Management of Natural Resources 4030-MNR

Over the years, the development of human civilization has been possible due to the growing use of natural resources. Their exploitation has been rapidly intensifying since the Industrial Revolution, enabling the growth of the human population and significant improvement in life length and quality. However, quite a few of the used resources are either completely or partially renewable, which, combined with ever-growing consumption of goods, results in a gradual shift of the Earth Overshoot Day to the earlier part of the year (from December 29th in 1970 to July 29th in 2019). Overexploitation and consecutive lack of necessary resources will bring about serious consequences for the environment and human health, thus affecting societies at the global level (e.g. migrations and conflicts over resources).
During these classes, students will (1) identify the causes of overexploitation of the selected resources; (2) learn the consequences of their overexploitation for the environment and human development (population health, poverty, resilience of local communities, migrations, insecurity, conflicts etc.); (3) analyze examples of implemented countermeasures and mitigation practices and (4) discuss their own recommendations to solve emerging problems.
Among the topics covered by the course are:
- fossil fuels
- renewable energy
- nuclear power
- water crisis
- desertification
- sand thefts and concrete production
- critical elements in common use (e.g. phosphorus, helium) and in advanced technologies (rare earth elements)
- circular economy
The topics may change according to current shifts in the political and socioeconomic situation at the global level.
The tasks mentioned above will be performed using diversified workshop techniques such as World Café (http://www.theworldcafe.com), SWOT analysis, stakeholder analysis, system mapping, and PechaKucha presentations. Thus, students will practice group work and public speaking. To get a grade from this course, students will work on group projects focused on possible future scenarios for the use of resources. These projects will be presented and evaluated during the last classes.