Climate, Environment, & Society

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This course will examine the scientific basis of climate change and its intersection with human society (including policy, economics, public health, energy, ecosystems, environmental engineering, and journalism). We will begin by developing a foundation in the physical science of Earth's climate, examining climate data and the record of climate variability through time, before considering ongoing and projected future climate change impacts (including water availability, weather patterns, agriculture). We will continue by assessing how humans shape the climate and how that climate in turn shapes society. Class session will be composed of lectures, short videos, TED-talk style presentations, in-class lab experiments, and data visualization exercises, and discussions. This multidisciplinary class will involve rigorous analytical reason and connection of methodologies and complex themes, but not necessarily mathematical problem sets.