51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

This seminar will explore how human economies and natural ecosystems interact and evolve over time and space. We will examine the dynamics of human relationship with ‘nature’, and the response they evoke to environmental issues. We will ask: how is human behavior connected to changes in hydrological, nutrient or carbon cycles? How do changes in climate and hydrology bring about changes in agricultural practices? What are the feedbacks between the social and natural systems, and how do these influence the services we get from ecosystems? What brings about agrarian distress and famine, deforestation and conservation, resource exhaustion and renewal, environmental crisis and restitution? How do markets and incentives affect people’s behavior and decisions regarding resource use? What are the other possible resource use practices that do exist and have exited outside the purview of market? This course will seek answers to these questions and will try to build a shared understanding of solutions that are sustainable in scale, equitable in distribution, and fair in practice. This is an introductory course and students need no prior knowledge of economics to take this course.