DATE
Monday 12/4, in class*
MECHANICS
- Exam II covers Modules 3, 4, and 5
- Closed everything
- You'll be writing on paper
- You'll have the whole class period
- There will be 6-7 questions and you'll answer 4
- The two sample question below will be among the 6-7 questions you will choose from.
* Scheduling the exam on the last day of class is consistent with SMU's final exam policy because Exam II covers just part of this class, not the whole class. Only cumulative finals have to be scheduled during the finals period.
_________________________
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
These will be among the 6-7 questions you will choose from. If you answer these questions make sure you review the relevant blog posts and readings.
(1) Suppose you agree that we are obligated to prevent deaths due to climate change if they’re going to occur in the near future. What if they are going to occur in the far future—in 200 years? (a) Explain Broome’s distinction between duties of justice and duties of goodness. (b) Explain why, on his view, we only have duties of goodness to people in 200 years. (c) If our duties to people in 200 years are duties of goodness, then are they low priority? What does Broome say?
(2) Some environmentalists bemoan the loss of wild nature, finding nature that’s heavily managed or restored less valuable than untouched nature. (a) Why does William Cronon question this sort of high esteem for wildness? (b) What does Robert Elliott mean by “faking nature” and why does he think that fake nature is less valuable than wild nature? (c) Give your reasons for accepting Cronon’s view, Elliott’s, or some third position on the value of wildness.
_________________________
ADVICE
- Use all the materials available:
- your own notes
- blog posts (but don't memorize or repeat word-for-word)
- the readings
- RRs and comments you received on them
- Answer questions as fully as you can in the time available.
- Make sure you understand what an "argument" is.
- Answer questions completely. See sample grading.
_________________________
REVIEW
We'll review for Exam II on Friday Dec. 1. Q&A is in workbook
_________________________
INDEX
Topics reviewed on Dec 1 are highlighted. The exam is not limited to those topics.
MODULE 3 CLIMATE CHANGE
10/4 Climate Change Science: impacts; prevention strategies; skeptics; the Paris Agreement
10/6 Future People: duties of justice vs. duties of goodness; reducing GHG for the sake of present people vs. future people (Broome); the non-identity argument [Q1]
10/11 Future People: the social discount rate (Broome)
10/13 Distributing the Burden: the Paris Agreement; two approaches to climate justice (Peter Singer); historical principles; time slice principles
10/16 Distributing the Burden: four fairness frameworks; historical principles; time slice principles; capabilities; cost-effectiveness; how are countries doing?
10/18 False Alarm: mitigation vs. adaptation (The Three Little Pigs); can adaptation solve the problem of climate change? Lomborg's arguments
10/20 Geoengineering debate: follow up discussion--is geoengineering mitigation or adaptation?
MODULE 4 WILDERNESS
10/23 Biophilia What's valuable about wild places? (E.O. Wilson)
10/25 Is wilderness a social construct?: Cronon's arguments; applications of Cronon's view [Q2]
10/27 Granting Rights to Nature: Native American ideas about nature; kinship with nature; natural entities as legal persons; water conservation (Kelsey Leonard) not covered
10/30 Too Many People? 60s worries about overpopulation vs. today's worries; Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons"; how to limit population
11/1 Too Many People?: Hardin recap; why his predictions were incorrect; what's good about high population (Ord)
11/3 Faking Nature: restoration examples; why restoration doesn't fully restore (Elliott); what he's saying & what he's not saying [Q2]
11/5 Rewilding; conservation/restoration--definition & argument (Leopold); rewilding--definition & argument (Monbiot); examples of various kinds
MODULE 5: ACTION
11/11 Personal Choices: the "just one person" problem; can one person slow climate change?; the cumulative and threshold models; Jamieson's 3 arguments for changing behavior even when the behavior makes no difference.
11/13 Personal Choices: puzzles of individual responsibility; the rare and the collective stages; Hardin, Johnson, Hourdequin
11/15 Recycling Debate/Personal Choices : puzzles of individual responsibility; summary of 3 solutions (Jamieson, Johnson, Hourdequin)
11/17 Ecosabotage: types of activism; deflating tires in Boston; Malm, How to Blow Up A Pipeline
11/29 Environmentalism and Politics: Scruton's 5 contrasts
12/1 Review