Anthony Patt: Katalogdaten im Herbstsemester 2016

Auszeichnung: Die Goldene Eule
NameHerr Prof. Dr. Anthony Patt
LehrgebietKlimaschutz und -anpassung
Adresse
Professur Klimaschutz & -anpassung
ETH Zürich, CHN J 74.2
Universitätstrasse 16
8092 Zürich
SWITZERLAND
Telefon+41 44 632 58 21
E-Mailanthony.patt@usys.ethz.ch
DepartementUmweltsystemwissenschaften
BeziehungOrdentlicher Professor

NummerTitelECTSUmfangDozierende
701-0019-00LReadings in Environmental Thinking Information 3 KP2SJ. Ghazoul, G. Hirsch Hadorn, A. Patt
KurzbeschreibungThis course introduces students to foundational texts that led to the emergence of the environment as a subject of scientific importance, and shaped its relevance to society. Above all, the course seeks to give confidence and raise enthusiasm among students to read more widely around the broad subject of environmental sciences and management both during the course and beyond.
LernzielThe course will provide students with opportunities to read, discuss, evaluate and interpret key texts that have shaped the environmental movement and, more specifically, the environmental sciences. Students will gain familiarity with the foundational texts, but also understand the historical context within which their academic and future professional work is based. More directly, the course will encourage debate and discussion of each text that is studied, from both the original context as well as the modern context. In so doing students will be forced to consider and justify the current societal relevance of their work.
InhaltThe course will be run as a ‘book reading club’. The first session will provide a short introduction as to how to explore a particular text (that is not a scientific paper) to identify the key points for discussion.

Thereafter, in each week a text (typically a chapter from a book or a paper) considered to be seminal or foundational will be assigned by a course lecturer. The lecturer will introduce the selected text with a brief background of the historical and cultural context in which it was written, with some additional biographical information about the author. He/she will also briefly explain the justification for selecting the particular text.

The students will read the text, with two to four students (depending on class size) being assigned to present it at the next session. Presentation of the text requires the students to prepare by, for example:
• identifying the key points made within the text
• identifying issues of particular personal interest and resonance
• considering the impact of the text at the time of publication, and its importance now
• evaluating the text from the perspective of our current societal and environmental position

Such preparation would be supported by a mid-week ‘tutorial’ discussion (about 1 hour) with the assigning lecturer.

These students will then present the text (for about 15 minutes) to the rest of the class during the scheduled class session, with the lecturer facilitating the subsequent class discussion (about 45 minutes). Towards the end of the session the presenting students will summarise the emerging points (5 minutes) and the lecturer will finish with a brief discussion of how valuable and interesting the text was (10 minutes). In the remaining 15 minutes the next text will be presented by the assigning lecturer for the following week.
LiteraturThe specific texts selected for discussion will vary, but examples include:
Leopold (1949) A Sand County Almanach
Carson (1962) Silent Spring
Egli, E. (1970) Natur in Not. Gefahren der Zivilisationslandschaft
Lovelock (1979) Gaia: A new look at life on Earth
Naess (1973) The Shallow and the Deep.
Roderick F. Nash (1989) The Rights of Nature
Jared Diamond (2005) Collapse
Robert Macfarlane (2007) The Wild Places

Discussions might also encompass films or other forms of media and communication about nature.
860-0002-00LQuantitative Policy Analysis and Modeling6 KP4GA. Patt, T. Schmidt, E. Trutnevyte, O. van Vliet
KurzbeschreibungThe lectures will introduce students to the principles of quantitative policy analysis, namely the methods to predict and evaluate the social, economic, and environmental effects of alternative strategies to achieve public objectives. A series of graded assignments will give students an opportunity for students to apply those methods to a set of case studies
LernzielThe objectives of this course are to develop the following key skills necessary for policy analysts:
- Identifying the critical quantitative factors that are of importance to policy makers in a range of decision-making situations.
- Developing conceptual models of the types of processes and relationships governing these quantitative factors, including stock-flow dynamics, feedback loops, optimization, sources and effects of uncertainty, and agent coordination problems.
- Develop and program numerical models to simulate the processes and relationships, in order to identify policy problems and the effects of policy interventions.
- Communicate the findings from these simulations and associated analysis in a manner that makes transparent their theoretical foundation, the level and sources of uncertainty, and ultimately their applicability to the policy problem.
The course will proceed through a series of policy analysis and modeling exercises, involving real-world or hypothetical problems. The specific examples around which work will be done will concern the environment, energy, health, and natural hazards management.