[ECO]nomics - Julet Schor

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[ECO]nomics - Juliet Schor.

The Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) Education Program has launched a new lecture series on "[ECO]nomics" with Juliet Schor [see the original INET video site or YouTube playlist]

Professor Juliet Schor is an economist and sociologist at Boston College. Her research is in work, consumption and climate change. She has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught for 17 years at Harvard University in the Department of Economics and in the Committee on Women Studies. She is the author of numerous books and articles on work, spending, the environment and consumer culture. She is a winner of the Leontief Prize in 2006 for expanding the frontiers of economics and is a founder of the Center for the New American Dream. She has also served as a consultant to the United Nations, UNU-WIDER and the UNDP. [for more information, see Juliet Schor's homepage at Boston College].

In this four-part lecture series, this renowned scholar guides us through the economics and political economy of climate change.

We have put together a set of online supplementary resources for those who wish to dig deeper into the references Dr. Schor makes in the lectures. The links below, organized by video episode, go to resources currently available on the HET Website and elsewhere online.

These were collected with the assistance of Kurt Semm.

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[Eco]nomics - Lectures

Lecture 1 - The Scope of the Climate Crisis
Lecture 2 - The Political Economy of Climate Disruption
Lecture 3 - Planetary Boundaries
Lecture 4 - System Change

Lecture 1 - The Scope of the Climate Crisis

In this first lecture in the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s “[ECO]nomics” series, Professor Juliet Schor reviews the way economists have approached the problem of climate change. Climate change is already here, and we are on a path towards catastrophic global warming. Governments have failed to curb carbon emissions, and fossil fuel production continues to increase. This is not merely a political failure, Prof. Schor contends it is also of failure of economic analysis. Conventional economists have misunderstood the problem and misdirected their attentions, producing policy recommendations that are not up to the challenge. Many economists have focused on technological innovation, believing it sufficient. Others have misdiagnosed it as a failure of government policy coordination, concluding it is an insurmountable political problem rather than an economic one. They overlook that climate destabilization has structurally inequitable causes and impacts. Economists have tended to analyze it as a market failure and their recommendations over-rely on market mechanisms of dubious effectiveness to correct it. Still others have taken out inadequate cost-benefit analysis toolkits to construct overly-optimistic estimates of the impact of climate disruption on the economy. Economists have been central to the failure to respond to the crisis, and their approach has undermined action.

Video: Lec.1 - The Scope of the Climate Crisis

Resources for Lecture 1 - The Scope of the Climate Crisis (INET Video #1) Lec.1.0 - Scope of the Climate Crisis: Introduction (0:00) Lec.1.1 - The Failure of Economics (3:33)
Lec. 1.0 - Scope of the Climate Crisis: Introduction (INET video: 0:00)
Prof. Juliet Schor	Resources online University of Massachusetts Amherst INET profile Wikipedia Boston College Center for the New American Dream [NewDream.org] INET's "[Eco]nomics" playlist Resources (non-free or restricted) Juliet Schor (1992) The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline Of Leisure. New York: Basic Books. [basicbooks, amzn] Juliet Schor (1998) The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need. New York: Basic Books. [harpercollins, amzn] Juliet Schor and Betsy Taylor, editors, (2002) Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. [amzn] Juliet Schor (2011) True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans Are Creating a Time-Rich, Ecologically Light, Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction. Penguin [penguin, amzn],
The Scope of the Climate Crisis	Resources online ""Summer 2021 Was Hottest on Record in the Contiguous U.S., NOAA Says", Sep 9, 2021, Weather Channel, [weatherchannel] "Asia had the Hottest Year on Record in 2020 - UN", Oct 26, 2021, The Guardian [guardian] "Global energy-related CO2 emissions, 1990-2020", Global Energy Review, IEA [iea] "G20 Governments Have Committed USD 151 Billion to Fossil Fuels in COVID-19 Recovery Packages", July 14, 2020, IISD [iisd] IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, 2021-22, IPCC [ipcc]. IPCC headline statements (Aug 9, 2021)[pdf] "UN emissions report: World on course for more than 3 degree spike, even if climate commitments are met", Nov 26, 2019, UN News [unnews] "Inequality 101" video lectures by Branko Milanovic & Arjun Jayadev [INET video, youtube; HET page].
Lec. 1.1 - The Failure of Economics (INET video: 3:33)	↑ Lecture 1
Carbon Budget	Resources online "IPCC Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC - Summary for Policymakers", 2019, IPCC [ipcc, pdf] (on Carbon Budget)
1. Techno-centrism (6:08)	Resources online "Renewable Energy: The clean facts", by Lorin Shin, 2018, NRDC [nrdc] "What is Carbon Capture and Storage? (CCS)", National Grid [nationalgrid] "Carbon Capture and Storage 101", Resources for the Future, 2020 [rff] Wake Smith and Gernot Wagner (2018) "Stratospheric aerosol injection tactics and costs in the first 15 years of deployment", Environmental Research Letters, 13. [pdf] (geoengineering)
Rebound effects	Resources online "The Efficiency Dilemma" by David Owen, New Yorker (20 Dec, 2010) [newyorker] William Stanley Jevons (1865) The Coal Question: An inquiry concerning the progress of the nation and the probable exhaustion of our coal mines. [1865 ed, 1866 2nd ed, 1906 3rd ed] P.E. Brockway, S. Sorrell, G. Semieniuk, M. Kuperus Heun, V. Court (2021) "Energy efficiency and economy-wide rebound effects: A review of the evidence and its implications", Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, [scidir] Kenneth Gillingham (2014) "Rebound Effects", New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. [pdf] Chih-Wei Hsua and Kevin Fingerman (2021) "Public electric vehicle charger access disparities across race and income in California", Transport Policy (Jan) [scidir] Resources (non-free or restricted) Stan Cox (2012) Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World. New Press. [amzn] Yueming Qiu, Matthew E.Kahn, and Bo Xing (2019) "Quantifying the rebound effects of residential solar panel adoption", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, (July) [scidir] HET pages William Stanley Jevons
2. Misdiagonsis (12:30)	Resources online William D. Nordhaus [homepage, Yale, nobel, wiki]resource [link to free page or pdf] William D. Nordhaus (2018) "Climate Change: The Ultimate Challenge for Economics" (Nobel speech) [pdf] "What is the Kyoto Protocol?" at UN Climate Change [unfcc] "What is the Paris Agreement?" at UN Climate Change [unfcc] "Free Rider Problem" at investopedia [ipedia] Google Scholar search. "5 Countries that produce most carbon emissions" at Investopedia [ipedia] "Carbon Footprint by Country" at World Population Review [wpr] "EU still among top 3 world CO2 emitters, new data shows", Euronews (May 12, 2019) [euro] "An Outdated idea is still shaping Climate Policy", Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, (Apr 20, 2021) [atlantic] Michaël Aklin and Matto Mildenberger (2020) "Prisoners of the Wrong Dilemma: Why Distributive Conflict, Not Collective Action, Characterizes the Politics of Climate Change", Global Environmental Politics, v.20 (Nov) [mit, repec] EU Emissions Trading System [europa.eu, wiki] "Carbon tax" [wiki] "State and Trends of Carbon Pricing, 2021", World Bank [worldbank] "Climate change: US formally withdraws from Paris agreement", BBC News (Nov 4, 2020) [bbc] Resources (non-free or restricted) "Bush, in Reversal, Won't Seek Cut In Emissions of Carbon Dioxide" by D. Jehl with A.C. Revkin, New York Times, (Mar 14, 2001) [nyt] HET pages Game Theory
Fossil fuel companies & inequality	Resources online "AP was there: The age of climate change begins" by Guy Darst, AP (June 18, 2018) [ap] (Hansen testimony) "Judgment on Hansen’s ’88 climate testimony: ‘He was right’", by Peter Sinclair, Yale Climate Connections, 2018 [yalecc] "Disaster Aid and Inequality: An Analysis on Vulnerability and Development Outcomes in Post-Disaster Environments" by Madison Kliewer, Sep 2020 [pdf] "Why Does Disaster Aid Often Favor White People?" by Christpher Flavelle, New York Times (June 7, 2021) [nytimes] Resources (non-free or restricted) "Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate" by P. Shabecoff, New York Times (June 24, 1988) [nyt] (James Hansen testimony) Fortune 500 companies in 1988 [fortune] Fortune 500 companies in 2008 [fortune] Fortune 500 companies in 2021 [fortune]
3. Over-reliance on Markets (18:18)	Resources online "Externality" at Investopedia [ipedia] "Market Failure" at Investopiedia [ipedia] "Carbon Trade" at Investopedia [ipedia] "Comments on 2021 Guidance Towards Updating the U.S. Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases" by Liz Stanton, Chirag Lala, and Tanya Stasio, Applied Economics Clinic (June 2021) [aeclinic] "Ch.2 - Mitigation Pathways Compatible with 1.5°C in the Context of Sustainable Development", IPCC [ipcc pdf] "EU carbon price hits record 50 euros per tonne on route to climate target", Reuters (May 4, 2021) [reuters] Matto Mildenberger, Erick Lachapelle, Kathryn Harrison & Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen (2022) "Limited impacts of carbon tax rebate programmes on public support for carbon pricing", Nature Climate Change, 12 (Jan) [nature] "Australia kills off carbon tax", The Guardian (July 16, 2014) [guardian] "Government of Norway Publishes Comprehensive Climate Report", Marjolein Selten & Bob Flach, USDA (Mar 17, 2021) [usda pdf] "Voters Embrace Tenets of Dueling Climate Resolutions", by Jacqueline Toth, Morning Consult (Apr 17, 2019), [morncon] "A carbon tax is not going to happen", interview with Keith McCoy, Greenpeace Unearthed video [vimeo] "Timeline: The tumultuous 155-year history of oil prices", by Elena Holodny, Business Insider, (Dec 20, 2016) [businsider]. "The price of batteries has declined by 97% in the last three decades", by Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data (June 4, 2021) [owid] "China’s plan to build more coal-fired plants deals blow to UK’s Cop26 ambitions", The Guardian, (Oct 12, 2021) [guardian] Resources (non-free or restricted) Shahriar Shafiee and Erkan Topal (2010) "A long-term view of worldwide fossil fuel prices", Applied Energy (Mar) [scidir]
4. Cost-Benefit Analysis (25:43)	Resources online "Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) and Energy-Environment-Economy (E3) models", UN Climate Change [uncc] William D. Nordhaus (2018) "Climate Change: The Ultimate Challenge for Economics" (Nobel speech) [pdf] "DICE/RICE models: Scientific and Economic Background on DICE models" by William Nordhaus (Feb 3 2020) [nordhaus]
Stern Report	Resources online Nicholas Stern [lse, wiki] "Stern Review The Economics of Climate Change" (2006 report) [pdf] "Climate crisis: economists ‘grossly undervalue young lives’, warns Stern", The Guardian (Oct 25, 2021) [guardian]
	↑ Lecture 1

List

Lecture 2 - Political Economy of Climate Disruption

In this second lecture in the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s “[ECO]nomics” series, Professor Juliet Shor introduces the political economy approach to climate change, as an alternative to the usual economics. Mainstream economists like to talk about choosing between climate protection and consumption. They often produce studies showing that policy action is too expensive, while climate change itself is not too costly. But a well-functioning climate is the basis for producing goods and services, not an alternative to them. The political economy approach, by contrast, links action and inaction to economic and political interests. Who has interests in continuing to emit greenhouse gases, who is benefiting, and who is bearing the costs? Political economy turns the focus on the companies, countries and people who are disproportionately responsible and have a strong interest in the status quo. Prof. Schor shows how fossil fuel companies have expended great efforts in influencing economists, public opinion and capturing politicians to forestall government action on climate change. Solving the political economy problem requires new ways of thinking about transcending the interest-based politics that has led to climate inaction.

Video: Lec.2 - Political Economy of Climate Disruption

Resources for Lecture 2 - Political Economy of Climate Disruption (INET Video #2) Lec.2.0 - Economics Approach (0:00) Lec.2.1 - Political Economy Approach (10:00)
Lec. 2.0 - Introduction: Economics Approach (INET video: 0:00)
Trade-off thinking (0:00)	Resources online William Nordhaus (1979) The Efficient Use of Energy Resources. New Haven: Yale UP. [pdf] Thomas Schelling (1983) "Can We Delay A Greenhouse Warming?" EPA (Sep, 1983) [epa] "Production Possibilities Frontier", Khan Academy [khan] Global Share of GDP Growth 2017- Reward Work, Not Wealth, 2018, Oxfam, [report, summary] Global Share of Wealth 2020 - Global Wealth Report, 2021, Credit Suisse [creditsuisse] HET pages Thomas Schelling
Economic journals	Resources online "Climate Change and Global Warming in Top 5 Economics Journals" Kurt Semm & Juliet Schor [googledoc] "The Tyranny of the Top Five Journals" by James Heckman and Sidharth Moktan, INET blog (Oct 2, 2018) [INET] "Publishing and Promotion in Economics: The Tyranny of the Top Five", by James Heckman and Sidharth Moktan, INET Paper working paper No.82 (Jan, 2019) [INET] Resources (non-free or restricted) Michael Roos & Franziska M. Hoffart (2020) "Importance of Climate Change in Economics", Climate Economics, (Nov) p.19 [springer].
Research institutes	Resources online NBER - Environment & Energy Economics [nber] NBER - support & funding [nber] MIT Energy Initiative (MITei) - founding/current members [mitei] MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change - sponsors [mitgc] Stanford Energy Club - sponsors [stanfordec] Oxford Institute of Energy Studies - sponsors [oxies] "LMOGA, API Launch New Educational Partnership in Support of Workforce Development and Diversity", American Petroleum Institute (Feb 2021) [api] "API, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Partner on Access to Industry Standards", API (Feb, 2021) [api] "Trump’s EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real", by Vann R. Newkirk, Atlantic (Feb 28, 2018) [atlantic] Benjamin Franta (2021) "Weaponizing Economics: Big Oil, economic consultants, and climate policy delay", Environmenal Politics [taylor & francis] HET pages National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Pogo & Carbon footprint	Resources online "Pogo - We have met the enemy and he is us” Ohio State Univ. library [osu] "BP popularised “carbon footprint” to greenwash and guilt-trip. Here’s how", by Tammy Gan, Green is the New Black, (Apr29, 2021) [gitnb] BP's Carbon Footprint Ad (2003) [youtube]
Lec. 2.1 - Political Economy Approach (INET video: 10:00)	↑ Lecture 2
Distribution of emissions responsibility (10:00)	Resources online Historical cumulative emissions of C02 - "Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions?", Our World in Data (Oct, 2019) [owid] "The Carbon Majors Database - CDP Carbon Majors Report 2017", CDP (Jul 2017) [pdf] K. Song, S. Qu, M. Talebat, S. Liang, M. Xu (2019) "Scale, distribution and variations of global greenhouse gas emissions driven by U.S. households", Environment International (Dec), [sci-dir] "The Carbon Inequality Brontosaurus chart", 2021, Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada [cclc] "The Carbon Inequality Era" by S. Kartha et al., 2015, SEI/Oxfam [sei pdf] "Which racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change?", by M. Bellew et al, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (Apr 2020) [yaleccc]
1. Opposition of fossil fuel industry (14:03)	Resources online "What Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words" by Benjamin Franta, The Conversation (Oct 2021) [convo] "Attorney General's Office Exxon Investigation", release from Maura Healey, Office of Massachusetts Attorney General [mass.gov] Resources (non-free or restricted) Benjamin Franta (2018) "Early oil industry knowledge of CO2 and global warming", Nature Climate Change (Nov), [nature]
2. Captured government (14:42)	Resources online Top spenders on lobbying Congress, at OpenSecret.org [opensecret] resource [link to free page or pdf]We did this study in Sept 2021, and the total spending is 115 million for 2021. In the end, the Koch industries ended up spending $12,178,000 in 2021 fossil fuel lobbying. Matthew H. Goldberg, Jennifer R. Marlon, Xinran Wang, Sander van der Linden and Anthony Leiserowitz-(2020) "Oil and gas companies invest in legislators that vote against the environment", Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, v.117 (1), p.5111. [pnas] "Climate Deniers in the 117th Congress", by Ari Drennan and Sally Hardin, Center for American Progress (Mar 2021)[cap] "National Environmental Scorecard - Congress", 2021, League of Conservation Voters [lcv] "Climate Action Tracker (CAT) by countries", [cat] "Methodology & sources of Climate Action Tracker" [cat] Resources (non-free or restricted) Matto Mildenberger (2020) Carbon Captured: How Business and Labor Control Climate Politics. MIT Press [mit]
	↑ Lecture 2

List

Lecture 3 - Planetary Boundaries

In this third lecture in the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s “[ECO]nomics” series, Professor Juliet Schor introduces the field of ecological economics. Mainstream economics ignores the impact of economic activity on the natural environment. Ecological economics recognizes that the human economy exists in a larger planetary system, and that destroying the natural environment will affect future well-being. Professor Schor shows how human economic activity has exceeded the reproductive or sustainable capacity of the planet over the past half-century. Eco-systems have been worn down by deforestation, destruction of species, depletion of material reserves and destabilization of the climate. Humans are destroying ecosystems at a dizzying, unsustainable and accelerating rate. Capitalism has certain features - most notably pressure to grow - that make a change of trajectory all but impossible in this context. Conventional economic policies are lured by the hope they can still maintain economic growth while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions. But Professor Schor shows how decoupling growth from emissions is a mirage. Wealthy countries cannot grow their way to sustainability. We need to enact structural changes and consider alternative approaches that reduce climate disruption and improve well-being.

Video: Lec.3 - Planetary Boundaries

Resources for Lecture 3 - Planetary Boundaries (INET Video #3) Lec.3.0 - Introduction (0:00) Lec.3.1 - Ecological Economics (2:30) Lec.3.2 - End to Endless Growth (11:09)
Lec. 3.0 - Introduction (INET video: 0:00)
Trade-offs & IEMs	Resources online "Q&A: How ‘integrated assessment models’ are used to study climate change", at Carbon Brief [cbrief] "Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) and Energy-Environment-Economy (E3) models", UN Climate Change [uncc] "Production Possibilities Frontier", Khan Academy [khan]
Impact projections (1:45)	Resources online William Nordhaus (2018) "Projections and Uncertainties about Climate Change in an Era of Minimal Climate Policies" AEJ: Econ Policy, p.333. [pdf] C. Raymond,T. Matthews and R.M. Horton (2020) "The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance", Science Advances, v.6 (19) [science] "Too Hot to Handle: How Climate Change May Make Some Places Too Hot to Live", by Alan Buis, NASA, (Mar 9, 2022) [nasa] "Impacts of a 4°C global warming", Green Facts [gfacts] "Earth could cross the global warming threshold as soon as 2027", by Shirley Cardenas, Jan 7, 2021 World Economic Forum [wef]
Lec. 3.1 - Ecological Economics (INET video: 2:30)	↑ Lecture 3
1. Ecological Economics (2:30)	Resources online "Economics for a Full World" by Herman Daly, 2015, Great Transition.org [blog] Robert Constanza (1989) "What is Ecological Economics?", Ecological Economics, v.1 [pdf] Kenneth E. Boulding (1966) "The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth", 1966, in H. Jarrett, editor, Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy. [pdf] Herman E. Daly "Introduction to the Steady State Economy", in Daly, editor, Economy, Ecology and Ethics. [pdf] "What is ‘ecological economics’ and why do we need to talk about it?" by A. Nelson and E. Coffey, 2019, The Conversation [convo] International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) [isee] Resources (non-free or restricted) Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (1971) The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Harvard Univ Press. [archive.org] Herman E. Daley (1973) Toward a Steady State Economy. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. [archive.org] E.F. Schumacher (1973) Small is Beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered. London: Abacus.[archive.org, ditext] HET pages Kenneth E. Boulding Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
Ecological footprint	Resources online "Ecological Footprint" at Footprint Network [footprint] Living Planet Report, 2016, World Wildlife Foundation, [pdf] Living Planet Report, 2020, World Wildlife Foundation, [wwf] "Atmospheric concentrations" by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, Our World in Data [owid] "Global Material Flows Database", UN Environment Program - International Resource Panel [unirp] Material Flows Analysis Portal - materialflows.net [mflows] "Domestic material consumption per capita, 2000-2019", Our World in Data [owid]
Great Extinction & Great Acceleration	Resources online Living Planet Index. [wwf] "A call for a national biodiversity strategy to combat the escalating extinction crisis", IFAW (Feb 8, 2022) [ifaw] "Great Acceleration", International Global-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) [igbp] "Great Acceleration" at FutureEarth [futearth] "Great Acceleration" at Anthropocene.info [anthrop]
Planetary Boundaries	Resources online J. Rockström et al. (2009) "Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity" Ecology & Society. [e&s] W. Steffen et al., (2015) "Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet", Science. [science] "Planetary Boundaries, 2009-2022" at Stockholm Resilience Center [src] "Planetary Boundaries" at Anthropocene.info [anthrop]
Global Carbon Budget	Resources online Global Carbon Project [gcp] Pierre Friedlingstein et al. (2022) "Global Carbon Budget 2021", Earth System Science Data [essd]. Remaining Carbon Budget Clock at Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change [mcc] Constrain.eu reports [constrain] Bard Lahn (2020)"A history of the global carbon budget", WIREs Climate Change [wires] "Climate change: Fossil fuels must stay underground, scientists say", BBC News (Sep 9, 2021) [bbc] D. Welsby,J. Price, S. Pye & P. Ekins (2021)"Unextractable fossil fuels in a 1.5 °C world", Nature, No.597, p.230 (Sep 8, 2021) [nature] #Keepitintheground campaign, Guardian. [guardian] "Net Zero by 2050 - a roadmap for the global energy sector", 2021, by International Energy Agency (IEA), [iea]
Lec. 3.2 - An End to Endless Growth (INET video: 11:09)	↑ Lecture 3
Growth and C02 emissions (11:09)	Resources online "GDP per capita vs. CO2 emissions pr capita", Our World in Data [owid] IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, 2021-22, IPCC [ipcc]. "Climate Change 2021 - the Physical Science Basis", IPCC [ipcc] HET pages Growth Theory
Decoupling	Resources online "Decoupling" articles at ScienceDirect [sci-dir] "Decoupling plots, relative and absolute decoupling", Juliet Schor & Kurt Semm, [googledoc] H. Haberl et al. (2020) "A systematic review of the evidence on decoupling of GDP, resource use and GHG emissions, part II: synthesizing the insights", Environmental Research Letters [iop] Enno Schröder and Servaas Storm (2018) "Economic Growth and Carbon Emissions: The Road to ‘Hothouse Earth’ is Paved with Good Intentions", INET working paper no.84 (Nov 2018) [INET]
Ecologically Unequal Exchange	Resources online "Ecologically Unequal Exchange", EJOLT [ejolt] Resources (non-free or restricted) C. Dornigner et al, (2020) "Global patterns of ecologically unequal exchange: Implications for sustainability in the 21st century", Ecological Economics (Jan) [sci-dir] HET pages Economic Development
	↑ Lecture 3

List

Lecture 4 System Change

In the fourth and last lecture in the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s “[ECO]nomics” series, Professor Juliet Schor explores the structural changes necessary to live within planetary boundaries.

Encouraged by economists, current mainstream policy on climate change has been too focused on "green growth", and reliant on market-based solutions, which have proven inadequate to the challenge. Prof. Schor emphasizes it is time to reject business and usual and build a new economy.

For starters, we need to improve our understanding of human well-being. Public policy has focused on a single flawed number - GDP - ignoring that higher quality of life can be achieved on other dimensions, like fewer working hours. While growth is essential for poor countries to achieve decent standards of living, after a certain threshold, the incremental benefits of increasing GDP are fewer and unequally distributed. Prof. Schor shows it is both economically and technically feasible to achieve high levels of well-being without a lot of fossil fuels.

Climate policy should jettison the growth imperative, but it cannot overlook the equality imperative. We are in a climate crisis because of inequalites of power and resources, both within countries and globally. Prof. Schor outlines what needs to be done to address climate destabilization successfully and efficiently: mandate shifts to clean renewable energy, democratic control of investment flows, and a just transition with equity at its core. The State needs to be at the center of this response. But Prof. Schor warns that concentrations of wealth often translate into control of the State and policy inaction, so we need to also address the distribution of power and democratization. In light of recent tendencies, a large and vigorous social movement may be necessary to spur our governments to act.

Video: Lec.4 - System Change

Resources for Lecture 4 - System Change (INET Video #4) Lec.4.0 - Introduction: Worktime Reduction (0:00) Lec.4.1 - Equality Imperative (7.21)
Lec. 4.0 - Introduction: Worktime Reduction (INET video: 0:00)
GDP flaws and alternative indicators	Resources online "Limitations of GDP" at Khan Academy [khan] "GDP Is the Wrong Tool for Measuring What Matters", by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Scientific American (Aug, 2020) [sci-am] "GDP is flawed as a measurement, so why is it still in use?", by B. van der Merwe, Investment Monitor (Oct 12, 2021) [invmonitor] Human Development Index (HDI) at UNDP [undp] "Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)" at investopedia [ipedia] "Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)" at Gross National Happiness USA [gnhusa] "Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)" at Wikipedia [wiki] Happy Planet Index (HPI) [hpi] Better Life Index at OECD [oecd] Resources (non-free or restricted) "GDP Is Not a Measure of Human Well-Being" by Amit Kapoor and Bibek Debroy, Harvard Business Review (Oct 4, 2019) [hbr] "Economics of the Genuine Progress Indicator" by Junior Ruiz Garcia, 2021, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, [oup] HET pages Simon Kuznets
Working hours reduction	Resources online Kurt Semm & Juliet Schor - average hours worked, data [gdrive], plot [gdrive] Total Economy database, Conference Board [c-board] "Working Hours" by Charlie Giattino, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser, 2013 (rev. 2020), Our World in Data [owid] "Do workers in richer countries work longer hours?" by Charlie Gattiano & E. Ortz Ospina, Our World in Data (2020) [owid] Jared B. Fitzgerald,, Andrew K. Jorgenson and Brett Clark (2015) "Energy consumption and working hours: a longitudinal study of developed and developing nations, 1990–2008", Environmental Sociology [pdf] "A Manifesto for Change: A modern workplace for a flexible workforce" by Timewise.uk [pdf] "Remote Workers Reluctant to Return to the Workplace", by Felix Richter, Statista (Jun 7, 2021) [statista] John Maynard Keynes (1930) "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren", 1930, N&A, Pt. 1 (Oct 11, p.36), Pt.2 (Oct 18, p.96) [repr. Saturday Evening Post.] [HET] [pdf, txt] "Whatever happened to the 15-hour workweek?", by Joshua Crook, The Conversation (Oct 8, 2017) [convers] Resources (non-free or restricted) Juliet Schor (2005) "Sustainable consumption and worktime reduction", Journal of Industrial Ecology, p.37. [wiley] Kyle W.Knight, Eugene A.Rosa, Juliet B.Schor (2013) "Could working less reduce pressures on the environment? A cross-national panel analysis of OECD countries, 1970–2007", Global Environmental Change (Aug), p.691 [sci-dir] Jared B Fitzgerald, Juliet B Schor, Andrew K Jorgenson (2018) "Working Hours and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United States, 2007–2013", Social Forces, p.1851 [oxfordac] HET pages John Maynard Keynes Growth Theory
Lec. 4.1 - Equality Imperative (INET video: 7.21)	↑ Lecture 4
Inequality in cause and impact (7.21)	Resources online "Who has contributed most to global CO2 emissions?" by Hanna Ritchie, Our World in Data (Oct 1, 2019) [owid] "How colonialism’s legacy makes it harder for countries to escape poverty and fossil fuels today" by Patrick Trent Greiner, The Conversation (June 28, 2021) [convo] "Global Climate Risk Index 2021", at Relief Web, UN OCHA [relief] "Remembering Katrina: Wide racial divide over government’s response", by Carroll Doherty, Pew Research Center (Aug 27, 2015) [pew] Andrew K. Jorgenson, Juliet B. Schor, Xiaorui Huang and Jared Fitzgerald (2015) "Income Inequality and Residential Carbon Emissions in the United States: A Preliminary Analysis", Human Ecology Review, vol.22, p.93 [online: pdf, non-free: jstor]
Quality of life and energy needs (13:10)	Resources online "Energy use by country, 1971-2014", IEA stats at World Bank data [worldbank] J.Timmons Roberts, Julia K. Steinberger, Thomas Dietz, William F. Lamb, Richard York, Andrew K. Jorgenson, Jennifer E. Givens, Paul Baer, Juliet Schor (2020) "Four agendas for research and policy on emissions mitigation and well-being", Global Sustainability, v.3 [cambridge, pdf] José Goldemberg profile at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Research [profile at cambridge] Julia K. Steinberger and J. Timmons Roberts (2010) "From constraint to sufficiency: the decoupling of energy and carbon from human needs, 1975-2005", Ecological Economics, v.70 (Dec). p.425 [pdf, non-free: sci-dir]. "How Much Energy Do We Need?", by Kris De Decker, at Demand.co.uk (Jan 17, 2018) [demand] Resources (non-free or restricted) Andrew K. Jorgensen (2014) "Economic development and the carbon intensity of human well-being", Nature Climate Change, v.4, p.186 [nature] José Goldemberg, T.B. Johansson, A.K.N. Reddy, R.H. Williams (1985) "Basic needs and much more with one kilowatt per capita", Ambio, v.14, p.190. [jstor] ("Goldemburg's corner" paper) Daniel W. O’Neill, Andrew L. Fanning, William F. Lamb & Julia K. Steinberger (2018) "A good life for all within planetary boundaries", Nature Sustainability, v.1, p.88. [nature]
Growing inequality	Resources online World Income Inequality Database (WIID) at UN University [unu] "Forbes’ 36th Annual World’s Billionaires List: Facts And Figures 2022", Forbes (Apr 5, 2022) [forbes] "Most people think capitalism does more harm than good, survey shows", CNBC (Jan 20, 2020) [cnbc] Edelman Trust Barometer, 2020 [edelman] "Inequality 101" video lectures by Branko Milanovic & Arjun Jayadev [INET video, youtube; HET page]. resource [link to free page or pdf]
Elinor Ostrom	Resources online Elinor Ostrom [profile at nobel, wiki, HET] Elinor Ostrom (2009) "Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems", 2009 Nobel lecture, pub. 2010, AER. [Nobel, pdf, slides] Elinor Ostrom (2014) "A Polycentric Approach for Coping with Climate Change", Annals of Economics and Finance [pdf] Resources (non-free or restricted) Elinor Ostrom (1990) Governing the Commons: The evolution of institutions for collective action. Cambridge Univ Press. [cup] "A General Framework for Analyzing the Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems", 2009, Science. Elinor Ostrom (2010) "Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change", Global Environmental Change [sci-dir] "Green from the Grassroots", 2012, Project Syndicate (Jun, 2012) [ps] HET pages Elinor Ostrom.
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