Climate Academy: Justice and Resilience

Join “Climate Academy” to learn about climate change as one of the central justice issues of our time. As media, policy, and activism increasingly focus on the climate crisis, the disproportionate impact of climate change on our most vulnerable communities is often neglected. Globally and locally, people who contribute the least to global warming are also the ones who bear the greatest burden of its impacts. Climate justice explores the roots and realities of the climate crisis in terms of privilege and power differentials along dimensions such as race, class, gender, and Indigeneity. Climate resilience builds on the structural analysis of climate inequities to address the question of what kind of world we want to envision and build. Topics include renewable energy, food systems, and Indigenous cultural revitalization, and draw approaches from the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. 

Each quarter, the class will center on the Climate Justice and Resilience speaker and event series.  

Students will view speakers and events synchronously or asynchronously, complete related weekly reading assignments, and contribute to asynchronous discussions using web annotation. We will also have Zoom seminar meetings in alternating weeks, and students will write two reflection papers during the quarter.  Students who are unable to participate in one of our Zoom seminars will instead contribute to an online discussion of the same material. 

In order to participate, students need a computer on which they can access our Canvas website and participate in online written discussions and web annotation.  Students will also need access to Zoom and a capacity to participate in online Zoom conversations. The class will be conducted entirely remotely. 

This 2-credit class will occur in conjunction with a cross-campus lecture series. Several programs each quarter will host individual speakers and incorporate these events into their curriculum.  

Students can take this course for one quarter or join for up to all three quarters.