more poor people. He argued that the poor should be left to starve to prevent environmental catastrophe.

Excerpts from An Essay on the Principles of Population, Chapter 1:

I.14

I think I may fairly make two postulata.

First, That food is necessary to the existence of man.

Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state.

I.17

Assuming then, my postulata as granted, I say, that the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.

I.18

Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A slight acquaintance with numbers will shew the immensity of the first power in comparison of the second.

I.19

By that law of our nature which makes food necessary to the life of man, the effects of these two unequal powers must be kept equal.

I.22

This natural inequality of the two powers of population, and of production in the earth, and that great law of our nature which must constantly keep their effects equal, form the great difficulty that to me appears insurmountable in the way to the perfectibility of society. All other arguments are of slight and subordinate consideration in comparison of this. I see no way by which man can escape from the weight of this law which pervades all animated nature. No fancied equality, no agrarian regulations in their utmost extent, could remove the pressure of it even for a single century. And it appears, therefore, to be decisive against the possible existence of a society, all the members of which, should live in ease, happiness, and comparative leisure; and feel no anxiety about providing the means of subsistence for themselves and families.

Excerpts from Chapter 5:

V.1

The positive check to population, by which I mean, the check that represses an increase which is already begun, is confined chiefly, though not perhaps solely, to the lowest orders of society.

V.3

To remedy the frequent distresses of the common people, the poor-laws of England have been instituted; but it is to be feared, that though they may have alleviated a little the intensity of individual misfortune, they have spread the general evil over a much larger surface. It is a subject often started in conversation and mentioned always as a matter of great surprise, that notwithstanding the immense sum that is annually collected for the poor in England, there is still so much distress among them….

V.10

The poor-laws of England tend to depress the general condition of the poor in these two ways. Their first obvious tendency is to increase population without increasing the food for its support. A poor man may marry with little or no prospect of being able to support a family in independence. They may be said therefore in some measure to create the poor which they maintain; and as the provisions of the country must, in consequence of the increased population, be distributed to every man in smaller proportions, it is evident that the labour of those who are not supported by parish assistance, will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions than before, and consequently more of them must be driven to ask for support.

V.27

Notwithstanding, then, the institution of the poor-laws in England, I think it will be allowed, that considering the state of the lower classes altogether, both in the towns and in the country, the distresses which they suffer from the want of proper and sufficient food, from hard labour and unwholesome habitations, must operate as a constant check to incipient population.

V.28

To these two great checks to population, in all long occupied countries, which I have called the preventive and the positive checks, may be added vicious customs with respect to women, great cities, unwholesome manufactures, luxury, pestilence, and war.

Neo-Malthusian Thought and Arguments against Overpopulation

Overpopulation is the idea that there are not enough resources on the earth to sustain the earth’s population. Key to this idea is that there are certain human needs that must be filled, and that there are finite resources to fulfill these needs. You might notice that many of the ideas and language Malthus uses resonates with discussions of population, food, and poverty heard in the press today. Malthus’ ideas gained renewed interest in the 1960s and 1970s with the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb which revisited Malthus’ prediction that overpopulation would outpace food production, resulting in catastrophe. The ideas presented in these works conceive of resources as finite. This viewpoint begets discussions of resource scarcity, as it assumes that there are limits to the capacity of nature to produce or supply resources. . 

Many scholars have taken issue with these ideas, in particular pointing out that human needs can be met by multiple forms, that needs can be a product of social pressures (do you need Doritos to satisfy your hunger? or an iPhone to have human interaction?), and human ingenuity and technological fixes have helped us adapt ways to meet our needs. Humans are not just parasites on the natural environment. This mindset fails to account for the ways humans modify the environment to increase production. Overpopulation arguments tend to place blame on the poor for having too many babies and not consider over consumption by wealthy that are fueled by artifact colonial regime structures.

The Impact-Population Affluence-Technology (IPAT) equation is used to highlight that it is not just population that matters, but also, affluence or consumption and technology. The equation identifies three factors which contribute to environmental impacts (I): population (P), affluence / consumption (A), and technology (T). Typically, the equation is expressed as seen in the image below. 

The IPAT Equation

Overpopulation:

Watch this video (6 min 40 sec) to better understand population growth, changing birth rates, demographic transitions and poverty (the content might be on your quiz this week).

When we think about population we also need to think about consumption.

Global income deciles and associated lifestyle consumption emissions: Percentage of CO₂ emissions by world population. Richest 10% responsible for almost 1/2 of total lifestyle consumption emissions. Poorest 50% responsible for only around 10% of total lifestyle consumption emissions.

  Credit: Oxfam

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL MATERIAL:

• Peter Menzel's photo journal "Hungry Planet Family Food Portraits [16]" is a great visual documentation of how important consumption (A) is in therm of environmental impacts.
• Eric Holt-Gimenez's article "We Already Grow Enough Food For 10 Billion People -- and Still Can't End Hunger [17]" is a good start to thinking about the "doubling food production by 2050" discourse.
• The Population Research Institute’s videos on “Overpopulation is a Myth [18]”, Episodes 1-6 may also be helpful. These videos are short, only a few minutes each.

Required Reading:

Pearce, F. (2018) Is the way we think about overpopulation racist? [13] The Guardian Newspaper.

Fred Pearce is a Science journalist who writes for a diversity of news outlets. He often draws on ideas from Geography to critique mainstream media content and reporting.

Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin Iii, F. S., Lambin, E. F., . . . Foley, J. A. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461, 472. doi:10.1038/461472a.

Johan Rockström and colleagues in 2009 designed a framework to determine critical planetary boundaries for 9 systems. Rockström’s research is very important because it helps us (as humanity) understand in which boundaries pose the greatest threat and where we should focus our mitigation efforts. Climate is already outside the ranges of the Holocene as we have now moved into the era of the Anthropocene. An important conclusion he drew is that the three biggest threats to our planet are the anthropogenic influences in Biodiversity Loss, Nitrogen cycle, and climate change. Human activities now convert more N2 from the atmosphere into reactive forms than all of the Earth's terrestrial processes combined. Rockström set limits to how much influence we can have in each system and both Biodiversity Loss and the Nitrogen Cycle have exceeded those limits already. Nitrogen flow should be reduced to 25% of its current value. Species are becoming extinct at a rate that has not been seen since the last global mass-extinction, with a loss of 2/3rd of mammalian animals since 2016, and 30% of all species threatened with extinction. Climate change is still within a manageable limit, but it is expected to increase exponentially towards that limit due to a wide variety of factors over the next few decades. Although Rockström’s research is very helpful, it is hard to determine the accuracy of the information due to the complex interconnectedness of systems with each other. Many of the systems are reaching what he refers to as “tipping” points. These "tipping" points are considered the point of no return for ensuring these systems stay in a balanced state such as the Holocene conditions that we have observed for the past 10,000 years. This research is important to educate the general public as it provides a great overview of the current state of our world, where it is suffering the most, and where we should focus our mitigative efforts for the future.

NOTE: A link to the Rockström reading is located in the Week 2 module in Canvas.

Required Film:

Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet. 2021. Director Jonathan Clay

David Attenborough with scientist Johan Rockström and others who work on Planetary Boundaries examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.

The film is currently available on Netflix (with CC) or on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8h1bck  [19]

Complex Social-Ecological Systems:

As you work through this section, make sure you understand the different terms used well enough to use them correctly in your own thinking and writing (feedbacks, system state transition, thresholds, legacy, telecoupling, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation). Can you identify examples of these outside of the course content?  

More broadly, consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• Do we ever consider the long term effects of our actions in regards to the environment?
• How connected are our lives with the health state of the ecosystems?
• Have we reached the threshold of ecosystem resilience? Or have we ventured into the territory of irreversible damage?

Lesson 3 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Complex Social-Ecological Systems: 

Complex Social-Ecological Systems is an important way of thinking about Human-Environment interactions, one which many Geographers use in their work. While Complex Social-Ecological Systems approaches are used by researchers in many fields (such as Sustainability Science, Ecology, Environmental Science, and Human Ecology), Geographers have made a central contribution to the theory and methods behind this approach. Complex Social-Ecological Systems also get called Human-Environment Systems, Adaptive Systems and Coupled Human-Natural Systems. They include interlinked "social" systems and "ecological" or "natural" systems. As you will learn in the section, the different components of these systems are complex, integrated systems composed of human society, economy, and a biological ecology.

Complex Social-Ecological Systems

Credit: Complex Social-Ecological Systems by Bronwen Powell [20]
© Penn State University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 [21]

Positive and Negative Feed-backs:

Feedbacks refer to both an initial action and the resulting environmental reaction in a system. Positive feedbacks increase the magnitude of impact (environmental reaction) of the initial action, destabilizing the system. Melting ice [22] is an example of a positive feedback loop in the environment. On the other hand, negative feedbacks decrease the magnitude of impact (environmental reaction) of the initial action, stabilizing the system. The Carbon Cycle [23] is an example of a negative feedback loop in the environment. 

Schematic illustration of two feedback mechanisms that are important in Earth’s climate system. Each feedback mechanism, as depicted above, may be triggered by either a warming or a cooling; in either case, they trigger an amplifying or countering effect. Note that the positive feedback mechanism, left to its own devices, could lead to runaway cooling and a completely frozen Earth, but positive feedbacks will generally activate negative feedback mechanisms that limit the runaway tendency of positive feedbacks.

Credit: Positive Feedback Mechanism by Dr. David Bice [24], EARTH 103: Earth in the Future
© Penn State University is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 [21]

System State Transition:

System State Transition (also called Regime Shifts) are persistent changes in the structure and function of a system. System state transitions involve changes in both the composition of the system, but also the ways components of systems interact with each other. They are often perceivable to an untrained observed, such as a switch from grassland to forest or vise versa.  

Threshold:

A threshold is a transitional point in one or more key factors or variables that leads to a switch between alternative system states that can be spatial (shifts through space) and temporal (shifts through time). Once a threshold in a given variable is reached, a system state transition is more likely or even unavoidable. In the example of a system state transitions between grasslands and forest there could be a threshold in the amount of precipitation, the frequency of fire or the magnitude of livestock grazing.

Thresholds for conservation and management: structured decision making as a conceptual framework.....

Credit: Figure from: Nichols, J. D., Eaton, M. J., & Martin, J. (2014).

Legacy:

Legacy is the inheritance from anthropogenically induced change to an environmental system. Legacy effects are environmental conditions that result from past human disturbances such as land use and land cover change, fire regime, water diversions, and introduction of non-native species. Legacy effects are important because when we study how a new disturbance or change will impact a system we need to take into consideration the fact that the system may already be undergoing change from a past, sometimes unknown or unseen disturbance.

Resilience:

Resilience is the capability to retain similar structures and functioning after disturbances for continuous development (Lui et al. 2007). The term "Resilience" was first introduced to ecology by C. S. Holling (1973) and defined it as the amount of disturbance that an ecosystem could withstand without changing structure (or going through a system state transition). Other ecologists have defined it as the amount of time needed for an ecosystem to return to a stable state following a disturbance. Resilience of a system can be impacted in positive and negative ways by both human and natural component of social-ecological systems. Human intervention can play a key role in maintaining resilience. 

Vulnerability

There is little agreement around the exact definition or measurement of the concept of “vulnerability”. In the context of social-ecological systems research vulnerability includes the potential for adverse consequences to occur in response to different events. For some "vulnerability" is similar to "risk". “Risk” is a combination of the magnitude of impact or adverse outcomes due to an event, as well as the likelihood that those outcomes will occur. Both the likelihood or an even and the magnitude of impact are shaped by both social and environmental factors. 

Adaptation / Adaptive Capacity

Adaptive systems are able to re-configure without significant changes in crucial functions or declines in ecosystem services. Systems that are not adaptive have constrained options during periods of reorganization and renewal. Adaptive capacity in ecological systems is associated with all types of diversity (genetic, biological, and landscape) and to institutions, knowledge and networks for learning in social systems (The Resilience Alliance [25]).

Telecoupling:

Socioeconomic and environmental interactions between coupled human and natural systems over distances (Liu et al. 2013 [26]). Jack Lui explained “Telecoupling is about connecting both human and natural systems across boundaries. There are new and faster ways of connecting the whole planet -- from big events like earthquakes and floods to tourism, trade, migration, pollution, climate change, flows of information and financial capital, and invasion of animal and plant species.” The prefix “tele” means “at a distance” Liu developed the concept as a way to express one of the often-overwhelming consequences of globalization. Today increased trade, transportation, human movement and global scale environmental change means that an event or phenomenon in one corner of the world can have an impact far away.

Conceptual difference between tele-connections, globalization and telecouplings.

Credit: Liu et al. "Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World. [26]" Ecology and Society 18(2): 26, Figure 1 [27], 2013.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License [28].

Additional Information:

• The Resilience Alliance [29] is a great supplemental resource for more in-depth definitions of the terms and additional concepts listed above. 

Liu, J., Dietz, T., Carpenter, S.R., Alberti, M., Folke, C., Moran, E., Pell, A.N., Deadman, P., Kratz, T., Lubchenco, J. and Ostrom, E., (2007). Complexity of coupled human and natural systems. Science 317 (5844): 1513-1516.

Liu and collaborators discuss the different aspects that define coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) and exemplifies these aspects through six case studies. These case studies help relate how the parts of these systems can be applied to our world around us. CHANS are a relatively new way of studying the connection between humans and the environment because there is rarely crossover between social sciences and ecology.  This expanse into interdisciplinary research between the two fields has provided us an understanding of how our actions as humans can have impacts on ecological systems at all scales. Feedback loops and reciprocal effects go hand in hand to describe the effect of humans on environment and the resulting responses of humans  to those environmental changes. Spatial and temporal thresholds mark substantial changes as humans exploit the resources of ecological systems, disrupting, and therefore shifting, the natural states of these systems. Unlike when we talked about planetary boundaries last week, CHANS does not necessarily mean there will be detrimental effects to an ecosystem. The resilience capability of an ecological system can help retain their structure and function after experiencing some type of disturbance, however human impact can impede resilience. While reading this paper, reflect on the questions posed in the overview to help guide your critical thinking. 

Note: A link to the reading is located in the Lesson 3 module in Canvas.

Required Film:

Arnaquq-Baril, A. (Producer and Writer), with Cross, D. and Moore, B. (Executive Producers). (2016) Angry Inuk. Produced by Unikkaat Studios Inc., in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, in association with EyeSteelFilm.

Angry Inuk is a documentary made by Inuk woman and film maker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril. Thoughout the film, Arnaquq-Baril illustrates how seal hunting is an integral part of both the Inuk’s economy and way of life. She critiques the tactics of Greenpeace in implementing a ban on seal skin products. Arnaquq-Baril explains how the European ban on seal skins is hurting the Inuk economy, despite exemptions for seal skin products from indigenous subsistence hunting. She then demonstrates how the Inuk are using social media to sway public opinion and protest the European seal skin ban. Arnaquq-Baril also notes that Arctic seal populations are increasing.

As you watch the film, think about what the Inuit Social-Ecological system and the ways the different aspects of Complex Social-Ecological Systems and concepts from the reading this week, apply to this system. 

Angry Inuk

Credit: Film Movement Exclusives

The film is available for free on YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thzMNIBkqJM [30]

Governance of Resources:

This week we will examine theories and approaches to study how resources (especially natural resource) are governed. Governance refers to the norms, institutions and processes that determine how power and responsibilities over resources are exercised, how decisions are made, and how different people participate in these processes. In Geography we pay particular attention to how different groups (and especially marginalized groups) participate in and benefit from the management of resources. The effectiveness and equity of governance processes critically determine both the extent to which ecosystems contribute to human well being and the sustainability of use. 

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• Whose responsibility is it to manage local resources? Global resources?
• What are the socio-economic and socio-ecologic implications of resource extraction?  
• When is it beneficial for a government or private company to control a resource? When is it not beneficial? 

Lesson 4 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Resource Governance:

Governance refers to the norms, institutions and processes that determine how power and responsibilities over resources are exercised, how decisions are made, and how different people participate in these processes. In Geography we pay particular attention to how different groups (and especially marginalized groups) participate in and benefit from the management of resources. The effectiveness and equity of governance processes critically determine both the extent to which ecosystems contribute to human well being and the sustainability of use.

Garret Hardin and the Tragedy of the Commons:

Dr. Garret Hardin (1915-2003) was a famous ecologist and microbiologist at University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB). Hardin's interdisciplinary work in human ecology and biology is considered to be part of the foundation of modern ecology. This interdisciplinary approach allowed him to develop ideas on humanity's relationship with nature and human population growth. He saw humans as a specialized entity within the biologic system that allowed it to grow nearly unchecked as a result. Hardin was a strong proponent of human population control and resource management, supporting controversial ideas such as sterilization and anti-immigration policies. He was aware that humanities resources are finite, exhausted even more with unchecked population growth, thus he justified his support of these controversial ideas based on this rationale. 

Below are a few select quotes from Dr. Hardin:  

“A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.”

“It is clear that we will greatly increase human misery if we do not, during the immediate future, assume that the world available to the terrestrial human population is finite.”

“A community that renounces war as a means of settling international disputes still cannot survive without that discriminating form of altruism we call patriotism. It must defend the integrity of its borders or succumb into chaos."

“In a competitive world of limited resources, total freedom of individual action is intolerable.”

“We summarize the situation by saying: ‘There is a shortage of food.’ Why don’t we say, ‘There is a longage of people’?”

“To survive indefinitely in good shape a nation must take as its advisers people who can see farther than investment bankers.”

Hardin is most notably known for his published 1968 Science magazine essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons," cautions about finite resources and that humanity must accept and adapt to the looming future of limited resources. In his essay, Hardin observes that rational self-interest does not benefit society as a whole. Self-interested individuals who share a common-pool resource perceive the full benefits of harvesting the resource, but the negative consequences of reckless use of the commons is distributed among all users. As a result, everyone tries to consume as much as they can, thus depleting the commons. The most common example of this was provided by the British political economist William Forster Lloyd in 1832. Lloyd had made an observation that cattle grazing on a common space land were more malnourished than their counterparts which grazed on privately owned land. Following Hardin's rationale, as each farmer tries to add more cattle to capitalize on the free grazing space that space will degrade and deplete in faster than normal conditions, thus destroying the free grazing space for everyone else. Hardin prescribes either separating the resource into private allotments or putting in place restrictions and penalties to manage common-pool resources. This, along with the ideas brought forth from this essay, have been broadly accepted as an integral contribution to ecology, population theory, economics, and political science research of today. 

The trash on the beach shown here is another example of how common spaces today are misused or depleted by human activities. 

Elinor Ostrom:

Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012) was and remains to be the first woman to win a Nobel prize in Economics for her work on sustainability and commons management. Unlike Hardin's thoughts on the impending doom of commons, Ostrom believed that the future of commons were not as bleak. Her research involved studying real world cases of commons uses, conservation, and sustainability. She found through her work, and often argued with Hardin over, that if commons resource management were to be left up to a local community, they would work together to conserve that resource. Her belief in a governmental or privatized entity being able to adequately manage common resources was limited. Overall, Ostrom felt that a polycentrist approach was the best. Although much of her research was based around localized efforts, she was also a strong advocate for global issues like climate change and sustainable practices. Ostrom encouraged economists to consider ecologic ideology in order to promote sustainable practices and mitigate climate change for the future.

Elinor Ostrom (1933-2012)

Image Credit: By © Holger Motzkau [31] 2010, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons [32], CC BY-SA 3.0 [33]

Below are a few select quotes from Dr. Ostrom:

“As long as a single center has a monopoly on the use of coercion, one has a state rather than a self-governed society.”

“But until a theoretical explanation -based on human choice – for self-organized and self-governed enterprises is fully developed and accepted, major policy decisions will continue to be undertaken with a presumption that individuals cannot organize themselves and always need to be organized by external authorities.”

"Little by little, bit by bit, family by family, so much good can be done on so many levels."

“There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right.”

"Bureaucrats sometimes do not have the correct information, while citizens and users of resources do."

Optional Readings:

• "Elinor Ostrom, her Nobel Prize, and her rules for ecologist radicals [34]"
• Elinor Ostrom Obituary in The Economist [35]

The term Resources Curse (also referred to as the paradox of plenty) first entered debates about development and economics in the 1990s. In their paper titled "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth [36]", Sachs and Warner (1995) defined this term by stating that countries with an abundance of natural resources, tend to have less economic growth, less democracy, and worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. Although it may seem intuitive that positive economic development would result from the discovery of resources within a country, it can have the opposite effect. It has been observed that there are higher rates of conflict and hegemonic practices coupled with economic instability and stunting in resource-rich countries.  

Many socio-economic challenges may arise for a country as a result of resource abundance. One such challenge is the phenomena called Dutch Disease. This phenomena refers to an instance that happened in the 1960's in the Netherlands, where a discovery of a natural gas field caused temporary boom to the industry and thus created issues for other sectors of the economy. Specifically, this can be defined as a situation where other sectors within a countries economy are negatively impacted by the growth in national income from natural resource extraction. An example of this in the United States would be the oil boom that started in 2006 in the Bakken formation in western North Dakota. Ross (2015) paper titled, "What Have We Learned about the Resource Curse? [37]", argued that out of all the resource industries, petroleum/oil was the most damaging as it promotes civil instability between classes, oversight incentives (i.e. corruption), and authoritarian regimes. This is apparent in developing, third-world countries, such as equatorial Africa, where governments are more likely to be unstable and there are large disparities between social classes. 

Diagram of oversight incentives that occur in resource-rich countries where citizens are not as informed as to the government spending. Alternatively, in resource-poor countries, there is a lack of incentives, and the citizens are more aware of how their government spends money.

Credit: The Resource Curse: The Political and Economic Challenges of Natural Resource Wealth. National Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). NRGI Reader, March 2015 . (Public Domain) For an accessible version, contact NRGI.

As you read this week, make sure you pay attention to and learn how to define the following: Governance, Common Pool Resource, Governmentality, Resource Curse.

Ostrom, E. (2009). A General Framework for Analyzing the Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems. Science, 325(5939): 419–22.

This is one of Ostrom's most recent pieces of writing and clearly summarizes the factors needed for sustainable governance of common pool resources and the autonomous organization of resource users to maintain their resources. In this paper, she highlights that the following factors shape the success of common pool resource governance:

• Size of resource system
• Productivity of system
• Predictability of system dynamics
• Collective-choice rules
• Resource unit mobility
• Number of users
• Leadership/entrepreneurship
• Norms/social capital
• Knowledge of SES/mental models
• Importance of resource

Watts, M. (2004). Resource curse? Governmentality, oil and power in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Geopolitics, 9(1), 50-80.

Dr. Michael Watts, an emeritus professor at the University of California - Berkely and a highly respected Environment-Society Geographer, has written extensively on resource governance and the idea of the Resources Curse. He uses a political ecology and political economy to study the governance of oil in Nigeria and the Niger Delta region. Watts uses the oil industry in Niger Delta as a case study to highlight the ongoing governmental and industry hegemony against the citizens of the region. His conclusions parallel the conclusions Ross (2015) came to in his article by bringing attention to the political disfunction which has been caused by oil.

Dr. Michael Watts

Credit: UC-Berkley Geography [38], 2021.

Dr. Watts concludes his article with this profound statement that reflects and sums up the the influence of oil globally: "Oil may indeed be a curse but its violent history – and its ability to generate conflict – can only be decoded if we are attentive to the unique qualities of oil itself” as well as institutions and existing political landscape."

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Lesson 4 module in Canvas.

Environmental Justice:

This week, we will learn about Environmental Justice/ injustice, Environmental Racism, and the ways that structural racism result in exposure to and protection from environmental and health hazards. We will examine the ways that less powerful communities have unequal access to and involvement in decision-making processes around their environments and related health and well-being outcomes. We will examine case studies from New York, California, and Mississippi. Some students find the material this week challenging and even emotionally difficult; please keep an open mind while you work through the material this week!

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• Who gets to make decisions about human use of the environment?
• Who benefits from these decisions?
• Who bears the negative impacts?

Lesson 5 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Introduction

Majora Carter grew up in the South Bronx, and in this TedTalk, she details her struggle for environmental justice where she lives. Her talk describes how marginalized neighborhoods suffer the most from flawed urban policy, and delivers some of her ideas for a way forward. Since giving this Ted Talk, Majora Carter has gone on to win an astounding array of International Awards and has been given numerous honorary degrees from prestigious Universities across the USA. Pay close attention to the causes and consequences of environmental injustice that Carter identifies. 

Key Concepts in Environmental Justice:

Environmental Justice: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.

Environmental Injustice: unequal protection from environmental and health hazards and unequal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.

History of Environmental Justice in the USA: Struggles over unequal exposure to environmental hazards have been taking place for a very long time in societies all around the world, but the origins of environmental injustice as a concept can be traced back to 1982, when the State of North Carolina needed to clean up highly toxic waste (Polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, which is so dangerous to the environment and human health that the US banned it in 1979) that a company had been illegally dumping along highways across the state. After sending the perpetrators to jail, North Carolina decided to clean the highways and to relocate the toxic PCB-laden soil to a landfill, which they sited in the African American community of Afton, Warren County. The landfill was not a safe way to contain PCBs, and it represented a severe threat to the health of this community. However, African Americans have historically had very little political power in North Carolina, and it took over twenty years of lawsuits, protests, and public appeals for the state to take responsibility. In 2003, state and federal agencies detoxified the 81,500 tons of PCB-laden soil by burning it in a kiln that reached over 800 degrees. The residents' struggle in Warren County remains a powerful symbol for the environmental justice movement. 

White flight: a term used to refer to the large-scale movement of white people (of various European ancestries) from neighborhoods that were increasingly racially mixed in urban centers, to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. 

Redlining. Click on the link for an article describing the process of white flight in the United States. Then, take a look at how Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston [39] describes redlining:

Redlining is the practice of denying or limiting financial services to certain neighborhoods based on racial or ethnic composition without regard to the residents' qualifications or credit worthiness. The term "redlining" refers to the practice of using a red line on a map to delineate the area where financial institutions would not invest.

In the United States, from the 1930s through the 1960s, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which insured private mortgages and helped encourage home ownership, commonly used redlining in urban areas as a way to maintain segregation. The practice also served to concentrate economic resources in white neighborhoods and to concentrate harmful sources of pollution in black neighborhoods. As Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in the recent Atlantic article "The Case for Reparations" [40]:

The FHA had adopted a system of maps that rated neighborhoods according to their perceived stability. On the maps, green areas, rated “A,” indicated “in demand” neighborhoods that, as one appraiser put it, lacked “a single foreigner or Negro.” These neighborhoods were considered excellent prospects for insurance. Neighborhoods, where black people lived, were rated “D” and were usually considered ineligible for FHA backing. They were colored in red. Neither the percentage of black people living there nor their social class mattered. Black people were viewed as a contagion. Redlining went beyond FHA-backed loans and spread to the entire mortgage industry, which was already rife with racism, excluding black people from most legitimate means of obtaining a mortgage.

Today, redlining is illegal, but the wealth gap that it created remains and continues to exert a huge influence on the geography of financial investment and toxic waste sitting in the United States.

Political Ecology:

Political Ecology is another approach commonly used in Geography, especially Human-Environment Geography. Like Environmental Justice, Political Ecology pays close attention to justice and equity and the ways environmental change and environmental policy impact different people differently. The three core assumptions of Political Ecology are: 

1. The costs and benefits associated with environmental  policy and change are unequally distributed.
2. Environmental  policy and change can either reinforce or reduce existing social and economic inequalities.
3. Those changes in equality and power relations have political implications.

Political Ecology is covered in depth in other Geography courses at Penn State, so will not be covered in detail here. However, because it is such a central approach in Human-Environment Geography, a number of the papers you will read for this course will be written from a Political Ecology perspective. 

Pulido, L. (2000). Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90:12–40.

In her piece "Rethinking Environmental Racism: White Privilege and Urban Development in Southern California", Pulido argues that existing literature holds a “narrow understanding” of racism. She points out three specific issues that contribute to the narrow conception of racism which are: an emphasis on individual facility, role of intentionality, and an uncritical approach to scale. In the beginning of the paper, Pulido presents the question, “How did whites distance themselves from pollution and nonwhites?”, which can help to answer why nonwhites are the populations exposed to more environmental “bads” than they are “goods”. Clean air and access to parks are two examples of environmental goods and polluted air and close proximity to toxic pollutants are two examples of environmental bads. Pulido criticizes Baden and Coursey’s (1997) Six Sequential Scenarios and Conclusions. She claims that their reasoning behind stating that only two of these scenarios can be the only mechanisms to measure environmental racism is creating a mindset that in order for an action to be considered environmentally racist it must be doing so intentionally, and as we can see that is not the case all the time. Pulido's groundbreaking contribution to geography (and environmental justice studies) in this article is that she combines the mapping of racial demographics and siting of toxic facilities with spatial renderings of suburbanization and white flight to produce a more complex understanding of environmental racism as an ongoing process. Specifically, she explores different ways of understanding environmental racism, and emphasizes "white privilege" as a particularly influential form of racism that has shaped urban and suburban development in the United States.

Gupta, J., Liverman, D., Prodani, K., Aldunce, P., Bai, X., Broadgate, W., ... & Verburg, P. H. (2023). Earth system justice needed to identify and live within Earth system boundaries. Nature Sustainability, 6(6), 630-638.

You have likely heard of Environmental Jusice, and may even have covered the concept in other courses. This paper and other writing by Joyeeta Gupta and coauthors is important becuase it applies concpets of justice and enironmental justice to earth systems and planetary boundaries. They propose the concept of "Earth system justice", which refers to the concept of ensuring a fair distribution of environmental benefits, risks, and responsibilities across all people, within the planetary boundaries. They note that justice must be considered alongside ecological limits of our planet to protect the planet and its inhabitants equitably. The paper emphasizes that living within planetary boundaries must also include addressing inequalities to prevent disproportionate harm to marginalized communities and prioritize their needs when making decisions about resource allocation and environmental protection.

NOTE: A link to the reading is located in the Lesson 5 module in Canvas.

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus:

William Easterling, NSF assistant director for Geosciences and Professor of Geography at Penn State has commented: "Food, energy and water have long been studied independently or in pairs, but not all three at once... Now, novel ways of examining all three together are yielding important new knowledge that will help us achieve food, water and energy security even with further population growth."

This week, we will read about the FEW Nexus and the Environmental Impacts of Agriculture.

As you go through the material for this week, consider the following:

• How might thinking about food-energy-water all at the same time improve decision making around sustainability?
• What links do you see to past weeks (Planetary Boundaries, Social-Ecological Systems, Governance and Environmental Justice)?
• Does the idea food-energy-water nexus consider justice and equity adequately?
• Do you believe we can produce enough food to feed the world and reduce the environmental impacts of food production? Do you see links to Malthusian thought in this weeks material?

Week 6 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

The Food Energy Water Nexus:

Humanity depends upon the Earth's resources to provide key resources needed for human well-being and economic growth: food, energy, and water (FEW). In the face of growing pressure on our planet (see Lesson 1 - Planetary Boundaries), decisions about where and how to produce each of these must be considered carefully. There are clear trade-offs between the three, and multiple interdependences. In the face of these challenges, it is essential that we learn to think about the production of these resources in an integrated way. Geography has long excelled at thinking about such complex issues, as you have learned over the past weeks. We must find ways to best integrate social, ecological, physical and built environments to provide all three of these resources in a sustainable and just manner. The Food-Energy-Water Nexus is a new way of looking at things, and now supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Research publications proposing, testing and using FEW frameworks are only recently starting to emerge. 

The NSF notes "Known stressors in FEW systems include governance challenges, population growth and migration, land use change, climate variability, and uneven resource distribution. The interconnections and interdependencies associated with the FEW Nexus pose research grand challenges. To meet these grand challenges, there is a critical need for research that enables new means of adapting societal use of FEW systems." (Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) [41]).

As you progress through the following weeks of content in the course (Lesson 7: Food, Lesson 8: Energy and Lesson 9: Water) keep thinking about each through a FEWs Nexus lense and watching for the interconnetions between them.

Required Reading:

Leck, H., Conway, D., Bradshaw, M., & Rees, J. (2015). Tracing the water–energy–food nexus: description, theory and practice. Geography Compass, 9(8), 445-460.

The authors examine reasons for the increase in research focused around the nexus of water, energy, and food (WEF). In so doing, they investigate why it would be difficult to achieve the type of disciplinary boundary that is typically promoted in scholastic research and consider how to initiate many of the present theories and practices that have yet to be applied in the real world. Leck et al. (2015) indicate that there are although the nexus approach has been around prior to this increase, it has been challenging to encompass the interdependent WEF relationships and thus limiting its execution and progress at all scales of implementation. The future of nexus approaches to address global environmental change is promising should the movement be able to overcome previous hurdles. As advancements in technology to learn more of the linkages of WEF at varied scales as well as promoting collaboration between state and non-state entities continues, these hurdles will become more manageable.

"Identifying winners and losers in WEF nexus decision-making and giving explicit attention to justice and equity concerns are central for nexus agendas to be socially progressive (Dupar and Oates 2012; Stringer et al. 2014)."

"As Allouche et al. (2014: 23) explain, ‘food, water and energy have never been conceptually separated in the way that experts have sought to understand them. Indeed, it may be that the WEF nexus is the (re)discovery by experts working in silos of what practicing farmers and fishers already knew’."

"...scalar considerations are central to the nexus because water, energy or food interventions are not necessarily suitable or effective at all scales."

Huntington, H. P., Schmidt, J. I., Loring, P. A., Whitney, E., Aggarwal, S., Byrd, A. G., ... & Wilber, M. (2021). Applying the food–energy–water nexus concept at the local scale. Nature Sustainability, 4(8), 672-679.

This paper presents an effort to use FEW Nexus thinking to a specific social-ecological syste / setting in rural Alaska. In doing so they demonstrate that the framework can be applied beyond the theoretical. The authors raise concern that Nexus approaches fail to cover other factors that are very important to community well-being and may in fact be even more important than food, energy and water (in this case governance and transportation). They also note that proper consideration of these additional aspects of the system further complicates analysis.

Stein, C., C. Pahl-Wostl and J. Barron (2018). "Towards a relational understanding of the water-energy-food nexus: an analysis of embeddedness and governance in the Upper Blue Nile region of Ethiopia." Environmental Science & Policy 90: 173-182.

This paper provides a case study of what the study of the Food-Energy-Water Nexus looks like in real life: here in the upper Blue Nile watershed in Ethiopia. The paper tries to move from the abstract idea of the nexus to examine the collaboration and cross-sector coordination needed to achieve integrated management of Food, Energy, and Water production. As you read this paper, try to link back to your reading on governance in past weeks; what similarities and differences do you note?

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 6 module in Canvas.

This week, we will explore the first item in the Food-Energy-Water nexus: Food. We will examine how food and agricultural policy shape what we eat and how we produce what we eat. Last week, we looked briefly at the ways food and agricultural systems impact our planet. This week, we will focus on the ways our food and agricultural systems impact the health and well-being of people producing food, as well as consumers.

As you work though the material for this week, consider:

• Who controls the food system, and how much say do consumers have? After this week's material, how effective do you think "voting with your wallet" is?
• What concerns you more: the environmental impacts of food production, or the societal issues (such as health and well-being of farmers), or both? Are they interrelated, and if so, how?
• What can be done to improve our food and agriculture systems? Will the cost in ill-health resulting from poor quality diet eventually motivate change?

Week 7 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Geography of Food and Agriculture

Food, and its production through agriculture, are core topics in Human-Environment Geography. Political Ecology evolved as a field largely to deal with problems and problem narratives around food production (for example, to counter narratives of overpopulation as a reason for degradation of agricultural land). One of the earliest scholars to use a Political Ecology approach was Michael Watts in his 1983 book "Silent violence: food, famine, and peasantry in northern Nigeria" in which he argued that famine in Nigeria was linked to colonial policies that pushed commodity production on rural farmers, making them less resilient to drought. This was followed by Blaikie and Brookfield's 1987 "Land degradation and society" which is perhaps the best known example of a Political Ecology approach. Blaikie and Brookfield examined why land management often fails to prevent soil erosion, and sought to counter the narrative that poor farmers are poor land managers, to blame for soil degradation. They demonstrated how land accumulation by (largely white) elites in Southern Rhodesia had pushed poor farmers to more marginal land with higher risk of degradation. Since the 1980s, food and agriculture has remained a central topic in Human- Environment Geography. For example, Judith Carney, Rick Schroeder, Rebecca Elmhirst, and others have worked to demonstrate how social, economic, and political change in agricultural systems has lead to increasing burden on women around the world (Canrey 1993, Schroeder 1999). Penn State's Karl Zimmerer has published extensively on the Geography of Food and Agricultural systems in South America. In his book "Changing Fortunes: Biodiversity and Peasant Livelihood in the Peruvian Andes," he pushed back against the idea that the agrobiodiversity (diversity of crops grown) of the Andes was hopelessly endangered, by highlighting contemporary practices and attitudes that act to conserved agrobiodiversity, essential to adaptation.

Human-environment geographers are attentive to the ways narratives are used to justify or promote certain policies and this includes food and agriculture policy at the international scale and national scale, including here in the USA. For example, Jarosz (2014) examined the history and narratives around food security and food sovereignty, noting that food sovereignty narratives have evolved to fill a gap left by the fact that food security narratives have failed to adequately address justice and poverty as a driver of food insecurity. This week, you will read a paper by Garret Graddy-Lovelace on the ways that US agricultural policy perpetuate injustice and inequity.

When geographers examine global value chains, food is often the commodity used to demonstrate the ways global interconnections and telecoupling impact both producers and consumers (Benson and Fischer 2007, Cook 2004, Zimmerer et al. 2018). Freidberg's (2004) "French Beans and Food Scares" documents the way food safety policies demanded by European consumers perpetuate inequality for producers in Africa. The films you will watch this week will highlight the ways food has become a commodity, and the implications for farmers and consumers' health and well-being.

Finally, geographers are, of course, also interested in the ways food impacts health. Guthman's book “Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism” challenged assumptions about its causes and consequences of the “obesity epidemic”, looking at why we produce cheap, over-processed food, as well as why we eat it. Recently, geographers like Julie Guthman and Becky Mansfield have been re-examining the idea from food justice movements that the disproportionate prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes among certain minoritized populations is caused by injustice in the food system (such as food deserts) to include ideas from epigenetics, suggesting that these inequalities result due to the fact that a person's historical exposure to food and toxins can change the expression of their genetic code.

Agroecology and Food Sovereignty:

Throughout this course, we have learnt about the ways food production is destroying our planet and harming farm workers all over the planet. Achieving global food security and nutrition is one of the greatest challenges humanity faces today; how to achieve these in a sustainable manner is an almost inconceivable challenge.

Creating a Sustainable Food Future by 2050

Credit: Ranganathan, J., Waite, R., Searchinger, T., and Hanson, C. "How to Sustainably Feed 10 billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts. [42]" World Resource Institute [43] (NRI). December 5, 2018. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 [21]

However, solutions and ideas exist about how we can achieve this. The World Resource Institute has recently released a publication called "How to Sustainably Feed 10 Billion People by 2050, in 21 Charts [44]", check it out for some good facts and figures that you may want to keep in mind as we progress through the rest of the course.

Agroecology is an integrated approach that simultaneously applies ecological and social concepts and principles to the design and management of food and agricultural systems. It seeks to optimize the interactions between plants, animals, humans, and the environment while taking into consideration the social aspects that need to be addressed for a sustainable and fair food system. While Oliver de Schutter was the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, he argued not only that Food was a Human Right, but that access to food for all people must be achieved though both sustainable and just agricultural practices embodied by an Agroecological approach (Sage 2014). Today, (Agroecology is a central aspect of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' work [45]). A recent study published in Nature found that 29% of all farms worldwide, and 9% of the agricultural land, now include some form of sustainable agricultural practice (including: integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, integrated crop and biodiversity, pasture and forage for cover, trees, irrigation management and small or patch systems) (Pretty et al. 2018). This week, you will read a paper by one of the most famous champions of Agroecology, Miguel Altieri [46]. Dr. Altieri was born in Chile and is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Many consider him the father of Agroecology.

Food Sovereignty focuses on transforming the current food system to ensure that those who produce food have equitable access to, and control over, land, water, seeds, fisheries, and agricultural biodiversity (Jarosz 2014). The Food Sovereignty movement was started by the international peasants’ organization, Via Campesina, after the 1995 Zapatista uprising in Mexico. The Zapatista uprising was, in part a response to the dumping of subsidized American corn in Mexican markets following the passage of NAFTA (which acted to drop the price of corn below what small-scale farmers could compete with and also led to massive international migration of farmers from Mexico to the USA and elsewhere) (Jarosz 2014).

Optional Watching:

Philip McMichael: Professor of Development Sociology at Cornell University. His research examines historic and modern capitalist practice through the lens of agrarian questions, food regimes, agrarian/food sovereignty movements, and the implications for food systems of agrofuels and land grabbing.

James Scott: Professor of Political Science, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University. His research focuses on political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of hegemony and resistance, peasant politics, revolution, Southeast Asia, theories of class relations, and anarchism.

Henry Bernstein: Emeritus Professor of Development Studies in the University of London at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Adjunct Professor at COHD, China Agricultural University, Beijing. His research expertise is in political economy of agrarian change, social theory, peasant studies, land reform, and the rural economy in South Africa.

Olivier de Schutter: Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the College of Europe (Natolin). His interests align with international human rights and fundamental rights in the EU, with a particular emphasis on economic and social rights and on the relationship between human rights and governance.

Raj Patel: A New York Times best-selling writer, academic, and human rights activist. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley's Center for African Studies and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, and the New York Times and international bestseller, The Value of Nothing.

If you would like to watch all lectures from the conference, YouTube has a complete playlist of the lecturers [47].

References Cited:

Benson, P. and E. F. Fischer (2007). Broccoli and desire. Antipode 39(5): 800-820.

Blaikie, P., & Brookfield, H. (1987). Land degradation and society. Methuan & Co.

Carney, J. (1993). Converting the wetlands, engendering the environment: The intersection of gender with agrarian change in the Gambia. Economic Geography, 69(4), 329-348.

Cook, I. (2004). Follow the thing: Papaya. Antipode, 36(4), 642-664.

Freidberg, S. (2004). French beans and food scares: Culture and commerce in an anxious age. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Jarosz, L. (2014). Comparing food security and food sovereignty discourses. Dialogues in Human Geography, 4(2), 168-181.

Pretty, J., T. G. Benton, Z. P. Bharucha, L. V. Dicks, C. B. Flora, H. C. J. Godfray, D. Goulson, S. Hartley, N. Lampkin and C. Morris (2018). Global assessment of agricultural system redesign for sustainable intensification. Nature Sustainability 1(8): 441.

Sage, Colin. 2014. Food security, food sovereignty and the special rapporteur: Shaping food policy discourse through realising the right to food. Dialogues in Human Geography 4(2):195-99.

Schroeder, R. A. (1999). Shady practices: Agroforestry and gender politics in the Gambia (Vol. 5). Univ of California Press.

Watts, M. (1983). Silent violence: food famine and peasantry in Northern Nigeria. Berkeley, University of California Press.

Zimmerer, K. S., Lambin, E. F., and Vanek, S. J. (2018). Smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability. Ecology and Society 23(1).

Zimmerer, K. S. (1997). Changing fortunes: Biodiversity and peasant livelihood in the Peruvian Andes. University of California Press.

Required Reading:

Graddy-Lovelace, G. (2017). The coloniality of US agricultural policy: articulating agrarian (in) justice. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 44(1), 78-99.

This paper analytically traces the historic legacies of coloniality within US agricultural policy. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a long history of racist subjugation, predominately through agribusiness monopolies. Graddy-Lovelace (2017) highlights the remaining, post-reform divide-and-conquer strategies and the colonialist mentalities of these monopolies and the impact of these legacies on USDA relationships. She also asserts that the lasting impact of coloniality builds upon expressed need to decolonize agricultural policy by grassroots organizations and remove restrictions surrounding the definition of a 'peasant'. In doing so, it could aid in exchange between grassroots agrarian alliances within the US as well as promote internationale advocacy for peasants’ rights.

Altieri, M. and V.M. Toledo, (2011). The Agroecological Revolution of Latin America: Rescuing Nature, Securing Food Sovereignty and Empowering Peasants. Journal of Peasant Studies, 38 (3): 587–612.

This paper provides an overview of the growing ‘agroecological revolution’ in Latin America due to the expansion of agroexports and biofuels. A heterogeneous mix of agroecological science and indigenous knowledge systems has created novel new approaches and technologic advancement in improving food security at local, regional, and national scales. It's been recognized in Latin American countries (e.g., Brazil, Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and the Andean region) that there are significant socio-economic and socio-ecological benefits for both rural and urban communities when agroecological models are implemented. Altierie and Toledo (2011) suggest that the 'agroecological revolution’ is developing in epistemological, technical, and social ways which are promoting positive changes to natural resource agrobiodiversity, food production, and grassroot initiatives. They determine these changes directly challenge neoliberal modernization policies, thus making new political venues for Latin American agrarian societies.

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 7 module in Canvas.

Required Films:

Glaser, J. and Lopez, D. (Directors & Producers). (2014). Banana Land: blood, bullets and poison. United States: Lazarus Films.

The following synopsis is taken from the documentary's website:

"For consumers, bananas are a delicious and nutritious start to to the day, a healthy snack and a fixture in our fruit bowls. For millions of residents in the banana lands, the production of bananas means social upheaval, violence and pesticide poisoning. Banana Land explores the origins of these disparate realities, and opens the conversation on how workers, producers and consumers can address this disconnect." -- bananalandmovie.org (2016)

When watching the film, consider the same question that was posed from last week's film: If you knew how your food was produced and where it was coming from, would that change how you viewed the final product? Is it the responsibility of the producer or consumer to be aware of how the product is handled at all stages? 

*NOTE: both embeded videos of Banana Land below are the same, however, if possible watch the second one as the first one is missing the introduction*

TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains images of mass murder and discussion of rape.

TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains images of mass murder and discussion of rape.

If you are unable to play the video in the window above, the documentary may also available for free on YouTube.

OPTIONAL FILM:

Wolfe, A. (Director) (2007). King Corn. You are what you eat. United Stats, Mosaic Films.

This film examines how Farm Bill subsidies to corn drive our fast-food nation. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis follow corn through the food system and discover it is in almost every food we eat. As you watch, think about the state of agriculture in the USA today and what it means for our food system. When watching the film, consider the following: What role does the family farm play in America’s perception of itself? What does it mean for the U.S. that the family farm is giving way to industrial or factory farming? What could reverse that trend?

King Corn

Credit: Mosaic Films

The film is available for Penn State students to stream through the Penn State Libraries. Use the following link to access the PSU library server where you will find a link [48] to stream the Online Content: King Corn.

More information on the documentary and how to support the campaign can be found on the King Corn website [49].

Energy Geographies

This week, we will consider energy as an important mediator of human-environment relations. In seeking energy sources, in recovering and using energy, humans necessarily make modifications (big and small) to their environment as well as to themselves. Energy production, distribution, and consumption re-orient human-environment relations as well as human societies. This week, the course looks at the sub-field of energy geography – what it is and what it studies. This week’s readings, on oil and biofuels, problematize two ideas that have become common sense when thinking about energy: first is the idea that scarcity of resources is a result of natural, geological limits; and second, the idea that renewables are beneficial for everyone.

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• What are the social, economic, and environmental impacts caused by the energy industry?
• Who invests in renewables, in what part of the world, and why?
• How will the transition towards renewables re-orient the geopolitics of energy, as well as our communities? What will be the role of the state, businesses, and communities?
• Are the discourses around clean energy and climate change taking attention away from the social inequalities inherent in some renewable energy technologies (think large hydroelectric dams and other land intensive renewables)?

Week 8 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

What is energy geography?

• “The study of energy development, transportation, markets, or use patterns and their determinants from a spatial, regional, or resource management perspective” (Solomon & Pasqualetti, 2004).
• “Geography is central to understanding and addressing the current energy dilemmas. The resource systems of energy production, distribution, and consumption are thoroughly entwined as social–environmental interactions occurring across multiple scales” (Zimmerer, 2011).
• “Energy geographies represent the convergence of concepts and techniques borne out of geography’s core sub-fields to past, prevailing, and future patterns of energy production, distribution, and use at various geographical scales. This includes an emphasis on the material (e.g. biophysical, technological) as well as immaterial (discursive, cultural) spatial dimension of scientific (academic) and policy (applied) imperatives.” (Calvert, 2016).

While energy geography has existed as a sub-field within geography for at least the past three decades, the interest in energy issues has been cyclical, spiking around the time of energy crisis (Solomon & Calvert, 2017). However, with energy taking center stage in regional, national, and international policy and public debates, scholarship in energy geography has seen a resurgence since the mid-2000s (Huber, 2015). Geographers argue that the inter-disciplinary nature of geographical research makes the discipline well-placed to engage with critical question of energy as well as affecting policy. 

Calvert (2016) suggests that the approach of geography to energy studies is best thought of as “an academic borderland”, as it lies somewhere in the overlap between the (four) sub-disciplines of geography. 

Energy is simultaneously: 

1. a physical entity that is derived from natural processes and transformed through physical systems, and therefore partly the domain of the ‘physical geographer’;
2. a social relation to the extent that physical entities are socially constructed as energy resources through political-economic and cultural processes but also a primary agent in the spatialization of social activities, and therefore partly the domain of the ‘human geographer’;
3. a primary mediator of our relationship with the environment and therefore partly the domain of the ‘nature-society’ or ‘human-environment’ geographer;
4. non-uniform over space and made accessible or not by site-level conditions and therefore partly the domain of the ‘GIScientist’ and ‘cartographer’

What do energy geographers study?

Energy geographers have studied the entire value chain of energy, from fuels and the extraction of energy to its distribution and consumption. A large part of the geographical work on energy has been to highlight the unequal distribution of benefits and costs that emerge from energy systems. Pasqualetti (2011), in his review of books in energy geography, notes the shifts that have occurred in the subjects studied by energy geographers since the 1950s. While in its formative years, energy geography concentrated on the location of resources, regional energy systems and nuclear power; since the 2000s, the focus has moved to climate change, energy justice, energy security, and renewable energy. While oil has been the most studied resource, recent scholarship in energy geography has turned its attention towards renewable sources of energy (solar, wind) as well as non-conventional sources (shale gas, oil sands).  

In his review of energy geography, Calvert (2016) concludes that energy geography scholarship includes the description and explanation of:

• the spatio-temporal distribution of energy stocks and flows as well as the geophysical processes which underlie that distribution;
• the relationship between the spatial form of socio-ecological systems and energy availability, production, distribution, and use at various geographic scales;
• national and regional differences in the above, as well as how they are intertwined with inter- and intra-regional distributions of political- economic power and social activities;
• the ways in which energy production and consumption mediates, and is mediated by, spatial politics and the human-environment relationship;
• the co-constitution of energy production and consumption with place-making activities, geographical imaginaries, spatial identities, and spatial representations;
• the geographical dimensions of the political tensions, social injustices, and scientific uncertainties that surround prevailing and future energy resource management decisions;
• the study of place-based solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems of energy system development including integrated regional supply-demand planning, integrated land-energy planning, and (critical) energy-GIS (p. 119).

Energy Transitions in Geography Research

There is an ongoing global shift in energy sources, from fossil fuels like coal and oil to renewable energy like solar, wind, and hydropower. These shifts are referred to as "Energy Transitions". At the global scale, current transitions are driven by concerns about climate change and environmental sustainability. But energy transitions are highly variable, in Africa poor households have extremely limited energy access, so “energy transitions” can include increased use of energy, as well as a shift from reliance on biomas (wood fuel and charcoal) towards cleaner energy such as gas and electricity for cooking, heating and lighting (Mperejekumana et al. 2024). Energy transitions impact the way energy is produced, distributed, and consumed across different regions with distinct geographical factors influencing the transition process. Energy transitions require major infrastructural requirements (e.g. hydroelectric dams and electric vehicle charging station) and have significant geopolitical Implications (e.g. changes in trade relationships as countries stop importing certain types of energy or start importing minerals for electric vehicles).

Check out: Leslie, E. 2023. "As Projects Decline, the Era of Building Big Dams Draws to a Close [50]" YaleEnvrionment360, April 20th, 2023.

"Experts say the world has hit “peak dams,” which conservationists hail as good news for riverine ecosystems."

As you will read this week, energy transitions are an emerging area of Geographical research and scholarship. Geographical thought, including thinking through the lenses of social-ecological systems, governance and political ecology, is well positioned to help us understand the complexities in trade-offs and needs that occur to humans, ecosystems and planetary boundaries as we navigate these complex transitions. For example, the shift to use of ethanol (from plants) to run our cars is one such shift that has complicated implications across geographical scales (see below). The increasing demand for minerals needed for electric batteries and vehicles is another aspect of these transitions you will explore in this course (FILM: When Elephants Fight, Lesson 9 Reading: Jerez et al. 2021).

Palm Oil as a Biofuel and Deforestation in Indonesia

“Dedicated to the 25 orangutans we lose every day” “Let’s stop palm oil destroying the forest”.

These are the lines with which the Greenpeace video on palm oil deforestation ends. This video, released by the organization on the internet in August 2018, recently made headlines when it was banned from being telecast to UK television screens when it was submitted as a Christmas ad.

Palm oil is extracted from the fruit of the Oil Palm trees. It is an efficient crop and a highly versatile oil, which has resulted in it being used in the manufacture of all sorts of products – from pizza to shampoos; from detergents to diesel. However, palm oil production is a major driver of deforestation and is destroying the habitat of endangered animals like the orangutan. A large part of the palm oil produced is exported to other countries (European Union, China, India, etc.) where it is used for a variety of purposes, including conversion to Biofuel. 

In thinking about the geographies of palm oil, consider the following: 

Indonesia and Malaysia currently account for 86% of the global palm oil production, and palm oil production is increasingly contributing to the 1.5% annual deforestation rate in these countries (Fargione, Hill, Tilman, Polasky, & Hawthorne, 2008).

The population of orangutans in Borneo has fallen by 80% over the past 75 years as a result of habitat destruction. The Sumatran Orangutan was declared critically endangered in 2016 (Emont, 2017). 

The impact of biofuels on climate change is not clear: “Our analyses suggests that biofuels [such as palm oil], if produced on converted land, could, for long periods of time, be much greater net emitters of greenhouse gases than the fossil fuels that they typically replace” (Fargione et al., 2008, p. 1237)

Carbon debt*, biofuel carbon debt allocation, annual carbon repayment rate, and years to repay biofuel carbon debt for nine scenarios of biofuel production. Credit: (Fargione et al., 2008). Note: Means and SDs are from Monte Carlo analyses of literature-based estimates of carbon pools and fluxes. (A) Carbon debt, including CO2 emissions from soils and above ground and below ground biomass resulting from habitat conversion. (B) Proportion of total carbon debt allocated to biofuel production. (C) Annual life-cycle GHG reduction from biofuels, including displaced fossil fuels and soil carbon storage. (D) Number of years after conversion to biofuel production required for cumulative biofuel GHG reductions, relative to the fossil fuels they displace, to repay the biofuel carbon debt.

Credit: Fargione,J. et al. "Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt [51]." Science, Vol. 319, No. 5867, Feb. 29, 2008. p. 1236.

However, the palm oil story is much more complicated. Consider the following:

• Palm oil industry employs 15 million Indonesians (Meidiwaty, 2017).
• Indonesia also protects 106 million acres of forests
• Palm oil is an efficient crop, such that it uses only 5.5% of global land use for cultivation, but produces 33% of global oils and fats (Keller, 2018). Replacing palm oil with other types of oils may require even more farmland.

Read more on Palm Oil here:

• Reading: WWF blog on ’10 things you should know about palm oil’ [52]
• Watch: the Iceland store ad banned in the UK [53] 
• Reading: Moskvitch, Katia (2018). These are all the problems with Iceland's banned Christmas advert. Wired Magazine.

References:
Calvert, K. (2016). From “energy geography” to “energy geographies”: Perspectives on a fertile academic borderland. Progress in Human Geography, 40(1), 105–125.

Emont, J. (2017, April 25). A Refuge for Orangutans, and a Quandary for Environmentalists. The New York Times. 

Fargione, J., Hill, J., Tilman, D., Polasky, S., & Hawthorne, P. (2008). Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt. Science, New Series, 319(5867), 1235–1238. 

Huber, M. (2015). Theorizing Energy Geographies. Geography Compass, 1–12. 

Keller, E. (2018). 10 things you should know about palm oil. Retrieved December 14, 2018, from https://blogs.wwf.org.uk/blog/habitats/forests/10-things-you-should-know... [52]

Mperejekumana, P., Shen, L., Gaballah, M. S., & Zhong, S. (2024). Exploring the potential and challenges of energy transition and household cooking sustainability in sub-sahara Africa. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 199, 114534

Meidiwaty, D. J. (2017, May 8). Opinion | Indonesia and Palm Oil. The New York Times. 

Pasqualetti, M. J. (2011). The Geography of Energy and the Wealth of the World. In Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Vol. 101, pp. 971–980).

Solomon, B. D., & Calvert, K. E. (2017). Introduction: Energy and the geographical traditions. In B. D. Solomon & K. E. Calvert (Eds.), Handbook on the Geographies of Energy. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Solomon, B. D., & Pasqualetti, M. J. (2004). History of energy in geographic thought. In C. J. Cleveland (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Energy (Volume 2, pp. 831–842). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
Zimmerer, K. S. (2011). New Geographies of Energy: Introduction to the Special Issue. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(4), 705–711.

Knuth, S., Behrsin, I., Levenda, A., & McCarthy, J. (2022). New political ecologies of renewable energy. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5(3), 997-1013.

This paper is the introduction to a special collection of scholarship on "Critical Renewabilities". The paper highlights important themes in political ecology of renewable energies found in the papers in the special issue and beyond, these include:

1. Theorizing Renewables-Driven Land Transformations
2. Advancing Industrial Political Ecologies of Renewables
3. Locating Power within Technical and Artifactual Politics
4. Generating Knowledge and Tools for Just Transitions

"The critique of fossil fuel regimes has been a foundational concern for the field of political ecology, in its drives to expose the injustices and harms of energy extractivism and its early warnings of the climate crisis. However, it is increasingly evident that renewable energy sources and their infrastructures will carry their own costs and trade-offs, and that critique, resistance and alternative movement-building are needed to forge a truly just renewable energy transition. This theme issue underlines the many ways in which political ecology is well-positioned to lead critical and engaged scholarship in support of energy/climate justice."

Bridge, G., Bouzarovski, S., Bradshaw, M., & Eyre, N. (2013). Geographies of energy transition: Space, place and the low-carbon economy. Energy policy, 53, 331-340

This paper makes a case for examining energy transition as a geographical process that invovles the reconfiguration of current patterns and scales of economic and social activity. The authors lay out six concepts are introduced and explained: location, landscape, territoriality, spatial differentiation, scaling, and spatial embeddedness, that can be used to understand the geographical implications of transition to a low-carbon economy.

"Focussing on the UK Government's policy for a low carbon transition, the paper provides a conceptual language with which to describe and assess the geographical implications of a transition towards low carbon energy. Examples illustrate how the geographies of a future low-carbon economy are not yet determined and that a range of divergent – and contending – potential geographical futures are in play."

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 8 module in Canvas.

Required Film:

Ramsdell, M., Stier, J.D., and Carter, K. (Producers), & Ramsdell, M. (Director). (2015). When Elephants Fight [Documentary]. United States: Under the Hood Productions. 

We're going to conclude this week's topic of governance with the film When Elephants Fight. This film ties together the our previous topics of the Tragedy of the Commons and the Resources Curse in the context of the Congo. The Congo's abundant wealth of natural resources has historically been a source of contention. Exploitation of these resources has funded the fierce conflicts inside the country between the government and rebels, with outside foreign influence also adding to this internal civil war. This film documents country's mineral industry, the increase in the supply relationship with technology manufacturing, and how this has stoked the ongoing war within the country.

TRIGGER WARNING: This film contains disturbing content (discussion of rape and images of war).

The film is available to borrow through Penn State Libraries as a physical copy or as a digital copy through Kanopy [54] using your WebAccess login credentials. This film is also available on iTunes, and Amazon.

This week, we will look at water and, importantly, how water and human society are interconnected. The two movies for this week look at water deals in California (Water and Power: A California Heist) and the impact of water privatization around the world (Flow: For Love of Water). The three readings for this week look at different aspects of hydropower development in Southeast Asia. While Bakker (1999) considers the geopolitics of the projects, Green and Baird (2016) understand projects from the scale of the project-affected persons. Finally, Ziv et al. (2012) take an environmental science lens to the development of hydropower projects on the Mekong river. 

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week:

• Whom does water belong to? Who owns water?
• Does declaring water a human right ensure access for all? And if water is a human right, then how is it to be made available to all?
• Do the benefits of hydropower outweigh its costs? How are these benefits and costs distributed?

Week 9 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Water as a human right

The UN General Assembly recognized water and sanitation as basic human rights in July 2010. “The Resolution calls upon States and international organizations to provide financial resources, help capacity-building and technology transfer to help countries, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all” (UNDESA, 2014). The Millennium Development Goals as well as the Sustainable Development Goals also recognized the importance of water. Goal #6 states “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” (UNDP, 2015). 

However, does declaring water a human right ensure access for all? How is water to be made available to all? Is private water supply capable of providing affordable water access to everyone?
Read the debates around water as a human right [55]and especially the idea that “the human right to water does not favor a particular economic model”:

From the 1980s onwards, criticisms of state managed water systems, especially the lack of consideration for environmental degradation and failure to ensure universal access, combined with increasing concerns of water scarcity and pollution, led to privatization of water supply systems in many cities, with the push of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. This resulted in increase in water prices in several cities and resulted in protests, famously at Cochabamba, Bolivia. However, the tide has turned against privatization in recent years, with around 180 cities and communities in 35 countries having placed their water system back in the hands of the public sector in the last decade (Vidal, 2015). 

In November 2018, the city of Baltimore recently became the first major city to ban privatization of its water and sewerage systems.

Instead new “public-public” partnerships are being conceived in places like Lagos, Nigeria which involve “cities partnering with non-profit organizations to keep prices low by taking advantage of the economies of scale and sidestepping many of the legal and corporate hurdles that accompany PPPs” (Vidal, 2015).

As Linton & Budds (2014) write “Recent work in political ecology has demonstrated the partial and contested nature of hydrologic data and has revealed how hydrologic concepts and studies are constructed according to particular views of nature and mobilized in line with vested interests. This emerging literature shows how hydrology – as an ‘orthodox’ science – is predicated upon ‘Western’ views of nature that reduce water to its material composition (H2O), the homogenization of different waters, and the characterization of hydrologic processes as ordered and universal” (p. 171).

Commodification of water

Commodification can be thought of as the processes by which objects are assigned monetary value for exchange on the market, with little consideration (or complete erasure) of their social and cultural value. Bakker (2014) makes a distinction between economic valuation, full-cost pricing and commodification. She defines economic valuation as “the process of calculating monetary values for environmental goods and services and incorporating this valuation into policy and management” (p. 481). This valuation is supposed to provide price signals for improving behavior and using water more efficiently. Bakker sees this evaluation as one part of full cost recovery, wherein “prices should reflect the full cost of infrastructure and maintenance and consumers pay for what they use” (p. 481). The full price recovery, with its technologies of measuring and billing, results in a different conception of water as an economic good rather than a public good. The commodification of water occurs only “when private property rights, full-cost pricing, and marketization (the introduction of water markets as trading mechanisms) are in place” (p. 482). While water proves a difficult resource to fully commodify, bottled water is an example of commodified water.

How much do you agree about the distinction between valuation and commodification? 

Water and Food:

Domestic use of water accounts for only 10% of water use globally. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of global water, almost 70%. Many of your favorite foods may have been in the news recently for the amount of water the require, as well as the social impact of the water scarcity they create. From beef [56], that requires more water per calorie than most other foods; to export avocado [57] production in Chile that requires so much water that villagers are left without enough water to grow other foods; to almonds [58] and pistachios [59] that are fueling conflict over water in California and the Middle East alike!

Water and Energy:

Hydropower has seen a resurgence since the mid-2000s after almost a decade of near halt. The reason behind this resurgence are pressing concerns of climate change and the presentation of hydropower as ‘clean’ energy, capable of meeting the predicted increase in global energy demand. Today, there are over 3500 hydropower dams under construction or planned around the world, with the majority in South East Asia and South America.

Read more on the global hydropower boom. [60]To date, between 40 million and 80 million people worldwide have been displaced by dams. However, the world over, the burden of displacement and livelihood loss from hydropower falls disproportionately on the indigenous peoples, tribal communities, the poor, and the politically marginalized. Apart from the economic hardships that hydropower brings to displaced communities, it also has significant impacts on their social and cultural wellbeing. In flooding places out of existence, dams also destroy ‘the sense of place’ of communities (Windsor & Mcvey, 2005). This sense of place reflects a deep emotional tie between the people and the location, and impact the value, which may or may not be monetary, that people assign to the place.

Hydropower projects also have massive impacts on the river ecology, which has negative impacts of local community livelihoods, especially fishing communities. The impact of the local economy as a result of hydropower projects impacts the economic, social and cultural wellbeing of the communities, but also impacts the health of the communities through changes in food choices and consumption patterns. As Waldram (1985) finds in the case of the Whitefish Lake community in Canada, the impact of hydropower development damaged the local resource base and the local economy, which resulted in an increase in social assistance payments to the community, and a decline in consumption of fish and bush meat, while the simultaneous increase in infrastructure such as electricity, television, roads, stores, etc. resulted in a switching to the consumption of less nutritious store-bought food and refined carbohydrates.

There are many other ways water and energy are interrelated; for example oil and gas extraction may contaminate water sources and solar panels require washing to remove dust and maintain energy production! 

References:

Windsor, J. E., & Mcvey, J. A. (2005). Annihilation of Both Place and Sense of Place: The Experience of the Cheslatta T’En Canadian First Nation with the Context of Large-Scale Environmental Projects. The Geographical Journal, 171(2), 146–165. 

Waldram’s article here: Waldram, J. B. (1985). Hydroelectric Development and Dietary Delocalization in Northern Manitoba, Canada. Human Organization, 44(1), 41–49. 

Required Reading for the week includes:

Bakker, K. (1999). The politics of hydropower: developing the Mekong. Political Geography, 18, 209–232.

Bakker analyzes the two dominant discourses around hydropower development of the Mekong River Basin. The two discourse are “water as a scarce resource; and capitalism as a neutral force for growth, development and integration in the post-Cold War era” (p. 210). Through an analysis of the discourses, Bakker aims to highlight the real material effects (impact of fisheries, inequitable distribution of benefits between countries, etc.) that these discourses obscure. Bakker argues that the scarcity of water discourse rests on the idea that water is scarce and inefficiently utilized, and that this global discourse plays out even in areas where water is available in abundance. This framing of water tends to devalue the local uses and economies dependent on water, presents them as the problem to which efficient water management through hydropower development are the “solution”. The second discourse of neutral capital comes from the idea of private capital promoting efficiency in water management. However, this tends to hide the “lack of accountability, absence of rigorous environmental and social impact studies, and conflict of interest apparent in the close links between ‘tied aid’ [from development banks etc.] and private investment” (p. 225).  

"Hydrodevelopment at any scale will operate primarily, and most importantly, as a means of commodification, and simultaneously as a means of extending state control into predominantly rural areas (Dodds, 1994; Escobar, 1996). This progressive capitalisation, mediated by the state, will increase the likelihood that revenue flows of hydrodevelopment will, once captured, be redirected away from local people and local use."

"Without state-sanctioned property rights, for example, highland peoples, in many cases ethnic minorities, living in the areas affected by dam-building are without recourse if hydropower developers refuse their claims for compensation (Ryder, 1996)."

"This supposedly apolitical rescripting of boundaries is, however, a profoundly political move, not least because of the inequitable distribution of costs and benefits of resource exploitation between upstream and downstream riparian nations, and between urban and rural communities."

In reading this piece, consider how discourses around development also privilege large infrastructure projects like dams. How do these discourses affect our ability to think of alternatives to large dams?

Randell, H., & Curley, A. (2023). Dams and tribal land loss in the United States. Environmental Research Letters, 18(9), 094001

This paper provides insight into the magnitude of impact damns installed primarily for hydroelectric energy generation on Indigenous land loss in the US. The paper used a geospatial analysis of dams and federal Indian reservation boundaries to map and quantifying the amount of tribal land flooded by dam reservoirs. The authors call for dam removal or tribal ownership as a form of restitutions for the negative effects on tribal communities. 

Jerez, B., Garcés, I., & Torres, R. (2021). Lithium extractivism and water injustices in the Salar de Atacama, Chile: The colonial shadow of green electromobility. Political Geography, 87, 102382.

Energy transitions in the Global North produces green extractivisms in the Global South. Lithium extractivism carries the potential for major injustices in terms of water access and marginalization of minoritized communities. At the same time, water depletion of the Salar de Atacama has increased protests and social mobilizations for water justice. 

“The results demonstrate how the linkages and feedback between global and local dynamics of lithium mining in the Salar de Atacama constitute a form of green extractivism that further replicates the historical inequalities between the Northern and Southern hemispheres and especially affects the indigenous Andean territories and the water ecosystems in the Global South. We call this phenomenon the colonial shadow of green electromobility.” 

In reading this piece, consider our reading on social-ecological systems and the ways processes at different scales and in very different locations are internreated. 

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 9 module in Canvas.

Required Films:

Zenovich, M. (Producer/Director). (2017). Water and Power: A California Heist [Documentary]. United States: Jigsaw Productions. 

The following synopsis is taken from IMDB:

"Water and Power: A California Heist uncovers the alarming exploits of California's most notorious water barons, who profit off of the state's resource while everyday citizens, unincorporated towns, and small farmers endure debilitating water crises. The film peels back the layers of a manipulative, backroom rewrite of California's water contracts in the 1990s, and investigates today's rise of luxury crops and illicit water transfers, all in the face of record drought. As the divide between water haves and have-nots grows, we face a humbling reality: water is the new oil, and as it becomes less accessible, it is rapidly growing more valuable." --IMDB [61]  (2017)

When watching the film, consider the following: Are we reaching a time when the next wars will be over water instead of oil? Where do we draw the line for who should and should not have a right to water?

Poster for Water & Power: A California Heist

The film is available to stream for FREE through Disney+ and NatGeo and for a small renal fee from Amazon and Apple TV. [There is also one copy of a DVD of this film in the library]

OPTIONAL FILM:

Salina, I. (Director), with Starr, S., Holland G. and Tomlinson, Y. (Producers). (2008) Flow: For love of Water, United States; Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary asks the question: who owns water? The documentary moves across different countries, from the US to Bolivia, South Africa to Lesotho to India, highlighting the scarcity of fresh drinking water. It looks at issues of pollution from pesticides and chemical use, water privatization, the construction of large dams and bottled water. It examines the role of the World Bank, large multi-national corporations involved in the business of water, as well as the role of politics in the privatization of water to the detriment of the poor, the marginalized as well as to the detriment of local water management techniques. The movie was made to garner support for a petition to the UN to recognize water as a fundamental human right. 

Poster for Flow: How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water?

The film is available to stream through Apple TV, and YouTube [62].

Welcome to the final section of the course. After reading and thinking about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus, we will now circle back to look at some ideas from the beginning of the course in more detail. At the start of the course, we read about global environmental change and the planetary boundaries. Over the coming weeks, we will look at three of the key earth systems for which we read about in more detail: Biodiversity loss, land use change, and climate change. This week, we will examine biodiversity. We will examine what biodiversity is, why it is important, and some of the current threats to biodiversity. The reading will examine one way humans have tried to protect biodiversity: parks. We will also read about how indigenous people around the world protect a large about of the remaining intact ecosystems. You should by now be getting used to Human - Environment Geography approaches to these issues and be able to guess at what these readings might say about, for example, justice. Finally, the case study presented in this week’s film, will examine how attempts to protect biodiversity can impact the economy of indigenous people.

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week as well as when completing your assignment:

• What are the main drivers of biodiversity loss?
• Who is responsible for biodiversity conservation? What are the reasons we should protect biodiversity?
• Do the narratives and discourses you see in the media, and even academic publications, line up with the drivers of biodiversity loss? Why / why not?
• What are the social, economic and justice implications of different strategies to protect biodiversity (such as parks)?

Week 10 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

What is Biodiversity?

Biodiversity is a measure of variation and richness of living organisms at a particular scale. This can include the diversity of ecosystems, species, or genes in a given system or place. Ecosystem biodiversity refers to Earth’s different ecosystems, such as tropical rain forest, coral reefs, and deserts. Species biodiversity refers to the number of different species within a given ecosystem. Genetic biodiversity is the amount of genetic variation within a single species. Biodiversity is measured in terms of richness and evenness. Species richness is simply a count of the number of different species in a given environment and does not consider population size or species distribution. Species evenness considers the rarety of a given species in a given ecosystem.

Figure 10.1: A diversity of Nudibranchs sea slugs (thought to be a good indicator of climate change)

Credit: Bryce, Clay. "Cratena Lineata." Australian Geographic [63]. September 12, 2017.

Drivers of Biodiversity Loss

Biodiversity is on the decline globally because of human actions. In our earlier reading Rockstrom and colleagues (2009) noted "Species extinction is a natural process, and would occur without human actions. However, biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene has accelerated massively. Species are becoming extinct at a rate that has not been seen since the last global mass-extinction event. Today, the rate of extinction of species is estimated to be 100 to 1,000 times more than what could be considered natural". They classified biodiversity loss as the planetary boundary that was already farthest outside of "safe" levels, driven primarily by changes in land use (Rockstrom et al. 2009).

The drivers of extinction and biodiversity loss are, of course, different for different groups of organisms and in different systems. While many species are threatened by habitat loss, others such as large mammals in the tropics by poaching for meat or high value products like ivory, horn, or scale (Ripple et al. 2016), while still others are threatened by climate change. Some species are vulnerable due to low genetic diversity caused by historical events that whipped out the majority of a population, leaving a reduced genetic pool (such as the African Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus). For many species, a combination of multiple factors are to blame.

One example of biodiversity loss, that has reserved a lot of media attention, is the decline in giraffe populations [64]. Over the last 30 years, the population of wild giraffes has decreased by 37%. This decline in the giraffe population is largely due to a combination of habitat loss, poaching, and civil unrest in Africa. Increasing farm lands have led to habit fragmentation within giraffes’ native range. Giraffes are also being hunted for their meat. Giraffe populations have remained stable on game parks in South Africa that sponsor ecotourism. If other African countries can manage their giraffe populations as successfully as South Africa, giraffes have good chance of surviving.

Another case that has recently gotten a lot of media attention [65], is the seizure of 9 tons of pangolin scales and 1000 elephant tusks in Hong Kong. Pangolins are an anteater like mammal that will roll up into a ball when threatened. Pangolins are in high demand on both the Chinese and Vietnamese black markets because their scales are thought to have various medicinal properties. Pangolin scales are made from keratin (the same material that is in your finger nails) and have no known medicinal properties. There are eight species of pangolin all of which are endangered and protected under international trafficking laws. In Hong Kong, the smuggling of illegal wildlife products can result in ten years in prison and fines not to exceeded $1.3 million dollars. However, high demand for pangolin scales is prompting the illegal trafficking of thousands of pangolins.

Figure 10.2: A baby pangolin riding on the back of its mother in an Indonesian zoo (May 2019)

Credit: Lisawati, Firdia. Associated Press Photo. June 19, 2014.

The Giraffe and Pangolin are not alone: several recent reports have come out highlighting the staggering declines in both the number of individual animals on the planet and the loss of species (biodiversity). A WWF report first released in 2016 reported a staggering reduction of vertebrate animal populations by over 60% since the 1970s [66]. While this number is for the number of individual animals, as populations decline, species are at greater risk of extinction. The report noted that this decline is driven by habit loss, pollution, over harvesting, climate change and invasive species (Carrington 2018). The sixth mass extinction also applies to insects [67]. Insect numbers are rapidly decreasing in Europe and across the world with one German nature preserve showing a 76% decrease in flying insects. This decrease in insect populations is likely due to a combination of climate change, pesticide usage, and habitat loss (Guarino 2017). The decrease in insect populations is filtering up the food chain and resulting decreases insect eating lizards, frogs and birds as well. Birds are suffering too [68], with many reportedly driven to extinction by large scale agricultural production (for food and fuel) and associated drivers. Marine species [69] and coral [70] are well documented to be at extreme risk from climate change.

Figure 10.3: The recent decline in vertebrate animals (Carrington 2018).

Credit: Carrington, Damian. "Living Planet index, WWF/ZSL." The Guardian. October 29, 2018.

For an example of the threat an invasive species can cause towards regional biodiversity watch this PBS video.

Narratives about Biodiversity Loss

Human-Environment Geographers spend a lot of thinking about the way the drivers or causes of Biodiversity are portrayed. The WWF report that reported the 60% reduction of vertebrate animal populations since the 1970s [66] has been criticized for tiptoeing around the core drivers of this change - mass production and consumption, especially of food. Geographers have criticized nature documentaries, including excellent and respected productions such as BBC Earth for failing to show the causes of biodiversity loss: instead painting humans (and viewers) as helpless bystanders watching extinction take place but unable to change natures fate. A famous article by Rod Neumann [72] (2004) "Moral and discursive geographies in the war for biodiversity in Africa" lays out the way a National Geographic article portrays White hunters are courageous and committed to the conservation of nature (posed in a dignified way in photos, named in the photo caption) while African hunters are portrayed as wasteful, careless and uneducated about the importance of biodiversity (and not named in photo captions). His article calls to attention the ethical issues around the fact that in many African countries anti-poaching gauds have the right to shoot suspected poachers on sight (thereby depriving them of the right to a trial and punishment relative to the crime). He also points out the complicated morals of placing the life of an elephant above that of a human being. Interestingly, a 2019 article by Buzzfeed [73] caused a massive scandal by reporting that WWF for having funded forest gauds who committed violent crime while working to protect biodiversity. As you move through the remainder of the course pay attention to the discourses you see on each of our assigned topics. Think about what gets left out and why.

Why is Biodiversity important?

What are the reasons we should protect biodiversity? The reasons we should protect biodiversity, and which ones get used most often are also studied by Geographers (Cronon 1996). Do humans have a moral responsibility to protect nature? Or should we protected it because of the many ways it is essential to our survival and well-being? The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment laid out the many ways biodiversity supports human well-being, calling these functions "Ecosystem Services". An example of these:

“Thirty-five percent [74] of the world’s plant crops require pollination by bees, wasps and other animals. And arthropods are more than just pollinators. They’re the planet’s wee custodians, toiling away in unnoticed or avoided corners. They chew up rotting wood and eat carrion. “And none of us want to have more carcasses around,” Schowalter said. Wild insects provide $57 billion worth of six-legged labor in the United States each year, according to a 2006 estimate.” (Guarano 2017).

Additional ecosystems ecological services include: Forests acting as a carbon sink to absorb CO₂, coral reefs providing breeding grounds for the fish consumed by local fishermen, and water purification by wetlands. High biodiversity also holds the promise of new medicines and technological innovation. Many of our medicines are based on chemicals produced by plants. Japanese bullet trains were inspired but the shaped of the bills of king fishers (a species of bird) to avoid making loud booms when the exit tunnels. Finally, biodiversity has value that many people enjoy when they engage in recreational activities, such as camping.

Here we have looked at some of the drivers of biodiversity loss. You should be able to link these to many of the past weeks of material in the course. You reading this week will examine strategies to protect biodiversity. As you go through these, think about who is responsible for biodiversity loss, who is responsible for th protection of biodiversity and who bears the burden.

References

Carrington, D. (2018, Oct 29). Humanity Has Wiped Out 60% of Animal Populations Since 1970, Report Finds. The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds [66]

Cronon, W. (Ed.). (1996). Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature. WW Norton & Company.

Guarino, B. (2018, Oct 15). ‘Hyperalarming’ Study Shows Massive Insect Loss. The Washington Post. Retrieved From. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/10/18/this-is-very-alarming-flying-insects-vanish-from-nature-preserves/?utm_term=.d857c1ba3ee8 [75]

May, T. (2019, Feb 1). 9 Tons of Pangolin Scales Are Seized in Hong Kong. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/world/asia/pangolin-smuggling-hong-kong.html [65]

McGrath, M. (2016, Dec 8). Giraffes Facing ‘Silent Extinction’ as Population Plunges. The British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38240760 [64]

Neumann, R. P. (2004). Moral and discursive geographies in the war for biodiversity in Africa. Political Geography, 23(7), 813-837.

Ripple et al. (2016). Bushmeat hunting and extinction risk to the world’s mammals. Royal Society Open Science, 3(10).

Agricultural Impacts on the Biodiversity, the Pesticide Example

We have known of the potential risks of pesticides used in agriculture since the publication of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring. In her book, Carson details the extensive harm the pesticide DDT poses to humans and non-humans alike; after DDT has been sprayed, it persists in the environment, circulating through soil, water, bodies, and food. Carson’s work challenged industry and government groups for promoting DDT spraying programs despite mounting evidence of its deleterious effects. Her analysis, expanded on by many scholars in the 50 years since the publication of Silent Spring, draws strong connections between environmental harms and political and economic policies, programs, and institutional structure. Many consider Carson’s book to be a major turning point in environmental politics in the United States, laying the ground work for the environmental movement in the United States and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Should you choose to read this excerpt, pay attention to her description of daily interactions with chemicals and her analysis of government and industry actions as her insights relate back to what we covered for Environmental Justice in Lesson 4.

Optional Readings:

Carson, R. (1962). Silent Spring. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [76]

Since the publication of Rachel Carson's book, the use of pesticides in developed countries has become much more highly regulated (check the WHO map, and think about if the regulations are equally cautious in developing countries?). While few of us today are careless when applying pesticides to our lawns (if we do at all), and many of you may have never even heard of moth prevention treatments (used by your grandma to keep moths from eating holes in woolen clothing and blankets), there are new and evolving risks that we are exposed to. For example, many carpets are sprayed with fire retardants that are now emerging as a potential health risk. And the chemical used to make your stylish new jacket waterproof are being questioned and linked to health risks.

UN experts denounce 'myth' pesticides are necessary to feed the world - The Guardian [77]

World Health Organization's page on Agri-chemicals [78]

Above are links to two sources which highlight the dangers associated with agricultural pesticide use. The first link is to an article by The Guardian which provides a synopsis of the UN Human Rights Council report condemning major manufacturing corporations for distributing misleading information on pesticides use. Then the second link from the World Health Organization's page on Agri-chemicals provides a map showing the number of chemical poisoning in each country around the world. When exploring these pages, consider where your own food comes from and how your own consumptive patterns might be implicated in these exposures.

Required Reading:

West, P., J. Igoe and D. Brockington (2006). "Parks and people: The social impact of protected areas." Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 251-277

This article begins by summarizing the status and growth of protected landscapes around the world. The authors then contextualize how national parks govern ecological areas and shape people’s views on nature. The author’s first major critique of parks is the displacement of indigenous people from their lands, citing the creation of Yellowstone as an example. The article explains how the forced relocation of indigenous people can lead to conflict, and their removal might result in changes in the landscape. The authors move on to criticize ecotourism because it can change how indigenous people interact with their natural surroundings. Ecotourism can also create economic inequality between indigenous people and is a potential source of conflict as poorer communities are financially excluded from the protected areas. The authors argue that conservation can function similarly to colonialism because it can force ingenious people into fixed societal and physical spaces. The authors conclude by encouraging ecologists to take indigenous people into account when developing conservation strategies.

Garnett, S. T., Burgess, N. D., Fa, J. E., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Molnár, Z., Robinson, C. J., ... & Collier, N. F. (2018). A spatial overview of the global importance of Indigenous lands for conservation. Nature Sustainability, 1(7), 369.

This article examines the roles indigenous people play in managing global biodiversity through supervising their own lands. The article draws on previous literature to determine the spatial extent of indigenous lands and what portion of these lands are in protected areas. The article explains how much of the word’s remaining natural lands are in the domain of indigenous people. The authors argue for a bottom up an approach for safeguarding biodiversity, which would allow indigenous people agency in determining their own land management. The article also cautions against forcing indigenous people into conservation practices that run counter to their cultural heritage.

Campbell, B. M., Beare, D. J., Bennett, E. M., Hall-Spencer, J. M., Ingram, J. S. I., Jaramillo, F., . . . Shindell, D. (2017). Agriculture production as a major driver of the Earth system exceeding planetary boundaries. Ecology and Society, 22(4).

Campbell et al. 2017:  The authors listed are prominent environmental activists and faculty members and leaders of university programs from around the world. Through their collective knowledge, they identify nine major boundaries to maintain a stable Earth system. The authors have calculated how much of the change in each of the planetary boundaries (which you read about in past weeks) is associated with agriculture. For each, they have calculated what % of the anthropogenic activity contributing to each boundary is due to agriculture. The results may surprise you! The article also identifies current agriculture practices and production are the leading causes of many overstepped and/or increasingly hazardous boundaries of our planet. Possible ideas are posed for how to lessen the negative impacts on these planetary boundaries with more sustainable forms of agriculture

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the module in Canvas.

This week, we will read about land use change, including why land use change is an important planetary boundary. More recent assessments of the planetary bounders suggest that we may have already transgressed the boundary for global land use change. This week, we will spend time thinking about the drivers of land use change in relation to population, consumption, food, energy, and water. Additionally, we will examine the explosion of large scale land acquisitions in many developing countries (also called "land grabbing"). 

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week:

• Why is land use change increasingly seen as one of the most problematic planetary boundaries?
• How do population growth and consumption impact land use change?
• What is the relative importance of food, energy, and water for land use change?
• For all of these relationships, think about who benefits and who bears the environmental burden and how these are different in different places.

Lesson 11 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Land use change: refers to the process of human modification and transformation the natural landscape, usually emphasizing the functional role of land for economic activities.

Land use change as a Planetary Boundary:

In Lesson 1 of this course, we read about the Planetary Boundaries. Rockstrom et al. (2009) list "Change in land use" as one of the boundaries and propose the boundary to be "No more than 15%–20% of global ice free land surface converted to cropland". They noted that we were close to their proposed boundary, at 11.7% in 2009. Before this first assessment of planetary boundaries was written in 2009, land use was generally considered a local environmental issue, but since then it is becoming a force of global importance. This is importance is largely due to the relationship that land use has with other planetary boundaries. For example, changes in land use exert the most significant effect on biodiversity loss, and land-use changes in the Amazon could influence water resources as far away as Tibet (Rockstrom et al. 2009). Since Rockstrom et al. (2009) was first published, our understanding of the importance of land-use change for other earth systems has expanded greatly. An updated effort to assess Planetary Boundaries was published by Steffen et al. in 2015. They proposed that the land use change boundary should be measured as the "percent of original forest cover remaining from pre-industrial levels," and proposed that we should not exceed less than 54-75% (using a weighted average of the boundaries for tropical, temperate, and boreal forests). They noted that with only 62% of pre-industrial levels of forest cover left on earth, we may already have exceeded this boundary. Their analyses places land use change as a global environmental problem as pressing as climate change.

The Planetary Boundaries according to Steffen et al. 2015

Source: Planetary Boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet [79], Science: Vol.347, No 6223.

The problem of land use change is not evenly distributed around the world. In fact, in 2018, Song et al. published a paper showing that global tree cover had in fact increased by 7.1% in the 35 years between 1982–2016. The problem is that increases in forest area in the global north cannot compensate for loss of forests in the tropics, as tropical forests had a much larger impact on other earth systems (such as climate change) (Steffen et al. 2015).

If you are interested, you can check out this Animated Map of Global Forest Loss [80].

Drivers of land use change:

Croplands and pastures now occupy 40% of land surface, rivaling forest cover in extent of the land surface (Foley et al. 2005). This makes agricultural production the planet’s single most extensive form of land use (Campbell et al. 2017). Land has become one of the world's most important resources, so much so that there has been a global rush to acquire large amounts of land in lower and middle income countries, often called "Land grabbing". This week, you will read about Proximate and Underlying Drivers of land use change (Geist & Lambin 2002) and Land grabbing (Edelman et al. 2013). This should remind you of your Lesson 5 reading of Campbell et al. (2017) which proposed that 80% of historical deforestation globally to date has caused by agriculture.

In 2018, an important new paper "Classifying drivers of global forest loss" sought to build on ideas purposed by Geist & Lambin (2002) by differentiating permanent land use conversion (i.e., deforestation) from temporary loss from forestry or wildfire (Curtis et al. 2018). What they found was that large-scale farming and ranching, the only permanent form of land use change accounted for 27% total forest loss (while forestry, small-scale farming, and wildfire accounted for the rest, but were not permanent).

To understand the breakdown of land use on earth, please take the time to read through ESRI's The Living Land Story Map [81]. As you read, note how much of the land on earth is urban areas and human habitation, and think back to our section on overpopulation. Then think about how much of earth is used to produce goods that humans consume, and our discussion of consumption in Lesson 1. Finally, think about the Food-Energy-Water nexus. You should be starting to think about these in terms of each of the planetary boundaries, so take the time to think about how they relate to land use change.

Think back to the trade-offs we have already read about in terms of land-use and energy: including biofuels (Baka 2016, course website on oil palm) and hydro electricity production (Lesson 8). Geographers have also written about the fact that land use is an under-considered trade-off for solar production (Yenneti & Golubchikov 2016, Calvert & Mabee 2015). There may even be trade-offs with wind production. As you think about these, think about scale. For example, here in Pennsylvania, fracking and shale-gas development has not lead to significant deforestation, but has significantly changed the structure of our landscapes through forest fragmentation (Roig-Silva et al. 2016).

Finally, think about how these pressures on land are a driving the commodification of land and the accumulation of large amounts of land by foreigners in many developing countries (land grabbing). One final important paper by Rulli et al (2013) showed that land grabbing occurs almost entirely in places where land acquisition also ensure water acquisition. They find that many of the countries doing the most "grabbing" are those with the greatest water stress and that land grabbing is associated with a virtual grabbing of a substantial amount of freshwater resources, including both water supplied by rainfall and irrigation. In some cases land grabbing leads to a loss of access to water resources needed to ensure food security for local populations (Rulli et al. 2013).

For all of these relationships, think about who benefits and who bears the environmental burden and how these are different in different places.

References cited:

Calvert, K., & Mabee, W. (2015). More solar farms or more bioenergy crops? Mapping and assessing potential land-use conflicts among renewable energy technologies in eastern Ontario, Canada. Applied Geography, 56, 209-221.

Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Science, 361(6407), 1108-1111.

Foley, J. A., DeFries, R., Asner, G. P., Barford, C., Bonan, G., Carpenter, S. R., ... & Helkowski, J. H. (2005). Global consequences of land use. science, 309(5734), 570-574.

Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin Iii, F. S., Lambin, E. F., . . . Foley, J. A. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461, 472. doi:10.1038/461472a.

Roig-Silva, C. M., Slonecker, E. T., Milheim, L. E., Ballew, J. R., & Winters, S. G. (2016). Forest cover changes due to hydrocarbon extraction disturbance in central Pennsylvania (2004–2010). Journal of Maps, 12(sup1), 131-138.

Rulli, M. C., A. Saviori and P. D’Odorico (2013). "Global land and water grabbing." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110(3): 892-897.

Song, X.-P., Hansen, M.C., Stehman, S.V., Potapov, P.V., Tyukavina, A., Vermote, E.F., Townshend, J.R., 2018. Global land change from 1982 to 2016. Nature 560(7720), 639-643

Steffen, W., Richardson, K., Rockström, J., Cornell, S. E., Fetzer, I., Bennett, E. M., ... & Folke, C. (2015). Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science, 347(6223), 1259855.

Yenneti, K., Day, R., & Golubchikov, O. (2016). Spatial justice and the land politics of renewables: Dispossessing vulnerable communities through solar energy mega-projects. Geoforum, 76, 90-99.

Required Reading:

Geist, H. J., & Lambin, E. F. (2002). Proximate Causes and Underlying Driving Forces of Tropical Deforestation. BioScience, 52(2), 143-150.

For many years, the conservation and agriculture communities presented facts and figures about the drivers of land use change that included only the immediate (or proximate) causes. Small-scale subsistence farmers all over the developing world (especially those practicing shifting cultivation) were vilified for chopping down the world's precious tropical rain forests. This narrative allowed Western consumers to carry on with their consumption patterns guilt free, allowed large agricultural companies to avoid significant scrutiny, and led to the "fortress" conservation approach to managing protected areas you read about last week. This paper and other work by these geographers was hugely influential as a first major effort to clearly demonstrate the factors that push poor farmers in developing counties to the forest frontiers, and the broader systems that support deforestation. The paper clearly demonstrates that tropical deforestation is driven by synergies between multiple causal factors; including both proximate causes and underlying forces.

Proximate causes: human activities and actions at the  immediate or local scale, originate from intended land use and directly impact forest cover.

Underlying driving forces: fundamental social processes (e.g., population dynamics or agricultural policies), that underpin the proximate causes. Can be local, national, or global scale.

Edelman, M., Oya, C., Borras, S.M., 2013. Global Land Grabs: historical processes, theoretical and methodological implications and current trajectories. Third World Quarterly 34(9), 1517-1531.

Since the financial crisis of 2008/ 2009, investor interest in land has climbed sharply. This paper examines what is often called Land Grabbing (large scale acquisition of land, often by foreign entities or non-local people). It advocates for a more nuanced look at the issue, including attention to financialisation and enclosure of land, and the fact that there are many other ways local farmers have been dispossessed of their land. The paper highlights the five themes covered by papers in the special issue of the journal: the long history of land grabbing, the theoretical implications of the contemporary land rush for agrarian political economy and for social theory more broadly, the plurality of legal institutions implicated or potentially implicated in today’s land deals, the differentiated outcomes of grabs and the political reactions of those affected, and the methods most appropriate for carrying out rigorous, relevant research.

The period between 2007 and 2012 is what we can call the ‘making sense period’: media, NGOs, policy experts and academics were grappling with basic questions: what is happening, where and when, who is involved, how much land is involved, and how many people are being expelled from their land? How do we define land grab? What do we count? How do we count? How do we interpret our sources?

... agreement remains firm and widespread that a renewed land rush is indeed happening worldwide, albeit unevenly. ... a growing number of researchers agrees that the initial set of basic questions has served its purpose and its era has ended. A newer set of questions began to emerge towards the end of the initial period of land grab research [which are the focus of the paper and special issue].

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 11 module in Canvas.

This week, we will look at climate change and how geographers have studied it. The first reading from this week examines the potential of commons to be scaled up to manage issues of climate change. The second reading highlights gaps in the research on rising sea levels as a result of climate change. 

Consider these questions as you go through the material for this week:

• How are decisions such as that of keeping global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius taken at the global scale?
• Is the global fight against climate change reinforcing (or worse, increasing) the existing inequalities and further marginalizing the marginalized?

Lesson 12 Checklist

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

The geographer Richard Aspinall calls climate change “one of the inescapable themes of current times” (Aspinall, 2010). He believes that geographers are well placed to make significant contributions to the study of climate change with their multi and inter-disciplinary approaches. “The diverse scope of the discipline and ability of geographers to communicate with other disciplines provide a platform for a successful contribution to integrative and interdisciplinary research focused on climate change” (p. 716).

Indeed, geographers have studied climate and its various interlinkages for a long time. Climatologists along with physical geographers have long studied changes in the climate; geographers have also contributed to simulation models of the Earth’s climate; geospatial technologies (GIS, remote sensing) have emerged as powerful tools for studying changes to the earth’s surface. As per Julie Winkler, “geographers have been extremely active in assessments of climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation. In addition to contributing directly to the extensive scientific literature, geographers have played leading roles in surveying, integrating, and synthesizing science, within and between scientific disciplines and across sectors and regions, as part of international, national, regional, and local climate change assessments” (Winkler 2016, p. 1419).

However, some have argued for a more critical engagement of geography with climate change, its politics and policies (Bailey, 2008). Further, Sultana (2014) argues for a greater engagement with the gendered implications of climate change as well as with the potential of adaptation strategies to change gender relations. “Although climate change is often framed as a global problem for all of humanity, the heterogeneity of its manifestations, impacts, and responses has to be carefully considered” (Sultana 2014, p. 373).

See the AAG resources guide on Geography and Climate Change here [82].

And the Intergovernmental Plan on Climate Change here. [83]

Climate determinism and climate reductionism:

Geographer Mike Hulme argues that while the popularity of climate determinism – the idea that “aspects of climate exerted a powerful shaping influence on the physiology and psychology of individuals and races, which in turn shaped decisively the culture, organization, and behavior of the society formed by those individuals and races” (Hulme, 2011, p. 250)– waned from the middle of the 20th century, it also resulted in a rift between physical and human geography as it shied from theorizing on climate-society relations. The current worldwide importance of climate change has put the focus back on how relations between climate and society are conceived. 

What has emerged is, what he terms, “climate reductionism”, which involves “isolating climate as the (primary) determinant of past, present, and future system behavior and response. If crop yield, economic performance, or violent conflict can be related to some combination of climate variables, then knowing the future behavior of these variables offers a way of knowing how future crop yield, economic performance, or violent conflict will unfold. Other factors that influence these future environmental, economic, or social variables—factors that may be more important than climate or perhaps just less predictable—are ignored or marginalized in the analysis” (Hulme, 2011, p. 253).

He argues that this reductionism resulted from three movements: the withdrawal of the social sciences, particularly geography, from theorizing about climate and society, the rise of computer based global climate and earth system models and the asymmetric incorporation of climate and social change into models to predict the future. He makes a case for “putting society back into the future”, i.e., a re-examination of the phenomenon of climate change, the starting point of which is not the natural sciences but the social sciences and humanities “married to a critical reading of the natural sciences, and informed by a spatially contingent view of knowledge” (Hulme, 2008, p. 5). Geographers, he believes, are well-placed to perform this task.

Further, he provides a list of questions that should guide this new thinking on climate change: “What does climate mean to different people and to diverse cultures? Which of these meanings are threatened by climate change and which can co-evolve with a changing climate? How robust is our putative knowledge of future climate? What language is used to portray climatic risks? Is climate change really a collective action problem? Who gains from driving forward ideas of global climate governance? And, in the end, what is our vision of the global future? Who speaks for the twenty-second century?” (Hulme, 2008, p. 5).

The Anthropocene

The Anthropocene has emerged as a popular and important concept in the environmental and social sciences, and it has resulted in a large number of publications. By mid-2017, there were more than 40,000 sources with the term Anthropocene on Google Scholar (Ellis, 2017). 

What is the Anthropocene? It is a proposed geological time period, “it describes human-induced changes to the earth’s biophysical and chemical environment of such scope, scale, and magnitude as to mark the end of the Holocene (i.e., the roughly 11,700 years prior to the 21st century). The Anthropocene is thus an epochal term” (Castree, 2017). The idea of the Anthropocene has proved quite controversial in the field of geology. Then, there is the less controversial “anthropocene”, which is an informal term representing “Earth’s transition to a time of profound human influence on its functioning as a system” (Ellis, 2017, p. 527). Geographer Noel Castree argues that, quite apart from the scientific question of if, when and how to mark the Anthropocene, the literature has the normative agenda of stressing the need for fundamental changes to human activities to ensure the continuation of a hospitable planet. 

Geographers have also written of the possibilities offered by the popularity and importance of the Anthropocene, especially its potential for more integration between physical and human geographies. Geographers, Erle Ellis and Noel Castree, see the Anthropocene as offering an opportunity to geographers to bridge the internal disciplinary divide as well as contribute to issues of importance to the wider public (Castree, 2015). For Ellis, the need for integration stems from the realization that the natural sciences are not enough to understand the dynamics of the environment, i.e., “in the Anthropocene, geophysics, geochemistry, and biogeography are simply not enough” (Ellis, 2017, p. 525). However, Castree believes that study of global environmental change is dominated by geoscientists and will not engage with critical social sciences and humanities, and thus, such integration and the research will result in a narrowing of possibilities for the Earth and humanity’s future rather than an expansion.

References:

Aspinall, R. (2010). Geographical Perspectives on Climate Change. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(4), 715–718.

Bailey, I. (2008). Geographical Work at the Boundaries of Climate Policy : A Commentary and Complement to Mike Hulme. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 33(3), 420–423. 

Castree, N. (2015). Geography and Global Change Science: Relationships Necessary, Absent, and Possible. Geographical Research, 53(1), 1–15. 

Ellis, E. C. (2017). Physical geography in the Anthropocene. Progress in Physical Geography, 41(5), 525–532. 

Hulme, M. (2008). Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, 33, 5–11.

Hulme, M. (2011). Reducing the Future to Climate: A Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism. Osiris, Klima, 26(1), 245–266.

Sultana, F. (2014). Gendering Climate Change: Geographical Insights. The Professional Geographer, 66(3), 372–381. 

Winkler, J. A. (2016). Embracing Complexity and Uncertainty. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106(6), 1418–1433.

Required Reading:

Ostrom, E., Burger, J., Field, C. B., Norgaard, R. B., & Policansky, D. (1999). Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges. Science, 284(5412), 278–282. 

How can we establish global institutions to manage climate change? Can successfully managed common property resources offer any lessons? These are the questions that the authors are looking to examine in this article. The article reviews the literature on commons since 1968 and identifies attributes of resources and resource users that are most likely to lead to successful common property resources. It then briefly discusses some of the issues in scaling up regional common property resources. The article concludes by highlighting three lessons that could potentially serve as a starting point in thinking of global commons management: multilevel institutions which “build on and complement local and regional institutions to focus on truly global problems”, use of improved technology (long range weather forecast or fish tracking), and “broad dissemination of widely believed data could be a major contributor to the trust that is so central to effective CPR management” (p. 282). 

Nicholls, R. J., & Cazenave, A. (2010). Sea-Level Rise and Its Impact on Coastal Zones. Science, 328, 1517–1520. 

The article points out two components that have received less attention in research on sea level rise: the first is the non-climate related anthropogenic processes (such as oil and gas drilling, dam construction) that amplify the vulnerability associated with sea level rise, and the second is the uncertainties regarding adaptation strategies, which are not accounted for in impact studies. Regarding adaptation the authors claim that coastal cities would not see a widespread retreat since their high value would result in them being protected. However, the choice between protection, accommodation and planned retreat as adaptation options will be influenced by several factors, technical, socio-political and economic.

NOTE: Links to the readings are located in the Week 12 module in Canvas.

Required Film:

Thule Tuvalu - Investigating Climate Change

Matthias von Gunten, (2014). Germany.

The documentary travels between Thule, the world’s northern most inhabited place, to Tuvalu, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean to show how climate change has connected the fates of these two places. Warming of the currents is resulting in melting ice-sheets in Greenland, threatening the way of life of the residents of Thule who are hunters, and the rising sea levels are threatening the very existence of the islands of Tuvalu.  The documentary shares many themes with Nicholls & Cazenave (2010), especially in its discussion of adaptation strategies and the impact of climate change on coastal areas. Significantly, the movie sheds light on the geopolitics of climate change: the 2 degrees limit would be too little too late for Tuvalu, yet it was forced to agree.

When watching the movie consider what Nicholls & Cazenave (2010) say about coastal cities: that because they are valuable they will be protected. Consider what value is assigned to the coast of Tuvalu, who decides these values and how.

Thule Tuvalu - Investigating Climate Change

Credit: Perry Street Advisors

The film is available for Penn State students to stream through the Penn State Libraries (via Kanopy Firms). Use the following link to access the PSU library Kanopy Streaming Service [84] (login requiered). This film is also available through Amazon and iTunes.