Senior Seminar Week 5-Overconsumption

Meadows et al., "Limits to Growth"; Nordhaus et al. "Lethal Model 2", Arrow et al. “Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment”

Note: these questions are possible areas for discussion in response to the "standard" discussion questions. ("What was the point the author was trying to make?" "How did the author support his/her point?" "What are the strengths of this reading?" "What are its weaknesses?")

1. How does Limits to Growth contrast with the Population Bomb? What is similar or different about their styles and arguments? Was Limits to Growth "correct" in its predictions? Do we know the answer to that yet?

2. What are some of the different scenarios posted by the Limits to Growth? How might these different scenarios depend on the different assumptions of the models?

3. On p.53 of the response by Martin Weitzman, he notes that economists and ecologists truly see the world in very different ways. What does he offer as explanations for this striking difference? Do you agree or disagree? Do you think there are other explanations?

4. One of the differing assumptions between the Limits to Growth authors and the economists is whether or not current resource prices will reflect future scarcity. What is the support for and against this assumption? How might it depend on the type of resource or type of environmental good that is being measured? (In other words, are there conditions under which markets should do a relatively good job of ensuring that we do not hit limits? Are there conditions under which markets will do a relatively bad job?)

5. Nordhaus argues about the substitution of one resource for another and failure by Meadows et al. to consider such substitutions in their models. What does the word “substitution” imply, and should we be concerned about substitutions of one resource for another?

 6. Technology plays a starring role in each of these pieces. What is the relationship between technology and the limits to growth according to Meadows et al.? According to Nordhaus, Stavins, or Weitzman? Is technology necessarily a good thing?

7. Both Meadows et al. and Nordhaus rely extensively on mathematical models to support their views. Are there limits to these models, and if so, what are they?

8. Do you see any similarities between the arguments of Meadows et al. and Nordhaus, and Greenhalgh’s paper on China’s “one-child’ policy?