Session 7– 10.25.2010 Human well-being, natural capital and sustainable development (Speaker: Stephen Polasky)

Speaker Bio: Stephen Polasky

Steve Polasky holds the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Ecological/Environmental Economics at the University of Minnesota, with appointments in the Department of Applied Economics, and the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. He is also a Resident Fellow of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. He is currently leading efforts to develop methods to value ecosystem services for the Natural Capital Project and is co-leader of the BioSustainability project for Diversitas. He is currently serving on the Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Board of Directors for the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics, and the Science Council and Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy. His research interests include ecosystem services, natural capital, biodiversity conservation, sustainability, integrating ecological and economic analysis, renewable energy, environmental regulation, and common property resources.

Required Readings from the Sustainability Science Book

Two chapters, each with an appendix. These are the chapter versions that are also posted under 'readings.'

Supplemental readings from the Reader

1) World Health Organization. 2002. World Health Report 2002: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Geneva: World Health Organization, pp. 7-14. 2) Kates, R. W., and P. Dasgupta. 2007. African poverty: A grand challenge for sustainability science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(43):16747-16750. 3) Dasgupta, Partha (Lead Author); S. Niggol Seo (Topic Editor). 2008. Natural capital and economic growth. In: Encyclopedia of Earth, ed. Cutler J. Cleveland. Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment.

Supplemental readings from moderator/discussant Steve Polasky, Univ of Minnesota

 

Supplemental readings from Princeton students

 

Supplemental: Updated drafts of the Sustainability Science Book chapters

The book chapters for this week's session were very recently revised. The previous versions, which have been posted under 'readings' since the beginning of the semester, are the Required Readings for this week. The updated versions are available here, for those interested.

Speaker Presentations

 

Short_Summary_Week_7.pdf

 

Video Recording: Human well-being, natural capital and sustainable development