Courses Related to Sustainability Policy and Economics
Course offerings are subject to change. We will try to keep this list updated but please verify information in the Undergraduate Catalog if you see a course that is of interest.
Courses listed on this page focus on how laws, policies, and economic practices influence and are influenced by environmental factors and sustainability solutions. Some courses place greater focus on topics such as laws, energy, citizen involvement, and natural resource policies.
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
EES 312 – Energy, Law, and Environment: Contending with Climate Change
This course addresses the major ethical and legal questions pertaining to energy production and utilization, including environmental and social impacts, with an emphasis on development of climate change policy. Through a combination of lectures, role play, case studies, and discussions, students will consider these issues in local, national, and international contexts.
EES 351 – Energy, Wealth, and Power: a Biophysical Systems View of Nature and Society
Within the biophysical economics paradigm, energy is the unseen arbiter that drives ecological and economic processes. Biophysical systems of nature and human society are organized according to seemingly universal laws that govern the concentration, conversion, and degradation of energy over space and time. These laws explain historic patterns in ecological and societal evolution, and provide a framework for responding to planetary crises of climate change, peak energy, and unpayable ecological debt. Students will apply biophysical systems principles of energy return on investment (EROI), energy hierarchy, transformity, embodied energy (eMergy), and maximum eMpower to better understand the past and better prepare for the future in a rapidly-degrading ecosphere. Students will read historic and current literature, participate in (and sometimes lead) interactive class discussions, and complete individual- or group-projects.
Economics
ECO 105 – Environmental Policy
Examines the relation between the natural environment and the economy, the economic sources of environmental degradation and economic analysis of alternative approaches to environmental regulation and management.
ECO 180 – Citizens, Energy, and Sustainability
This course is intended to provide students with a broad understanding of energy issues by focusing upon current energy use and mandates, energy production (with a focus on alternative energy options), as well as introduces the political, human, and environmental implications of energy use and production. We will discuss how citizens play a vital role in determining the direction that energy policy will take. In the course of our lifetime each of us will be asked to vote on an energy related circumstance, this course intends to give you a place to start in understanding the complexities of energy.
ECO 190 – World Food Supply, Population, and Environment
Reviews current global resources focusing primarily upon food production and population, and environmental problems relating to food production and distribution. World trade and world trade policy are considered with primary emphasis on food. Other topics include world trade liberalization, genetically modified foods and comparative agricultural systems.
ECO 377 – Environmental Economics and Policy
This course takes an economics-based approach to the study of environmental issues, including how economists’ value environmental resources and address market failures Contemporary environmental economics problems and policies are presented.
ECO 381 – SL: Sustainability Science, Policy, and Action
Sustainability concerns not just environmental balance but also social, economic, cultural and ethical factors – that is, nearly everything. Sustainability science is the research field that attempts not only to study this unwieldy group of subjects, but also to motivate positive change toward more sustainable societies. This course explores the scientific foundation of the global environmental sustainability crisis, the economic, social and ethical ramifications of that crisis, and surveys the prospects and challenges in the quest to define, measure and achieve sustainable societies. We also step beyond the academic classroom to accomplish sustainability research and service in the larger community with a semester-long integrated service learning project. This course has been designated as a UMaine service-learning course.
ECO 405 – SL: Sustainable Energy Economics and Policy
This course examines tradeoffs associated with the technical, economic, environmental, and social implications of energy supply, distribution, and use in the context of transitioning toward a sustainable energy future. Students examine a variety of renewable and non-renewable energy options for electricity, heating and transportation. Students assess quantitative and qualitative indicators of sustainability related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, air and water quality, human health and safety, energy security, wildlife and the environment, as well as technological efficiency and availability. They examine the effect of policies (e.g., carbon prices, emissions targets, efficiency requirements, renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs) on these indicators and tradeoffs. The course provides brief introductions to environmental life cycle assessment, social benefit cost analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis, as they apply to energy issues. Students apply course concepts to a service-learning project in which they work with people from surrounding communities on local sustainable energy solutions. Field trips may be required. Students may not receive credit for both ECO 405 and ECO 505.
ECO 450 – International Environmental Economics and Policy
International environmental economics and policy uses an economic framework to examine the reasons behind, and methods to solve conflicts between economic development and growth, trade, and the environment. It explores the processes of international policy development, identifying problems, designing and negotiating solutions, and implementing policies to change national behavior.
ECO 477 – Natural Resource Economics and Policy
This course explores ways in which economic analysis can be used to inform and improve the management of natural resources. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the concepts of economics and how they relate to natural resource management. This course will cover topics, such as how economists view the natural environment, economic theory of resource exploitation (renewable and nonrenewable resources), the use of natural resources and their regulation, and the effect of economic activity on the natural environment (and vice versa).
Philosophy
PHI 345 – Global Justice
A study of moral and political philosophies developed in response to the issues and challenges raised by political, economic, and technological globalization. These include such topics as sovereignty and self-determination, global institutions and democracy, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, poverty and international or global distributive justice, fair trade, intellectual property rights, global environmental justice, domestic institutions and responsibility for global injustice, human rights and cultural diversity, women and global justice, immigration, war, humanitarian intervention and terrorism.
PHI 432 – Environmental Justice
A critical study of historical and multicultural perspectives on environmental justice. This course will focus on environmental intersectionality, the theory that environmental burdens disproportionately affect oppressed social groups. Attention will be given to environmental philosophy, ethics and policy, ranging from local indigenous struggles, to national and global issues.
Plant, Soil, and Environmental Science
PSE 312 – Sustainable Food Systems: Challenges and Opportunities
This course is an examination of food systems through a sustainability lens, including the evolution of food systems over time, supply and value chains, food justice, food sovereignty, hunger, food and agriculture policy at the federal and state level.
School of Forest Resources
SFR 220 – Environment and Society
Introduces the concepts and principles necessary to understand the connections between human behavior and environmental conditions. The course includes a review of the conservation and environmental movements in the United States, tracing changing American values towards forests and other natural resources over time. Students learn how to critically analyze the social, economic, and environmental aspects of various case studies concerning society-environment connections by evaluating diverse information sources.