Environmental Policy Roundtable
Fall 2001

"These events funded in part by your Graduate Student Activities Fee." All seminars to be held at University of Maryland School of Public Affairs, Van Munching Hall unless otherwise posted.

Sep 14 - 'Globalization and Its Discontents' Herman Daly, *PUAF faculty

Sep 28 - 'Does Globalization Still Matter?' with Sameer Dossani, Globalization Challenge Initiative

Oct 12 - 'Climate Change: Accomplishments, Challenges, Obstacles Implementing the Kyoto Protocol' : Joanna Krinn from the Climate Action Network and Jari Vayrynen from Prototype Carbon Fund /World Bank.

Nov 2 (moved from Oct 26) - Film VMH 1206 or PUAF Lounge "Who's Counting: Sex, Lies and Global Economics" by Marilyn Waring followed by Discussion Panel: Moderator - Gary Flo, VP Geonomy Society

1) 'Alternative Indicators of Well-Being' by Amanda Walker PhD candidate UMd
2) 'Income for Non-market Work' by Helen Payne Watt, formerly with CFED, and the "Sky-Trust" Project
3) 'Citizen Dividends and Citizen Service' by Steven Shafarman, Citizen Policies Institute

Film produced in 1995 by the National Film Board of Canada. Waring was the first woman and youngest person elected to the New Zealand Parliament at age 22 in 1975. This film presents Waring's criticism of the United Nations System of National Accounts used to calculate GDP.

Nov 9 - "New Economics for Sustainability" by Dr. Matthias Ruth PUAF Faculty, Director of Environmental Policy.

A host of "newly emerging disciplines" - from Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology to Evolutionary Economics and Complex Systems Sciences - address the nature and fate of humanity at the cusp of environmental change.

This presentation briefly reviews the contributions of the much older discipline of "plain old basic economics" to the sustainability debate, the insights it can generate, and some of the limitations it faces. The purposes of this presentation are to (a) return attention to the many valuable concepts and tools of economics that can be used to advance the newly emerging disciplines, (b) invite critical contributions that make (or keep) these disciplines cutting-edge, and (c) delineate areas of study for students, researchers and practitioners alike.

Nov 23 - Thanksgiving, No Lecture

Nov 30 - "Sustainable" Tourism; Case studies from the largest industry in the developed and developing world.

Since the days when Marco Polo crossed the Silk Trail in Central Asia and Christopher Columbus traversed the Atlantic looking for spices, domestic and international business interests have sparked countless trips. Travelers were by definition, soldiers, privateers, merchants, diplomats, spies, or rogues. Yet less than 100 years ago, leisure travel ceased to be the exclusive privilege of the wealthy. Tourism has become the worlds dominant industry, growing at a rate which (until 9/11) exceeded others in both scope and magnitude. As a result, coordination of different industry factions and market pressures have been increasing, and to the alarm of many environmental and cultural specialists, this activity ever encroaches on socially and ecologically fragile areas.

Recent events have demonstrated the economic and political prowess of the airline industry. However, between 1977 and 1995, U.S. air passenger-kilometers-per capita increased by 132%, now contributing 12% of transport related carbon dioxide emissions. At altitude, the effect on global warming is estimated to be 2 to 4 times that of emissions at ground level, yet airline emissions have yet to be subject to international regulation.

This presentation presents two case studies: Dominica, a small predominantly forested island in the Caribbean, and Tuscany Italy, the latest chic in ‘agro-tourism’. Where is tourist activity most sustainable? In which ways, for whom, and for how long?

Trista Patterson is a student in the Certificate Program for Ecological Economics and is a PhD candidate in the Marine Estuarine Marine Science department. She has spent the past 5 years living out of her suitcase.

That concludes this semester's presentations, but we already are working on a program for spring...stay tuned.

*PUAF = Maryland School of Public Affairs

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