6 EC
Semester 2, period 6
52548PRS6Y
Human civilization finds itself at a pivotal point in history. As a result of the growing world population as well as extensive industrial and societal developments that have taken place over the last 150 years, humanity has exploited earth’s natural resources up to a point that further developing or even maintaining current levels of prosperity cannot be sustained. In addition, it has become very clear that current fossil fuel based energy technologies have a dramatic adverse effect on the global climate. These issues becomes even more urgent when considering the anticipated elevated prosperity levels in the developing world.
These developments lie at the basis of the concept of ‘sustainability’: the future has to be radically different from past and present in the sense that human activities must be carried out in such a way that they can be sustained for many generations. To achieve this, many aspects of human activity have to be changed: different technologies for energy production and resource utilization will have to be developed. Choices will have to be made as of which of these new technologies are considered most favorable for society. Such technologies will have to be implemented at large scale, which requires involvement of decisive societal forces, such as governments, markets, producers and consumers. Only if clear, rational and appealing visions are developed can such societal forces be activated and the required changes be realized.
In this course, we will consider a number of acute sustainability themes that humanity faces today. The students’ mission of this course will be to define under which conditions new technologies can make a meaningful contribution to a sustainable future of our society in a specific case study. The project will be divided in 4 discrete steps:
1. We will analyze the scientific basis of the issue under consideration. We will analyze the potential, but also the limitations of each technology.
2. We will analyze what ‘sustainability’ actually means. The term is often used in a loose and informal way. But ‘sustainability’ only becomes meaningful when it is made quantitative! We will apply these concepts to the chosen theme, and define the conditions that are required to make the new technologies deserve the label ‘sustainable’.
3. To assess and potentially quantify the uncertainties and risks with regard to the different technology solutions, how these could affect society now and in the future (through applying scenario planning techniques).
4. We will integrate the knowledge and insights obtained from the above three approaches, to understand how they are interconnected and how they influence one another.
Activity | Number of hours |
Zelfstudie | 168 |
The programme does not have requirements concerning attendance (OER-B).
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Final grade |
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
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The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.