First-Year Seminar: Engineering the Climate

3 units

Geoengineering, the deliberate manipulation of the earth's climate, may be part of a solution to the predicted future global warming. Is this advisable, or even possible? Discussions,lectures, and readings used to learn how earth's climate works. Examination of some proposals for altering the climate. Past attempts for deliberate human alteration of natural systems discussed and evaluated. Consideration of geoengineering as an ethical issue. Prerequisite: first-year undergraduate status.