Course timing and readings
Tradeoffs in the Environment. These readings and lectures will be particularly useful as you prepare your ideas for the EETT and Interviews. Probably 2.5 more lectures on efficiency before we move onto the Valuation material.
Assignments and due dates
I will post your fifth weekly assignment tomorrow, which is going to be an exploration of two different environmental justice issues, and it will also introduce you to an important economic tool called “Program Evaluation,”. I added a discussion portion to this one again, and our TA team is gonna be leading discussions with you on it, so look for their announcement. It is definitely going to be on a topic you will want to debate.
Excellent GROUP projects are those that are pondered and discussed and debated all semester long. It will be evident if you do or do not do this. I know that our course does not have quizzes or exams, but if you are not regularly coming to class, you are going to struggle mightily on inclusion of environmental economics ideas in your projects, and your project will surely suffer. Just working hard and doing a very well-produced project is NOT a guarantee of a good grade. Doing great environmental economics is a requirement for a good grade.
Note that Professor Rizzo grades all non-weekly work for the course.
Course projects
Group Project Cheat Sheet
We have THREE group experiences in lieu of quizzes and exams.
- 1. Get Outside Project:
- a. Due November 4th.
- b. Group size between 4 and 8.
- 2. EETT (this is part one of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Reflection 1: due as part of Week 3 RRR (Sept 14th)
- b. Reflection 2: due as part of Week 4 RRR (Sept 21st)
- c. Individual EETT Submission: due Sept 25th
- d. Group Precis: due Oct 5th
- e. Final Project: due Oct 17th
- f. Group size between 4 and 8
- 3. Interview Project (this is part two of a two-part engagement experience)
- a. Project due December 11th
- b. Group size between 4 and 8
Other class administration and availability
MARK Your Class Calendars: Our two Wegmans consulting groups will be making their pitches to Jason Wadsworth, the Sustainability Director at Wegmans, and Lynn Donahue of the Greene Center.
- The pitch is Thursday, September 25th
- The pitch is IN-CLASS (we voted on this)
- The pitch is in our standard classroom, B&L106.
TA Office Hours and Info Look for an announcement from our Head TA Cailtin Lipton for an update.
- The TAs are going to offer office hours and weekly discussion sessions which will enable you to explore class topics more deeply, and to dive into portions of the weekly class work (and possibly receive credit for doing so).
My Availability: For the most up to date info on my office hours availability, and campus whereabouts and other ways (possibly) to meet and get in touch with me, check our Office Hours Blackboard page at tiny.cc/RizzoHours. I also post some job info on there and other items to discuss.
Office hours are a great place to bring your EETT group to bounce ideas off of me, and I am happy to help you all get a baseline start on the topics you are interested in.
Please stop by our picnic lunch bunches on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30am to 12:45pm, they’ve been fun. Meet new people! Talk to my freshmen!
I will be out and about this weekend, so call me if you need me, I won’t be on the computer too much.
GET OUTSIDE
ADK Hike: I am likely to make my way to the ADKS on the 9/26 weekend and/or 10/17 weekend (or more than one), my favorite fall hike ever is doing Rocky Peak Ridge and Giant from New Russia as a through hike and then either spot a car or bicycle. There are many others. An easier hike, but with nearly as exposed views may be the Jay Range. Will let you know. I used to organize campsites and hotel rooms and all that, not so this time around. Both Meadowbrook Campground and Wilmington Notch are booked, though there are spots in Frontier Town (35 mins south in Shroon Lake) available. There may be spots at the private Lazy Acres. There are hostels both in LP and in Keene Valley, the place I used to go to a bunch was T-Max and Topos.
NAPLES GRAPE FESTIVAL: try some Grape Pie after you do a hike of Hi Tor.
PICK YOUR OWN: Rochester is an awesome place to enjoy the fall harvest. My favorite two places are Lagoner Farms (on East side, they also host a nice restaurant, fudge shoppe and cidery) and West Wind Farms (on West side).
Upcoming Special Events
Department of Economics Special Undergraduate Lecture
Who: Lorenzo Caliendo of Yale University
When: Tuesday, September 23rd
Time: 5:15pm
Where: Goergen 101
What: US-China Trade Relations
Department of Economics Engerman Lecture
Who: Robert Margo of Boston University
When: Wednesday, October 15th
Time: 5:00pm
Where: Morey 321
What: From the Artisan Shop to the Mechanized Factory: Inanimate Power and the Transformation of American Manufacturing, 1820 to 1900
The Politics and Markets Project, Hosted by Professor David Primo
Title: Topic TBD (this will be a moderated panel discussion, likely on immigration)
Date: Wednesday, November 5th
Time: 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Wegmans Hall, 1400.
The Department of Economics will be hosting several additional events this fall, TBA, coming soon!
Expected Guests/Topics: Lorenzo Caliendo (late September); Paul Bloom on Empathy/Compassion; David Livingstone-Smith (philosopher); Victor Haghani (money manager)
Some Things That Captured Our Attention
Are We Dodos for Trying? Texas-based de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences announced yesterday it has successfully grown pigeon primordial germ cells—a step toward its goal of reviving the extinct dodo bird.
Nature as Economist, Wildfire Edition: “Wildfires in western US may improve East Coast air quality. Heat from wildfires in the western US reduces air pollution in the east by roughly the same amount as the wildfires increase pollution in the west, according to a new study. This is due to a series of weather pattern shifts that trigger rainfall on the East Coast, effectively washing away pollutants. By ignoring western wildfires' positive effect on eastern air quality, previous nationwide wildfire impact estimates may have inflated premature deaths by 1,200 people and damages by $3.3B.” Smart Marine Regulation by the US
Touch Grass (or Pavement), It is Fantastically Good for Your Mental Health: “I say all of that without the least bit of ironic “slumming it”, but with a genuine admiration and affection. The uber-normality of Michigan City has been especially appreciated this week, when keeping a balanced perspective has been harder. A kind of log off and Touch Grass thing, or more precisely, a log off and a Touch Bespoke Die Tools for Corrugated Cardboard thing. … This week I've only checked the internet in the early morning and then again before going to
bed, and the contrast between what I see online and what I see and hear walking around Michigan City couldn't be more pronounced. Nobody, and I mean that literally as in not a single person, has spoken to me about what everyone online is fighting and talking about.”
Mining the Moon: “Finnish company Bluefors has recently reached a $300 million agreement to mine helium-3 from an unlikely source… the moon, … Under a 2015 law, American space companies were granted the rights to mine on celestial bodies (rightfully). But now, U.S.-based space company Interlune has teamed up with the Fins to allow them to mine Moon for helium-3, which the company will use to create cooling technology that helps enable quantum computing. Sorry, but $300 million? That’s chump change. … Don’t like it? Should’ve thought about that before losing the space race.”
Cornell Students Skin Bear in Ganędagǫ: Hall Communal Kitchen
Gen Z and Birding
Climate Change Will NOT Be a Catastrophe: Progress from China. The New York Times describes the future of the oceans as “death by a thousand cuts”. By mid-century, climate change, overfishing, and coastal development could render many marine ecosystems unrecognizable, with salt marshes and mangroves especially at risk. Yet South Carolina’s “living shoreline” projects, oyster castles, and restoration efforts show that nature still has a chance to recover.
Taking Conservation into Your Own Hands, Whooping Crane Edition: ““The population is increasing, but simultaneously the threats are increasing, and eventually those two meet,” Crouch said. “As urban areas continue to sprawl, as energy infrastructure and industrial development continue to grow, as the impacts of climate change deepen, Whooping Cranes stand to lose a whole lot.” “But the selected property sits at a higher elevation and “gains elevation quickly as you move in from the shoreline.” This meant that even with modest sea level rise, the site’s salt marshes—and subsequently, primary Whooping Crane habitat—might actually expand with rising water levels. “We want this to be a long-term investment,” Crouch said, underscoring that this isn’t about a short term win, but about a strategic safeguard for generations to come.?
Chart of the Week
It must be the phones! (HT: Tyler Cowen)
Photo of the Week
Skillz. Three dogs in the front seat AND texting on the I-590 this week. And y’all think climate change is the biggest threat we face!
Film, music, cultural item of the Week
Since 1945, more than 2,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated on Earth. The US conducted 1,032 tests, the USSR 727. The largest was the Tsar Bomba in 1961 over the Barents Sea: a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb that produced a mushroom cloud seven times taller than Everest and shattered windows 900 km away. Trinity: Visualization of nuclear detonations from 1945 to present is worth a watch.
They Said It
“That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.”
Huckleberry Finn