Climate Change

AY2020/2021 Semester 2

Climate change is a difficult, contentious, and important issue. It will perhaps be the defining environmental issue of the 21st Century. This course aims to address the whole complexity of climate change as an issue, by bringing together the science, impacts, economics, abatement technologies, and policy solutions into one course. Through this course, we will address several important questions. What is the scientific basis for our understanding of climate change, and in what ways is that scientific basis uncertain? What changes in climate might we expect over the coming centuries? What would be the impacts of these changes in climate for human well-being and the natural world? What are the sources of emissions of greenhouse gases? What technologies exist or might be developed to allow us to slow climate change, and what international policy solutions might be necessary or preferred? Students will be expected to show mastery of relevant concepts drawn from the Earth sciences, chemistry, physics, engineering, economics, and political science, and be able to explain the relevance of these concepts for our present understanding of human -caused climate change and for the viability of different proposed solutions.