Economics is the process by which humans manage their environment and its resources. The process is made up of a system of production, distribution and consumption of goods and services....

Alexandra Marks reports on the challenges faced by minority businesses in Boston. She notes that Jet-A-Way is multi-million dollar company that recycles trash, industrial waste, and construction debris. Marks interviews Jesse Jeter (marketing director, Jet-A-Way) and company founders Ed Jeter and Darlene Jeter about the challenges they have faced as a minority business. Jesse Jeter says that racism is still a problem. Ed Jeter says that the business benefited minority quotas in the early years. Marks reports that the NAACP Leadership Development Training Conference was recently held in Boston. Marks's report includes footage from a luncheon held during the conference. Marks interviews William Singleton (president, Quest Publishing Company) about his experiences as an African American entrepreneur. Marks notes that minority-owned businesses often have trouble finding financing. Marks' report includes footage of operations at the Jet-A-Way recycling facility. This tape includes additional footage of operations at the Jet-A-Way recycling facility. This edition of the Ten O'Clock News also included the following item: Carmen Fields interviews Richard Taylor about the Republican Party and affirmative action.

In this lesson students will compare and make distinctions among 5 alternative fuels. They will understand the impact of different types of fuel on: a. the environment b. lifestyle c. the economy/personal finances of car choices. They will also use critical thinking skills to support multi-step decision-making for buying a car.

This site traces the origins of technological and medical advances. Learn about the genetics of ear wax, a vaccine to control malaria, DNA barcoding, aging and the human brain, a genetic classification of dog breeds, the discovery of the first speech and language gene, how living organisms tune in to the time of day, and more.

This role-playing case on climate change policy is designed to engage student groups in parallel discussions on policy instruments and packages for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, student groups discuss cap-and-trade and carbon tax policies for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Each group has four students representing one of the following characters: climate scientist, economist, political sociologist, and the staff expert on science related policy. Students study the policies from a holistic perspective and explore related social, economic and environmental issues. In the end, each group drafts a statement for the senator that includes choices and recommendations based on these different views. This case is appropriate for introductory environmental studies and environmental economics courses once students have been introduced to the basic technical and scientific information on climate change.

In this video from Wide Angle, learn about the farmers of Vidarbha in central India who have seen a loss in profits due to the high cost of borrowing money and the low prices for their crops in a globalized market.

In this case study, students examine tropical deforestation in the Amazon from the perspective of three dominant stakeholders in the region: a peasant farmer, logger, and environmentalist. As part of the exercise, students perform a cost-benefit analysis of clearing a plot of tropical forest in the Amazon from the perspective of one of these stakeholder groups. Developed for a course in global change biology, this case could also be used in courses in general ecology, environmental science, environmental ethics, environmental policy, and environmental/ecological economics.

Agricultural issues: peasant behavior, land tenancy, and interlinked markets. Credit and insurance market problems and institutions. Health, nutrition, and productivity. Gender bias. Education. Technological change. Government failures.

Lecture series coordinated by Alec Erwin, Honorary Professor of Economics University of the Western Cape. Considerable economic and other challenges face contemporary states around the world. This is even more the case for Africa, where the developmental issues are massive. This course will examine the implications of a commitment to a 'developmental state' for South Africa and Africa, and assess key contemporary challenges. ' Development' is a complex concept and the role that states have played, or can play, in achieving development is also a contested area. The first lecture will consider these issues with specific reference to Africa and South Africa. Attention will then turn to the critical policy balance between development and environmental sustainability - an issue made more pressing as the reality of climate change is increasingly felt. The third lecture will examine how the size and complexity of the large energy systems relied upon by the world economies pose major new structural challenges. South Africa's future depends as much on the development of Africa, as on its own development. Do African states have the capacity to lead the developmental process? This issue will be the subject of the fourth lecture. The final lecture will consider whether the claims that South Africa is a 'developmental state' are justified or even possible. Alec Erwin, a past Minister of Trade and Industry and of Public Enterprises, will give two of the lectures, and significant South African and regional economists and policy thinkers will contribute to the course.

This course provides a review of physical, chemical, ecological, and economic principles used to examine interactions between humans and the natural environment. Mass balance concepts are applied to ecology, chemical kinetics, hydrology, and transportation; energy balance concepts are applied to building design, ecology, and climate change; and economic and life cycle concepts are applied to resource evaluation and engineering design. Numerical models are used to integrate concepts and to assess environmental impacts of human activities. Problem sets involve development of MATLAB® models for particular engineering applications. Some experience with computer programming is helpful but not essential.

Choice of material has implications throughout the life-cycle of a product, influencing many aspects of economic and environmental performance. This course will provide a survey of methods for evaluating those implications. Lectures will cover topics in material choice concepts, fundamentals of engineering economics, manufacturing economics modeling methods, and life-cycle environmental evaluation.

This course explores the theoretical and empirical perspectives on individual and industrial demand for energy, energy supply, energy markets, and public policies affecting energy markets. It discusses aspects of the oil, natural gas, electricity, and nuclear power sectors and examines energy tax, price regulation, deregulation, energy efficiency and policies for controlling emission.

A survey of how America has become the world's largest consumer of energy. Explores American history from the perspective of energy and its relationship to politics, diplomacy, the economy, science and technology, labor, culture, and the environment. Topics include muscle and water power in early America, coal and the Industrial Revolution, electrification, energy consumption in the home, oil and US foreign policy, automobiles and suburbanization, nuclear power, OPEC and the 70's energy crisis, global warming, and possible paths for the future.

It's up to you to provide enough power to meet the energy demands of your city's 3.9 million people while keeping them prosperous, secure, and living in a clean environment. The implications of the energy decisions you make today for your city in 2015 are based on the current lifestyles and the projected energy demands and costs for developed countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

This course explores the theory behind and evidence on regulatory, tax, and other government responses to problems of market failure. Special emphasis is given to developing and implementing tools to evaluate environmental policies. Other topics include cost-benefit analysis, measurement of the benefits of non-market goods and costs of regulations, and the evaluation of the impact of regulations in areas such as financial markets, workplace health and safety, consumer product safety, and other contexts.

Studio-based subject in applied environmental planning. Instruction in client projects dealing with aspects of sustainability assessment. Workshops cover tools for planning (risk mapping, sustainability assessment, impact prediction) and professional aspects of dealing with multiple publics. Students participate in one of several groups that work on a four-month client project. Subject emphasizes both the use of environmental planning tools in real-time and learning how to interface with agencies and NGOs. Faculty and practicing planners speak on the professional side of planning practice and agency culture, and conduct project review.

The aim of this course is to enable participants to bring together materials from various disciplines bearing on our current environmental crisis, and from this integrated perspective to evaluate possible ways in which the crisis might be resolved. Disciplines to be consulted include ecology, thermodynamics, economics, value theory, and environmental history, among others. This project will rely on the integrative skills of philosophy to discern how materials from these disparate sources fit together.

This course explores the proper role of government in the regulation of the environment. It will help students develop the tools to estimate the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. These tools will be used to evaluate a series of current policy questions, including: Should air and water pollution regulations be tightened or loosened? What are the costs of climate change in the U.S. and abroad? Is there a "Race to the Bottom" in environmental regulation? What is "sustainable development"? How do environmental problems differ in developing countries? Are we running out of oil and other natural resources? Should we be more energy efficient? To gain real world experience, the course is scheduled to include a visit to the MIT cogeneration plant. We will also do an in-class simulation of an air pollution emissions market.

The interactions of business with the non-commercial environment are under increasing scrutiny. This unit looks at the relationships between business and social and ecological environments, often referred to under the umbrella term of Corporate Social Responsibility. The unit examines efforts to reconcile what often look to be competing demands by moving towards a more ethical environment.