Environmental Science and Public Policy

Faculty of the Committee on Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy

James J. McCarthy, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography in the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Chair, Head Tutor) (on leave fall term)
William C. Clark, Sidney Harman Professor of International Science, Public Policy, and Human Development (Kennedy School)
Göran Ekström, Professor of Geology and Geophysics
Richard T. T. Forman, Professor of Advanced Environmental Studies in the Field of Landscape Ecology (Design School)
Jerry R. Green, John Leverett Professor and David A. Wells Professor of Political Economy (on leave spring term)
John P. Holdren, Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy (Kennedy School)
Sheila S. Jasanoff, Professor of Science and Public Policy (Kennedy School, Public Health)
Michael B. McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies
Daniel P. Schrag, Associate of Pforzheimer House, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences (on leave spring term)
Robert N. Stavins, Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government (Kennedy School)

Other Faculty Offering Instruction in Environmental Science and Public Policy

Stephen T. Curwood, Visiting Lecturer on Environmental Science and Public Policy
Henry Ehrenreich, Clowes Research Professor of Science
Paul R. Epstein
James S. Hoyte, Lecturer on Environmental Science and Public Policy

The concentration in Environmental Science and Public Policy is administered by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. It is overseen by a Standing Committee functioning as a Board of Tutors including representatives from other departments of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and from other schools as appropriate to ensure the requisite breadth of the program.

The concentration is designed to provide a multidisciplinary introduction to current problems of the environment. It is founded on the premise that the ability to form rational judgments concerning many of the complex challenges confronting society today involving the environment requires both an understanding of the underlying scientific and technical issues and an appreciation for the relevant economic, political, legal, historical, and ethical dimensions. It offers students an opportunity to specialize in a specific area of either natural or social science relating to the environment. All students have to satisfy a core of requirements in biology, chemistry, earth and planetary sciences, economics, government, and mathematics.

Primarily for Undergraduates

Environmental Science and Public Policy 10. Science, Policy and Environmental Management
Catalog Number: 6383
David Cash and William C. Clark (Kennedy School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
This course provides an introductory survey of topics at the nexus of environmental and natural resource science and policy. Using multiple disciplinary lenses (e.g., political science, economics, anthropology, science studies, biology, chemistry, physics, earth and planetary sciences,etc.), this course will examine a variety of domestic and international issues (e.g., energy, pollution, ecosystem resources, global environmental change and sustainability.) Students will investigate a range of methodologies, conceptual frameworks, and scientific and policy tools, and apply them to a series of in-depth case analyses to understand and assess legal, institutional, economic, scientific, and cultural dimensions of human-environment interactions.

Environmental Science and Public Policy 78. Environmental Politics
Catalog Number: 3613
Myanna H. Lahsen
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 10. EXAM GROUP: 3
An introduction to the history, organization, goals and ideals of environmental protection in America. Course examines the political implications of shifts in emphasis from nature protection to pollution control to sustainability over the 20th century. Of central interest is the relationship between scientific knowledge, uncertainty, and legal or political action. Theoretical approaches from law, political science, and science studies are combined with investigations of major episodes and controversies in environmental policymaking.
Note: Offered jointly with the Kennedy School as [ENR-207].

Environmental Science and Public Policy 90. Junior Seminars

Enrollment in these seminars is limited, with preference given to Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrators in their junior year. One junior seminar fulfills the junior seminar requirement for Environmental Science and Public Policy concentrators.
*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90a. Public Communication and the Science and Politics of Global Climate Change
Catalog Number: 2189
Michael B. McElroy and Stephen T. Curwood
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1:30–4. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16, 17
The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 set binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions, though many nations, including the United States, have yet to ratify this accord. Meanwhile, the scientific evidence of human-induced climate change continues to emerge amid some controversy, with indications that global warming and other potentially catastrophic climate changes may already be underway. What is this scientific evidence, and how is it being communicated to the public and policy makers? How should the United States respond to international efforts to mitigate climate change? Led by a scientist and a journalist, the seminar will explore scientific, diplomatic, and public communication methods driving the global climate change debate.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90c. Ecology and Land-Use Planning
Catalog Number: 3792
Richard T. T. Forman (Design School)
Half course (spring term). Tu., 2–5:15, with intensive field study, including a required one-week field study, plus a one-day field study. EXAM GROUP: 16, 17, 18
Investigation of how local and regional human activities such as housing, agriculture, water supply, and natural resource use can be arranged in the landscape so that environmental processes are not disrupted and ecosystems are maintained for the long term. The focus is on learning and applying spatial and ecological principles to land-use planning with the intention of regional biodiversity conservation, maintenance of water quality, and addressing other environmental issues.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90d. Status of Environmental Justice as a Public Policy Issue
Catalog Number: 5824
James S. Hoyte
Half course (fall term). Tu., 4–6. EXAM GROUP: 18
Examines the influences of race, socioeconomic status, and interest group politics in the formulation and implementation of U.S. federal and state environmental policy. Topics include the civil rights struggle and the environmental justice movement, role of race in environmental policymaking, residential and occupational exposure patterns of environmental pollution, racial diversity in the environmental movement, socioeconomic factors shaping the research agenda for environmental affairs, facilities siting and community impacts, and lead contamination as an environmental justice issue.
Note: Offered jointly with the Kennedy School of Government as ENR-205.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90e (formerly *Environmental Science and Public Policy 90ehf). Conservation Biology
Catalog Number: 6879
Manuel Lerdau
Half course (spring term). M., 2:30–5:30. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9
Conservation biology strives to describe, understand, and preserve populations, communities, and ecosystems by applying ecological principles within the context of human activities. Much of the effort of conservation biologists has been dedicated toward saving rare species. There is growing recognition, however, that one of the major challenges facing conservation biologists comes from species that are able to establish and colonize areas to which they are not native. This course will explore these invasive species from the perspectives of their biologies, their impacts on communities and ecosystems, and their relationships with human activities such suburbanization, deforestation, and economic globalization.
Note: There will be local field trips within New England.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90f. Global Change and Human Health
Catalog Number: 4434
Paul R. Epstein and James J. McCarthy
Half course (spring term). W., 2:30–5. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8, 9
Global consequences of increasing human population and our consumption of natural resources include extensive changes in many natural ecosystems and in the composition of Earth’s atmosphere. In the last decade, geographic ranges of certain well known infectious diseases have expanded and new diseases have become threats to human health. This seminar will explore hypothesized linkages between changes in ecosystems, climate, and the epidemiology of certain infectious diseases.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90h. Alternative Energy Potential
Catalog Number: 2284
Henry Ehrenreich
Half course (spring term). W., 1–4. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8
Examines alternative energy options such as photovoltaic and wind within the environmental context of conventional fossil and nuclear based sources. Begins with an elementary exposition of needed energy and thermodynamic concepts, which assumes no previous exposure to physics, and a brief historical survey of energy use in relation to economic and social needs. Emphasizes the potential and problems of alternative energy sources through lectures, readings, class presentations, and discussions.

[*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90i. Population and The Human Condition]
Catalog Number: 9228
John P. Holdren (Kennedy School) and Daniel P. Schrag
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
How does the human population—its size, growth rate, age composition, and geographic distribution—influence problems of resources, environment, and development and the prospects for solving them? How many people can the world support? Population variables interact with economic and technological ones in generating pressures on resources and environment, and all these variables and their interactions are shaped by social and political as well as economic forces. This seminar explores what is known, supposed, and (diversely) contended about the relation between population and the human condition—past and future—bringing to bear historical data, scenarios of future possibilities, and a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.

[*Environmental Science and Public Policy 90k. Environment and National Security]
Catalog Number: 4242
Michael B. McElroy and Stephen T. Curwood
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This seminar will explore environmental issues affecting the national security of the United States. We begin with a review of the report “A National Security Strategy for a New Century” submitted by the White House to Congress in December 1999. Topics to be discussed in the seminar include climate change, pollution of air and water, shortages in supply of fresh water, short-falls in food production and depletion of natural resources with particular emphasis on trends currently underway in poor and developing countries. National security interests of the United States are particularly sensitive to developments in the Middle East, Russia, China, South Asia, East Asia and the Central Asian Republics but are not confined to these regions. As we shall discuss, environmental stress anywhere can have unanticipated consequences far removed from its source. We live in a global society: problems of human health or economic security or environmental security cannot be easily limited by restrictions imposed at national borders.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 91r. Supervised Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 1705
James J. McCarthy and members of the Committee
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Supervised reading and research on topics not covered by regular courses of instruction. Students must complete a registration form, including permission from their faculty sponsor, with the concentration office before course enrollment. A final paper describing the research/reading completed during the term is due in duplicate to the Head Tutor on the first day of reading period.
Note: Intended for junior and senior concentrators in Environmental Science and Public Policy; open to sophomore concentrators only under exceptional circumstances. Permission of the Head Tutor is required for enrollment. May be counted for concentration only with the special permission of the Head Tutor.

*Environmental Science and Public Policy 99r. Tutorial — Senior Year
Catalog Number: 5666
James J. McCarthy and members of the Committee
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Note: Senior honors candidates must take at least one term of this course (fall or spring) while writing a thesis. If taken for two terms, only one term can be counted toward meeting concentration requirements. Signature of the Head Tutor required for enrollment.