Seven Canonical Areas Of Global Ecology
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Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 1 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
All human activity is a cry for forgiveness – Karl Barth1 Program Objective: My objective for pursing a PhD at this time is twofold: (1) I want to work on much larger environmental policy issues than I have tackled before, ones that are global in nature, specifically environmental security (e.g. global warming; there will be no “national security” if the earth and its human communities are ravished by environmental degradation) and industrial environmental management (the conjoined global poverty and environmental degradation can only be adequately tackled through businessled investment in sustainable development practices); and (2) I would like to teach the next generation of leaders in business and government how to think about and implement policy that addresses the crisis of the global environment. Program Focus Areas (2): Applied Industrial Environmental Management and Policy, Economics and Law Thesis Problem (tentative): “Calculating Probabilities of Ecologic Disaster: Conflictual Hermeneutical Strategies for Interpreting Environmental and Economic Data Related to the [Event of a Nuclear Terrorist Attack; Global Warming; ??] and the Practice of Accomodationist Environmental Policy Formulation – Process and Proclamation” Thesis Assumptions: My thesis is that the genesis of unrealistic, unresponsive, or inappropriate environmental policy at the business, national government, and trans-national levels derives, not from lack of scientific data, economic capability, or political will, but from an unwillingness to adequately name and confront the “powers and dominions”; the System which routinely places its own survival and well-being over the economic, social, and biological sustainability of the earth’s natural systems (“the environment”). From this vantage, ecological policy-making requires much more than the thoughtful practice of marshalling scientific data and producing convincing arguments of economic feasibility or prudence. In addition, ecological policy-making requires an illuminating vision and embodiment of alternatives to those aspects of the System that are sowing death instead of life on earth. Thesis Focus: One place to start thinking through what post-modern2 ecological policy making looks like is to investigate the conflictual hermeneutical strategies for interpreting a common set of data to produce facts (interpreted data) on a specific environmental policy topic of import. My hope is that by unveiling the 1 2
Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), 97-7.
“Post-modern” is used here in contrast with modernism which assumes that science and technology alone will lead to progress for humanity on earth. I accept that modernity has been completely discredited by two World Wars, the Holocaust, the arms race of the Cold War, Vietnam, etc. during the 20th Century.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
prevailing hermeneutical strategies that are selectively chosen to develop facts that are then wielded politically to rationalize policy choices, a vision for a more inclusive policy discourse concerning environmental issues may evolve. A sub-question that I have is whether the capital markets can assimilate information related to environmental data in a fashion that either lends credibility to or harmonizes hermeneutic approaches, leading to sound, inclusive, and responsive policy. Methodology: I would like to interview heads of major international financial institutions, government officials, and international business executives to test my hypothesis by asking a series of questions – for example, if nuclear terrorism: “Why are the global capital markets indifferent as to what U.S. nonproliferation policy is when a nuclear terrorist attack could cost the economy the equivalent of one GDP (~$10 trillion)? Can I identify the hermeneutic strategy for each individual? And, what are the implications for developing policy regarding global environmental policy? The Problem: Ecocide •
We are poisoning the earth’s life-support systems. Some pollutants that are in the biosphere cannot be recaptured. We are slowly making the earth unfit for life.
•
Through unsustainable land practices, burning, logging, and acid rain from industrial activities we are destroying the earth’s forests. These forests are necessary to produce the oxygen and purify the air we breathe.
•
Through the chemicals we discharge into the air, we have torn a hole in the earth’s ozone layer that protects us from the ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
•
Our great oceans and the earth’s wetlands are dying from the pollution from our cities and factories, over-harvesting, and neglect.
•
We are turning fertile farmland into desserts through improper land cultivation to feed an ever growing global population.
•
We are creating the conditions for the extinction of other life species on our earth. Once a species is extinct, we cannot bring them back.
•
Nuclear terrorism threatens the entire earth’s population of living things with the radioactive contamination of ecosystems on the earth.3
•
Environmental stress is creating the conditions for outbreaks of new disease organisms and pandemics of biblical proportions.
3
Adapted from Elizabeth A. Johnson, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit: 1993 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993), 507.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 3 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
The Solution: Policies and Practices that produce sustainable human development while alleviating global poverty and protecting our natural heritage that are introduced and sustained in non-violent ways. 1.
The first requirement is for us to change the way we think about our environment. Our ethics and moral practices need to encompass our earth’s well-being, along with our care for the global poor and those segments of the human population suffering oppression. Our identity as individuals, nations, and humanity must include our relationship to God, to the earth, and to other living things.
2.
We need to understand the other’s way of interpreting environmental data so that we are able to discover new ways of discourse when we disagree.
3.
The environmental policy maker, most of all, must be capable to proclaiming a vision of an alternative to those aspects of the System that are creating the conditions for ecocide, as well as embodying a truthfulness and humility in the practices that define his/her identity as an environmental policy-maker.
Seven Canonical Areas of Study: I. Theological and Philosophical Underpinnings of Post-Modern Environmental Awareness, and Alternate Hermeneutical Strategies for Interpreting Data. The underpinnings of how/why we are thinking about data used to formulate environmental policy for businesses, government, and transnational governance organizations. •
What are the various philosophical approaches to hermeneutics? What are their values and limitations at understanding data related to environmental policy formulation? Why do interpreters of the same data arrive at widely disparate approaches to policy that produces a healthy biosphere and promotes the well-being of its people?
•
What are the theological/philosophical understandings of human development that incorporate environmental data and promote a sustainable place for humanity in the created order?
•
What are the theological and philosophical influences for how the dominant alternatives in American/European political thought use data in formulating environmental policy?
Suggested Reading: Borradori, Giovanna. Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues With Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. Derrida, Jacques. Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida; Dissemination.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 4 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Foucault, Michel: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics; Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-197; Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth : Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984 Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Habermas, Jurgen. Macauley, David. Walking the Earth: Philosophical Foot Notes (Bloomington, IN: Univ. of Indiana Press, forthcoming, 2005); Bewildering Order: Earth, Water, Air and Fire as Elemental Philosophy and Environmental Ideas (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, forthcoming, 2004); Editor, Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology (NY: Guilford Press). Popper, Karl. The Poverty of Historicism; Conjecture and Reflections.
Rorty, Richard. The Consequences of Pragmatism, 1992. Scott, Charles. The Time of Memory (State University of New York, 1999); Interrogating the Tradition: Hermeneutics and the History of Philosophy (State University of New York Press, forthcoming); co-editor; On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethics and Politics (Indiana University Press, 1996)
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
II. Environmental Ethics and Ecological Moral Theology. Policy, to be effective, must be seen as ‘ethical.’ What is the basis for ethical policy? •
Discuss the sources of environmental ethics (and moral theology).
•
Describe the major ethical theories and major thinkers in the field.
•
Discuss the nature, focus and justification for "the common good" in formulating policy.
•
Discuss the nature of moral agency when formulating policy, including the understanding of such issues as freedom, responsibility, obligation, virtue, conscience and character.
•
How does one apply moral judgment, including the knowledge of the relation between belief and moral judgment and interpreting data to produce “facts”(interpreted data)?
Suggested Reading: Bazerman, Max H., David M. Messinck, Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Kimberly A. Wade. Environment, Ethics and Behavior. San Francisco, CA: New Lexington Press, 1997. Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. MacIntyre, Alisdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theology; Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition. Menkel-Meadow, Carrie and Michael Wheeler, eds. What's Fair: Ethics for Negotiators. San Francisco, CA: Program on Negotiation & Jossey-Bass, 2004. Pleins, David J. The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible: A Theological Introduction. Westminster/John Knox Press. 2001.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
III. Political History of Environmental Policy Formulation; Environmental Regulatory Practice; How and why does environmental policy happen in the real world. •
What are the major events and personalities related to environmental policy and practice from historical periods to the present - in relationship to their historical, social, political, economic, and legal contexts?
•
Describe the political development of distinctive environmental institutions, formation of regulatory law, political, and economic impacts:
European Union Environmental Program from beginning to present.
The USEPA from beginning to present in context of American government environmental policy history in general - major events and personalities.
Cross-cultural awareness of alternative environmental policy approaches and institutions.
•
Discuss the evolution of modern regulatory practice to economic-based incentives/penalties approach to environmental policy.
Suggested Reading: Tim Flannery, Tim. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples. Grove Press, 2002 Worster, Donald and Alfred W. Crosby (Series Editors). Nature's Economy : A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History), 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 7 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
IV. Systems Ecology, including Applied Systems Ecology: the scientific underpinnings for environmental policy. Models: conceptual and predictive ecosystem models, statistical ecosystem modeling, deterministic ecosystem modeling, autonomous deterministic ecosystem models, non-autonomous deterministic ecosystem models, fuzzy modeling of ecosystems, expert system modeling of ecosystems, deterministic/probabilistic models of terrestrial ecosystem, artificial neural network modeling of ecosystems, genetic algorithms for ecosystem modeling. •
Describe in detail the doctrines and principles of systems ecology.
•
Discuss current advances in ecosystem modeling techniques and recent developments.
•
Describe present modeling capabilities as to natural system limits and global resource usage; constraints and dynamics.
•
Application: discuss the relation of current data stores (on basic environmental parameters) to the use of models for contemporary policy formulation practices and implemented policy (economic and social dimensions).
Suggested Reading: Ford, Andrew. Modeling the environment: an introduction to systems dynamics modeling of environmental systems. Washington, DC.: Island Press, 1999. Haefner, J. W. Modeling biological systems: principles and applications. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1997. Hannon, B. and M. Ruth, 1994. Dynamic Modeling. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994. Newman, E.I. Applied Ecology and Environmental Management. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2000. Odum, Eugene, and Gary W. Barrett. Fundamentals of Ecology, 5th edition. Brooks Cole, 2004. Starfield, A. M. and A. L. Bleloch. 1991. Building models for conservation and wildlife management. Burgess International Group, Inc. Sven Erik, and Iu. M. Svirezhev. Towards a Thermodynamic Theory for Ecological Systems. Pergamon (July 6, 2004).
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 8 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
V. Studies in Environmental Economics; including re-thinking the concepts of micro and macroeconomic theory as it impacts environmental policy formulation and practice. Economics has become the dominant means to measure results/value for environmental policy. What about economics makes it such a convenient and dominant means for assessing environmental policy? What are its strengths/limitations? Are current economic concepts even useful? My initial question is whether an economic frame for environmental policy is even possible, Economics describes the practices of buying and selling goods; goods that can be effectively priced by the markets; markets that are free to exchange information related to the production/consumption of these goods. Every business knows that one must include in the price of a good an amortized cost associated with replacing the property, plant, and equipment used to replace that good. Yet, for natural inputs, this logic is often abandoned. For example, we continue to price oil at its cost of extraction and transportation, not replacement. And, all of western democratic capitalism relies on this improperly priced natural input for its economic value creation. Also, the concept of efficient markets with respect to environmental goods is a highly suspect contention. In fact, markets for natural inputs are often highly inefficient by design of national governments. Instead of working with “environmental economics” as a specialized from of economics, we may require instead a radical re-thinking of economic concepts from the perspective of natural inputs rather than attempting to “fit” environmental policy into the rubric of economics. •
Discuss current socioeconomic issues and problems for businesses and governments. What do economically sound environmental policy and practices look like and why are they no being adopted at a level that actually makes a difference in preventing ecocide?
•
What are the ways in which the major conceptual flaws by which national and international economic and financial institutions have addressed and may address environmental policy to prevent ecocide?
•
What is the role of the capital markets in addressing major environmental policy issues to prevent ecocide (e.g. nonproliferation, global warming, resource scarcity, and pricing of environmental inputs to the economy)?
•
Discuss project finance evaluation fallacies (use of NPV vs. real options to evaluate projects) and study business case studies related to environmental policy decision-making where dominant economic imagination was contravened and substantive practices to avert ecocide were adopted.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
•
What are the modern democratic-capitalistic business practices that determine policy at the business, government and trans-national levels of organization? What is amiss with our present concept of profit (wealth-creation) that creates diseconomy in pricing of natural inputs and humanmade outputs?
Suggested Reading: Boardman, A., D. Greenberg, A. Vining and D. Weimer. Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 2nd edition. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Carlson, G., D. Zilberman and J. Miranowski. Agricultural and Environmental Resource Economics, 1st ed. 1993. Neher, P. Natural Resource Economics: Conservation and Exploitation, 1st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Perman, R., Y. Ma, J. McGilvray and M. Common. Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, 2nd edition. 1999. Pearson, Charles S. Economics and the Global Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Siebert, H. Economics of the Environment: Theory and Policy, 4th Edition. Berlin: Springer, 2001.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
VI. Policy Development and Practice – Case Studies for Business, Government and Trans-National Organizations •
Historical development of the failed mechanisms for formulating environmental policy on specific issues (e.g. CFC’s, global warming, etc.) to avert ecocide.
•
Understanding of the failed role and function of government and non-governmental (NGO) organizations (structure and function) in developing environmental policy capable in averting ecocide.
•
Understanding the structure and function of business and the executive’s role in managing the business in formulating environmental policies and practices that prevent businesses from contributing to ecocide.
•
The role of publics and the media in environmental policy formulation
•
Recovering from failure: practices for going from failed to successful policy formulation.
Suggested Reading: Brewer, Garry. The Foundations of Policy Analysis. 1992. Esty, Daniel. Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Policy. Gentry, Bradford S. Private Capital Flows and the Environment: Lessons from Latin America. Speth, James Gustave. Red Sky at Morning, etc. Susskind, Lawrence, and Eric Dolan and J. William Breslin. Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume II – XIII. Cambridge, MA: PON Books, 1992 – 2004.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Speech is the basis of all progress in law, art, and human invention. Speech is the only means whereby we can achieve justice, give honor, or promote civilization and culture – Isocrates of Athens (para.)4 VII. Theory and Practice of Negotiation Using Environmental Data •
Practicum: knowledge and practice of proclamation, especially use of expertise as a change agent.
•
Practicum: roles and strategies of negotiators in business and government negotiations on environmental policy.
•
Practicum: ethical/moral duties and responsibilities of negotiators in contemporary business, governmental and international environmental negotiations on environmental policy.
•
Practicum: the consultant as negotiator of data analysis methodologies and data interpretation to produce facts for presentation in business, government, and transnational organizations.
Suggested Reading: Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (for the 2nd edition) Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1991. Kochan, Thomas A. and David B. Lipsky, eds. Negotiations and Change: From the Workplace to Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. Macey, Gregg P. and Lawrence Susskind. Using Dispute Resolution Techniques to Address Environmental Justice Concerns: Case Studies. Cambridge, MA: The Consensus Building Institute, 2003 Susskind, Lawrence E. Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global Agreements. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994 Susskind, Lawrence E. and Paul F. Levy, and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer. Negotiating Environmental Agreements: How to Avoid Escalating Confrontation, Needless Costs, and Unnecessary Litigation. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000.
4
Isocrates, Antidosis 253-57 cited in Christopher Bryan, And God Spoke: The Authority of the Bible for the
Church Today (Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 2002), 32.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Susskind, Lawrence, Sarah McKearnan and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer. Consensus Building Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. Susskind, Lawrence, William Moomaw, and Kevin Gallagher, eds. Transboundary Environmental Negotiation: New Approaches to Global Cooperation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
All human activity is a cry for forgiveness – Karl Barth1 Program Objective: My objective for pursing a PhD at this time is twofold: (1) I want to work on much larger environmental policy issues than I have tackled before, ones that are global in nature, specifically environmental security (e.g. global warming; there will be no “national security” if the earth and its human communities are ravished by environmental degradation) and industrial environmental management (the conjoined global poverty and environmental degradation can only be adequately tackled through businessled investment in sustainable development practices); and (2) I would like to teach the next generation of leaders in business and government how to think about and implement policy that addresses the crisis of the global environment. Program Focus Areas (2): Applied Industrial Environmental Management and Policy, Economics and Law Thesis Problem (tentative): “Calculating Probabilities of Ecologic Disaster: Conflictual Hermeneutical Strategies for Interpreting Environmental and Economic Data Related to the [Event of a Nuclear Terrorist Attack; Global Warming; ??] and the Practice of Accomodationist Environmental Policy Formulation – Process and Proclamation” Thesis Assumptions: My thesis is that the genesis of unrealistic, unresponsive, or inappropriate environmental policy at the business, national government, and trans-national levels derives, not from lack of scientific data, economic capability, or political will, but from an unwillingness to adequately name and confront the “powers and dominions”; the System which routinely places its own survival and well-being over the economic, social, and biological sustainability of the earth’s natural systems (“the environment”). From this vantage, ecological policy-making requires much more than the thoughtful practice of marshalling scientific data and producing convincing arguments of economic feasibility or prudence. In addition, ecological policy-making requires an illuminating vision and embodiment of alternatives to those aspects of the System that are sowing death instead of life on earth. Thesis Focus: One place to start thinking through what post-modern2 ecological policy making looks like is to investigate the conflictual hermeneutical strategies for interpreting a common set of data to produce facts (interpreted data) on a specific environmental policy topic of import. My hope is that by unveiling the 1 2
Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1933), 97-7.
“Post-modern” is used here in contrast with modernism which assumes that science and technology alone will lead to progress for humanity on earth. I accept that modernity has been completely discredited by two World Wars, the Holocaust, the arms race of the Cold War, Vietnam, etc. during the 20th Century.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
prevailing hermeneutical strategies that are selectively chosen to develop facts that are then wielded politically to rationalize policy choices, a vision for a more inclusive policy discourse concerning environmental issues may evolve. A sub-question that I have is whether the capital markets can assimilate information related to environmental data in a fashion that either lends credibility to or harmonizes hermeneutic approaches, leading to sound, inclusive, and responsive policy. Methodology: I would like to interview heads of major international financial institutions, government officials, and international business executives to test my hypothesis by asking a series of questions – for example, if nuclear terrorism: “Why are the global capital markets indifferent as to what U.S. nonproliferation policy is when a nuclear terrorist attack could cost the economy the equivalent of one GDP (~$10 trillion)? Can I identify the hermeneutic strategy for each individual? And, what are the implications for developing policy regarding global environmental policy? The Problem: Ecocide •
We are poisoning the earth’s life-support systems. Some pollutants that are in the biosphere cannot be recaptured. We are slowly making the earth unfit for life.
•
Through unsustainable land practices, burning, logging, and acid rain from industrial activities we are destroying the earth’s forests. These forests are necessary to produce the oxygen and purify the air we breathe.
•
Through the chemicals we discharge into the air, we have torn a hole in the earth’s ozone layer that protects us from the ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
•
Our great oceans and the earth’s wetlands are dying from the pollution from our cities and factories, over-harvesting, and neglect.
•
We are turning fertile farmland into desserts through improper land cultivation to feed an ever growing global population.
•
We are creating the conditions for the extinction of other life species on our earth. Once a species is extinct, we cannot bring them back.
•
Nuclear terrorism threatens the entire earth’s population of living things with the radioactive contamination of ecosystems on the earth.3
•
Environmental stress is creating the conditions for outbreaks of new disease organisms and pandemics of biblical proportions.
3
Adapted from Elizabeth A. Johnson, Women, Earth, and Creator Spirit: 1993 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1993), 507.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
The Solution: Policies and Practices that produce sustainable human development while alleviating global poverty and protecting our natural heritage that are introduced and sustained in non-violent ways. 1.
The first requirement is for us to change the way we think about our environment. Our ethics and moral practices need to encompass our earth’s well-being, along with our care for the global poor and those segments of the human population suffering oppression. Our identity as individuals, nations, and humanity must include our relationship to God, to the earth, and to other living things.
2.
We need to understand the other’s way of interpreting environmental data so that we are able to discover new ways of discourse when we disagree.
3.
The environmental policy maker, most of all, must be capable to proclaiming a vision of an alternative to those aspects of the System that are creating the conditions for ecocide, as well as embodying a truthfulness and humility in the practices that define his/her identity as an environmental policy-maker.
Seven Canonical Areas of Study: I. Theological and Philosophical Underpinnings of Post-Modern Environmental Awareness, and Alternate Hermeneutical Strategies for Interpreting Data. The underpinnings of how/why we are thinking about data used to formulate environmental policy for businesses, government, and transnational governance organizations. •
What are the various philosophical approaches to hermeneutics? What are their values and limitations at understanding data related to environmental policy formulation? Why do interpreters of the same data arrive at widely disparate approaches to policy that produces a healthy biosphere and promotes the well-being of its people?
•
What are the theological/philosophical understandings of human development that incorporate environmental data and promote a sustainable place for humanity in the created order?
•
What are the theological and philosophical influences for how the dominant alternatives in American/European political thought use data in formulating environmental policy?
Suggested Reading: Borradori, Giovanna. Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues With Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida. Derrida, Jacques. Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation With Jacques Derrida; Dissemination.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Foucault, Michel: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics; Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-197; Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth : Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984 Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Truth and Method. Habermas, Jurgen. Macauley, David. Walking the Earth: Philosophical Foot Notes (Bloomington, IN: Univ. of Indiana Press, forthcoming, 2005); Bewildering Order: Earth, Water, Air and Fire as Elemental Philosophy and Environmental Ideas (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, forthcoming, 2004); Editor, Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology (NY: Guilford Press). Popper, Karl. The Poverty of Historicism; Conjecture and Reflections.
Rorty, Richard. The Consequences of Pragmatism, 1992. Scott, Charles. The Time of Memory (State University of New York, 1999); Interrogating the Tradition: Hermeneutics and the History of Philosophy (State University of New York Press, forthcoming); co-editor; On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Ethics and Politics (Indiana University Press, 1996)
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
II. Environmental Ethics and Ecological Moral Theology. Policy, to be effective, must be seen as ‘ethical.’ What is the basis for ethical policy? •
Discuss the sources of environmental ethics (and moral theology).
•
Describe the major ethical theories and major thinkers in the field.
•
Discuss the nature, focus and justification for "the common good" in formulating policy.
•
Discuss the nature of moral agency when formulating policy, including the understanding of such issues as freedom, responsibility, obligation, virtue, conscience and character.
•
How does one apply moral judgment, including the knowledge of the relation between belief and moral judgment and interpreting data to produce “facts”(interpreted data)?
Suggested Reading: Bazerman, Max H., David M. Messinck, Ann E. Tenbrunsel and Kimberly A. Wade. Environment, Ethics and Behavior. San Francisco, CA: New Lexington Press, 1997. Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. MacIntyre, Alisdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theology; Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, and Tradition. Menkel-Meadow, Carrie and Michael Wheeler, eds. What's Fair: Ethics for Negotiators. San Francisco, CA: Program on Negotiation & Jossey-Bass, 2004. Pleins, David J. The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible: A Theological Introduction. Westminster/John Knox Press. 2001.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
III. Political History of Environmental Policy Formulation; Environmental Regulatory Practice; How and why does environmental policy happen in the real world. •
What are the major events and personalities related to environmental policy and practice from historical periods to the present - in relationship to their historical, social, political, economic, and legal contexts?
•
Describe the political development of distinctive environmental institutions, formation of regulatory law, political, and economic impacts:
European Union Environmental Program from beginning to present.
The USEPA from beginning to present in context of American government environmental policy history in general - major events and personalities.
Cross-cultural awareness of alternative environmental policy approaches and institutions.
•
Discuss the evolution of modern regulatory practice to economic-based incentives/penalties approach to environmental policy.
Suggested Reading: Tim Flannery, Tim. The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples. Grove Press, 2002 Worster, Donald and Alfred W. Crosby (Series Editors). Nature's Economy : A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History), 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
18-Dec-04 Page 7 of 12
The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
IV. Systems Ecology, including Applied Systems Ecology: the scientific underpinnings for environmental policy. Models: conceptual and predictive ecosystem models, statistical ecosystem modeling, deterministic ecosystem modeling, autonomous deterministic ecosystem models, non-autonomous deterministic ecosystem models, fuzzy modeling of ecosystems, expert system modeling of ecosystems, deterministic/probabilistic models of terrestrial ecosystem, artificial neural network modeling of ecosystems, genetic algorithms for ecosystem modeling. •
Describe in detail the doctrines and principles of systems ecology.
•
Discuss current advances in ecosystem modeling techniques and recent developments.
•
Describe present modeling capabilities as to natural system limits and global resource usage; constraints and dynamics.
•
Application: discuss the relation of current data stores (on basic environmental parameters) to the use of models for contemporary policy formulation practices and implemented policy (economic and social dimensions).
Suggested Reading: Ford, Andrew. Modeling the environment: an introduction to systems dynamics modeling of environmental systems. Washington, DC.: Island Press, 1999. Haefner, J. W. Modeling biological systems: principles and applications. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1997. Hannon, B. and M. Ruth, 1994. Dynamic Modeling. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994. Newman, E.I. Applied Ecology and Environmental Management. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2000. Odum, Eugene, and Gary W. Barrett. Fundamentals of Ecology, 5th edition. Brooks Cole, 2004. Starfield, A. M. and A. L. Bleloch. 1991. Building models for conservation and wildlife management. Burgess International Group, Inc. Sven Erik, and Iu. M. Svirezhev. Towards a Thermodynamic Theory for Ecological Systems. Pergamon (July 6, 2004).
Lyle Brecht DRAFT PhD Program
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
V. Studies in Environmental Economics; including re-thinking the concepts of micro and macroeconomic theory as it impacts environmental policy formulation and practice. Economics has become the dominant means to measure results/value for environmental policy. What about economics makes it such a convenient and dominant means for assessing environmental policy? What are its strengths/limitations? Are current economic concepts even useful? My initial question is whether an economic frame for environmental policy is even possible, Economics describes the practices of buying and selling goods; goods that can be effectively priced by the markets; markets that are free to exchange information related to the production/consumption of these goods. Every business knows that one must include in the price of a good an amortized cost associated with replacing the property, plant, and equipment used to replace that good. Yet, for natural inputs, this logic is often abandoned. For example, we continue to price oil at its cost of extraction and transportation, not replacement. And, all of western democratic capitalism relies on this improperly priced natural input for its economic value creation. Also, the concept of efficient markets with respect to environmental goods is a highly suspect contention. In fact, markets for natural inputs are often highly inefficient by design of national governments. Instead of working with “environmental economics” as a specialized from of economics, we may require instead a radical re-thinking of economic concepts from the perspective of natural inputs rather than attempting to “fit” environmental policy into the rubric of economics. •
Discuss current socioeconomic issues and problems for businesses and governments. What do economically sound environmental policy and practices look like and why are they no being adopted at a level that actually makes a difference in preventing ecocide?
•
What are the ways in which the major conceptual flaws by which national and international economic and financial institutions have addressed and may address environmental policy to prevent ecocide?
•
What is the role of the capital markets in addressing major environmental policy issues to prevent ecocide (e.g. nonproliferation, global warming, resource scarcity, and pricing of environmental inputs to the economy)?
•
Discuss project finance evaluation fallacies (use of NPV vs. real options to evaluate projects) and study business case studies related to environmental policy decision-making where dominant economic imagination was contravened and substantive practices to avert ecocide were adopted.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
•
What are the modern democratic-capitalistic business practices that determine policy at the business, government and trans-national levels of organization? What is amiss with our present concept of profit (wealth-creation) that creates diseconomy in pricing of natural inputs and humanmade outputs?
Suggested Reading: Boardman, A., D. Greenberg, A. Vining and D. Weimer. Cost-Benefit Analysis: Concepts and Practice, 2nd edition. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. Carlson, G., D. Zilberman and J. Miranowski. Agricultural and Environmental Resource Economics, 1st ed. 1993. Neher, P. Natural Resource Economics: Conservation and Exploitation, 1st edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Perman, R., Y. Ma, J. McGilvray and M. Common. Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, 2nd edition. 1999. Pearson, Charles S. Economics and the Global Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Siebert, H. Economics of the Environment: Theory and Policy, 4th Edition. Berlin: Springer, 2001.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
VI. Policy Development and Practice – Case Studies for Business, Government and Trans-National Organizations •
Historical development of the failed mechanisms for formulating environmental policy on specific issues (e.g. CFC’s, global warming, etc.) to avert ecocide.
•
Understanding of the failed role and function of government and non-governmental (NGO) organizations (structure and function) in developing environmental policy capable in averting ecocide.
•
Understanding the structure and function of business and the executive’s role in managing the business in formulating environmental policies and practices that prevent businesses from contributing to ecocide.
•
The role of publics and the media in environmental policy formulation
•
Recovering from failure: practices for going from failed to successful policy formulation.
Suggested Reading: Brewer, Garry. The Foundations of Policy Analysis. 1992. Esty, Daniel. Thinking Ecologically: The Next Generation of Environmental Policy. Gentry, Bradford S. Private Capital Flows and the Environment: Lessons from Latin America. Speth, James Gustave. Red Sky at Morning, etc. Susskind, Lawrence, and Eric Dolan and J. William Breslin. Papers on International Environmental Negotiation, Volume II – XIII. Cambridge, MA: PON Books, 1992 – 2004.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Speech is the basis of all progress in law, art, and human invention. Speech is the only means whereby we can achieve justice, give honor, or promote civilization and culture – Isocrates of Athens (para.)4 VII. Theory and Practice of Negotiation Using Environmental Data •
Practicum: knowledge and practice of proclamation, especially use of expertise as a change agent.
•
Practicum: roles and strategies of negotiators in business and government negotiations on environmental policy.
•
Practicum: ethical/moral duties and responsibilities of negotiators in contemporary business, governmental and international environmental negotiations on environmental policy.
•
Practicum: the consultant as negotiator of data analysis methodologies and data interpretation to produce facts for presentation in business, government, and transnational organizations.
Suggested Reading: Fisher, Roger, William Ury, and Bruce Patton (for the 2nd edition) Getting to YES: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1991. Kochan, Thomas A. and David B. Lipsky, eds. Negotiations and Change: From the Workplace to Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. Macey, Gregg P. and Lawrence Susskind. Using Dispute Resolution Techniques to Address Environmental Justice Concerns: Case Studies. Cambridge, MA: The Consensus Building Institute, 2003 Susskind, Lawrence E. Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating More Effective Global Agreements. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994 Susskind, Lawrence E. and Paul F. Levy, and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer. Negotiating Environmental Agreements: How to Avoid Escalating Confrontation, Needless Costs, and Unnecessary Litigation. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000.
4
Isocrates, Antidosis 253-57 cited in Christopher Bryan, And God Spoke: The Authority of the Bible for the
Church Today (Cambridge, MA: Cowley, 2002), 32.
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The Seven Canonical Areas for PhD, Applied Global Ecology: General Areas of Knowledge for Study and Mastery
Susskind, Lawrence, Sarah McKearnan and Jennifer Thomas-Larmer. Consensus Building Handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1999. Susskind, Lawrence, William Moomaw, and Kevin Gallagher, eds. Transboundary Environmental Negotiation: New Approaches to Global Cooperation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2002.
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