Natural Resources, Economics, and the Environment

Undergraduate credit

This course deals with natural resource-related challenges in a complex society. The course discusses the origin, distribution, and remaining supplies of natural resources, including fertilizers, metals and fossil fuels, in terms of the economic, engineering, political, and environmental factors that govern their recovery, processing, and use. Topics covered in the course include nuclear waste disposal, strip mining, continent-scale water transfers, mineral profits and taxation, and estimation of remaining mineral reserves.