Module 2.2 Systems Thinking and Climate Solutions

(Development in progress)

Introduction

In the first week we considered the role of the carbon economy in the miraculous period of growth and modernization that has improved lives since the industrial revolution.  This week we consider the complex systems that interacted to produce that change, and the consequences for society. Next week we will consider resilience. The first reading is a primer on systems thinking from Donella Meadows. She is significant as one of the authors of the pioneering 1972 Club of Rome report, Limits to Growth, which was reviewed and updated several times since.  Our objective this week is to survey the interaction of political, economic, and social systems with the environment, to set the scene for discussing resilience next week. Our seminar will ask, what’s hype and what’s real? What are the big policy issues?

Learning objectives

• • analyze environmental aspects of engineering activities
• • Explain sustainable design and development
• • Explain environmental stewardship

Required reading (372)

• • Meadows (2008) Primer on systems thinking
• • Homer-Dixon, T. (2009) Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future.  Random House. Discussion, (9:11)   
• • Miller (2004) Climate Science and the Making of the Global Political Order (Ch.3 in Jasanoff)

Other links and references (374)

• • Meadows (2008) Primer on systems thinking
• • Buxton and Hayes (2016) profiting from climate change
• • Dahl et al (2019) killer heat in the US
• • Figueres and Rivett-Carnac (2020) – what governments, corporations, must do to prevent disaster
• • Gutstein (2018) role of think tanks and interests in shaping policy
• • Harvey, Orvis and Rissman (2018) designing climate solutions; we don’t need to wait for new technology
• • Hawken (2017) comprehensive plan to reverse global warming
• • Klein (2015) bad timing; magical thinking; starting anyway 
• • Wallace-Wells (2020) we are in the sixth extinction now 
• • Cornish & Mayrand (2020) Green New Deal, vs. Harper (2020)
• • Macdonald (2020) the challenges of accommodating carbon policy in Federal Canada [and add pipelines and native land]
• • Rand (2020) neither left nor right; renewed capitalism
• • Rifkin (2019) Green new deal to avoid an imminent carbon collapse
• • Nash, Michael P. (2018) Climate Change Refugees. Documentary Film, Multicom Entertainment Group, 1 hour 23 minutes
• • https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-refugees-united-nations-rules/
• • The Years Project (2020) Climate Refugees, What is a climate refugee? (4 mins) Out of Africa (2 Minutes); Bangladesh (4 Minutes); The Coral Triangle (6 minues) 
• • US EPA (2017) Climate change by region  
• • Climate Central (2019) AMERICAN WARMING: The Fastest-Warming Cities and States in the U.S. 
• • Homer-Dixon, T. (2014) Growth, Environmental Damage and Innovation. INET.   (18:11) 
• • Homer-Dixon, T. (2009) Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future.  Random House. Discussion, (9:11)   

Presentations

Lecture 1

In the first lecture we will explore systems thinking, complex systems, and wicked problems, linking political, economic and social systems to the environment and problems of exponential change, including work by IPCC, Gutstein (2018), Hawken (2017), Figueres and Rivett-Carnac (2020)

Link to the slides

Lecture 2

In the second lecture we will focus on the coproduction of science and social order, considering the arguments of Miller (2004), Buxton and Hayes (2016), Latour (2018), and others. Our aim is to follow the systems that might enable or impede common security in the face of challenges to sustainable growth and human survival. 

Link to the slides

Seminar (for POE374, optional for POE372)

The focus of our seminar is on identifying what’s real and what’s hype, and what needs to be done by governments. We’ll take the various arguments and ask the question: should Canada be worried about the impact of climate change on the United States, considering that we are at the colder end of shared continent?