MB0601 GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL ENERGY SYSTEMS IN TRANSITION: RUSSIA, CHINA, AND THE US
Fall 2013
Russian workers weld a segment of the branch pipeline that runs into China from the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline in 2009. Source: RFE/Radio Liberty
Instructors: Amy Katherine Glasmeier, Ksenia Kushkina, Victor Lempitsky, Athanasios Polymeridis, Christopher H Randall
TAs: Ksenia M, Kaladiouk, Efthymios Nikolopoulos, Charlotte Wang
Lecture: MTTHF 0900-1200
Information:
The central insights of the course will include the importance of recognizing and taking account interdependencies among actors, systems and their geographies; the need to make explicit what are often tacit assumptions and taken-for-granted habits of thought, behavior and practice that arise from the specific time and place in which an experience occurs; the unanticipated consequences of purposive social action; the heterogeneity in human conditions, cultures and societies; and the iterative reflexivity (volatile feedback loops) characteristic of contemporary social action. Our emphasis on the geography of the global economy arises from the simple fact that people, resources, and environments are not equally or evenly distributed across the globe. Importantly, unlike other issues, energy is inherently spatial. As natural endowments, energy resources represent absolute monopolies, which are unrealized until they are exploited. The strategies and practices of nation states, companies and communities as they choose to exploit, acquire, utilize or withhold energy resources creates a geopolitical context The readings, simulations, case studies and discussion materials illustrate and analyze both the choices and constraints regarding sources and uses of energy, introducing students to diverse frameworks, theories, and conceptual tools (e.g.geographic, economic, organizational and managerial,political, social, and cultural) for describing and explaining behavior at various levels of aggregation (e.g. individuals, households, firms, social movements, and governments). Our geographical lens is the global economy and the position of energy within it. Our empirical focus is three nations: China, Russia, and the US, whose energy futures are inextricably linked. Dependent on high sulphur coal, China’s energy and electrical generation system are polluting the air and water of the nation. In response, But energy development is not all to blame for rising rates of pollution. Rapid growth is fueling the increase in demand not only for energy, but goods and services, which accompany the march toward an urban society. Enter Russia. Russia’s natural gas industry is the second largest in the world and this resource is a critical component of the nation’s GDP. At present, despite sharing a border, energy trading between Russia and China is limited. Enter the US. The ability to exploit unconventional gas reserves through the development of new drilling techniques is adding new gas supplies which in turn are placing downward pressure on global gas prices. Given Russia’s dependence on natural gas revenues, stable prices are important to the performance of Russia’s centrally planned economy. What is Russia to do? While politics and culture now find Russia and China far apart, the two countries have much to gain from trade. In the absence of trade, China has a few options including pursuit of a non-fossil-fuel based energy footprint. We will use the a sophisticated geographic data system to explore the relationship between China’s development path, its resource base, its energy generation, distribution and consumption system to speculate on the gains to be had by Russia to serve the Chinese market and the institutional, physical and political challenges confronting this goal.
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