Climate Change Science, Policy and Advocacy

This course focuses broadly on climate change science and policy, that is, the physical causes of climate change and how humans act, or fail to act, on that knowledge. After a survey of policy-relevant climate change science in the first part of the course, our attention turns to the ways scientific knowledge, worldviews, and power affect climate change decision-making at the international level as carried out by the United Nations. The class focuses on treaties developed through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), such as the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, and we pay close attention to the ongoing negotiations of the UNFCCC. The class incorporates attendant critiques to climate policy and incorporates emergent climate change news as it happens. Prerequisite: ENVS 101.