Public Policy and Sustainability Challenges: Israel and the Middle East

Catalog description

During the past century while, the world's population has more than quadrupled and the population in Israel and its neighbors has grown ten-fold. Mounting consumption has produced an ever-increasing demand for consumer goods and natural resources. At the same time, climate change is already adversely affecting countries in the Middle East. These phenomena combine to place unprecedented pressure on the region's ecosystems and resources, producing myriad insults to environmental quality, public health and local ecosystem integrity. The course considers these issues based on the empirical experience of environmental policies implemented over the past forty-years. The final third of the class considers the potential for regional cooperation to produce improved environmental outcomes. Lectures will address a range of topics associated with concepts of carrying capacity, consumption and the impact of high population density on the quality of life and the environment of Israel and its neighbors. The associated potential and limitations of technology, the impact of conflict on the environment and the potential of transboundary cooperation to produce win-win ecological dynamics will also be assessed. Topics considered include, biodiversity, climate change, marine ecosystem protection, water management and environmental justice. The course focuses on the associated policy insights, applying the experience of government interventions for improving the sustainability of life in Israel and the Middle East.