BEXP 17A04 - Ecological Literacy

The overall aim of this course is to provide all students with the descriptive elements and the essential tools for analysis, so they all gain a foothold in the field of current environmental issues. The course seeks to demonstrate that the ecological/climate issue is omnipresent in the way society, the State and international relations work. Consequently, this issue involves the whole of the disciplinary fields that structure teaching material in Sciences Po. We will ground or progression mainly on the resources provided by environmental history, economic sociology, materialist approaches to humans relations and geopolitics. This course is fitted to first year students, as it is mainly of a descriptive nature and does not aim at digging deeper into one particular method or discipline.

Lucas CHANCEL,Thomas LAUVAUX,Théodore TALLENT

Séminaire

English

Spring 2024-2025

NB: As the course will be held over one week, the different lessons are presented as “days'. DAY 1: An Earth-system entering crisis This session will be dedicated to the study of the sciences of the Earth-system and of the main destabilization factors that affect it. We will present the issues tied to the carbon, nitrogen and water cycle, those linked to the greenhouse effect, to carbon emissions and budgets, and to chemical pollutions and the disruption of natural evolution. We will apprehend the scientific elements which underpin the climate and ecological alert. This will be supplemented by a study of how environmental sciences gradually became a part of the political agenda (IPCC etc.) References : Gilles Ramstein et Sylvestre Huet, Le climat en 100 questions, PUF. Stefan Aykut et Amy Dahan, Climatiser le monde, Quae DAY 2: The industrial society This second session will focus on the historical framing of the generalized dependency to both fossil fuels and an energy intensive mode of production. We will provide some elements on the history of sciences and technologies that make up the heart of the industrial civilization, in addition to some insights on colonial empires, risk and catastrophe management, and the juridical structures that are the cornerstone of modernity. In fewer words, we will examine all that contributed to the change of attitude regarding nature, in the Western world and beyond. Doing so, we will confront the historically embedded growth dynamic to the current state of crises and environmental inequalities. References: John McNeill, Du nouveau sous le soleil, Champvallon Kenneth Pomeranz, Une grande divergence, Fayard DAY 3: Environmental Economics During this third session we will study the redefinition of the economic order, as it is put under severe pressure by the ecological crisis. In conjunction with the economics lesson provided to all first year students, we will focus on the notion of externality, on the problem of economic exploitation of nature and of the rationality that supports this phenomenon, on the contradictions of the capitalist system, and on a few of the current endeavors to change the rulebook (circular economy, Green New Deal, carbon taxation, degrowth etc.) References: Collectif, “Urgence écologique: l'économie en transition”, Regards croisés sur l'économie 2020 https://www.cairn.info/revue-regards-croises-sur-l-economie-2020-1.htm Antonin Pottier, Comment les économistes réchauffent la planète, Seuil DAY 4: Democracy faced with the ecological crisis The penultimate session will focus on political crises triggered by the elaboration of environmental policies. We will alternatively study the point of view of economically developed societies, in which the question of freeing the production processes from carbon emissions and ecological damages meets that of the extension of the social State's protective institutions, and the point of view of less developed societies where exposure to risks is reinforced, dependency to raw material exports often hard to shake, and where democratic mechanisms prove to be more fragile when faced with economic destabilizations. References: Tim Mitchell, Carbon democracy, La Découverte Thea Riofrancos, Resource radicals, Duke Press DAY 5: Climate Geopolitics In this fifth and final session we will study the geopolitical dimension of the climate issue. These past years, we have witnessed a multiplication of international initiatives to take stock of this planetary question (IPCC, COP, international summits...), yet we simultaneously must acknowledge their shortcomings, as we see the rise of climate policies rooted in strategic power struggles (conflicts over resources for transitioning, economic sanctions against countries producing fossil fuels, militarization of ecological crises, climate linked migrations...). The international order is therefore being deeply reshaped by the planetary crisis; it will be our task to grasp why. References: Aykut et Dahan, Gouverner le climat, Presses de Sciences Po François Gemenne, Géopolitique du climat, Armand Colin