Climate Change
Develop the competencies necessary to help communities and organizations address the challenges of climate change. Explore mitigation strategies and adaptation planning; international, global, and local policy and institutions; and the unique role that cities play in creating a more sustainable and resilient future.
Takeaways
- Explain key causes and consequences of climate change and communicate the related uncertainty and complexity.
- Evaluate the opportunities, challenges, and impacts of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and carbon sequestration strategies and policies.
- Predict impacts of climate change on specific environments, communities, and businesses and prepare plans that increase adaptive capacity.
- Conduct scenario planning at local and national scales and in developed and developing countries.
- Compare the process, politics, and communication strategies of implementing climate adaptation.
- Compare and contrast key U.S. and international climate change policies and the missions of climate science institutions.
- Contrast how different countries’ positions on climate justice drive international climate policy.
- Compare alternative greenhouse gas accounting systems and explain major business policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Evaluate, map, and explain connections between engineered, natural, and urban systems affecting infrastructure critical to sustainability.
- Plan for engagement of stakeholders in infrastructure planning efforts and coordinate interdisciplinary planning teams.
Courses
This course enables students to develop adaptation plans at varying geographic and temporal scales built around an understanding of the key components of vulnerability: the sensitivity, exposure, and adaptive capacity of natural and human systems. These key drivers of climate vulnerability will be used, along with socio-political and policy analysis, to develop adaptation plans that are informed by science, policy, and societal considerations. Throughout the course, we will tackle the importance of characterizing and incorporating uncertainty (epistemic, stochastic, and response uncertainty). We will also examine our understanding of the limits of adaptation and how adaptation opportunities will be constrained under various climate change scenarios.
This course focuses on institutional responses to climate change at the international, national, and sub-national levels, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and U.S. climate policymaking under the Clean Air Act and state and regional initiatives. Both mitigation and adaptation approaches will be addressed, as well as climate geoengineering.
As average global temperatures continue to rise, it is imperative to not only understand the science behind climate change, but also its potential ramifications and impacts. This course explores the why, how, and when behind climate change. Contemporary readings are used to spark discussion and debate surrounding the potential implications of climate change. The course culminates in a “Congressional Briefing” for which students synthesize their knowledge and propose a political solution.
Students in this course will explore how risk is defined, perceived, and addressed in different contexts and by different people, and the scientific and ethical dimensions of risk assessment and management in decision-making under uncertainty—a capability critical for global sustainability professionals whose daily work involves confronting challenges of understanding, identifying, and communicating risks across cultures. The course will also introduce foundational concepts in probability and their relationship to risk assessment, as well as common errors of reasoning under conditions of uncertainty and strategies for avoiding them. Students will become familiar with psychological and linguistic factors that affect human decision-making and will have the opportunity to critically analyze risk-based decisionmaking as it applies to current issues such as public health, alternative energy, and environmental conservation.