Climate Science and Climate Change: From Challenges to Opportunities

This elective provides an overview of key principles and dynamics of climate change, with deep dives into select areas. We will study the physical science, where students will get a solid grounding in fundamental climate dynamics between atmosphere, oceans, and land. We will then explore frameworks for understanding impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability of diverse regions and populations. Finally, we will study the costs, risks, and benefits of major mitigation options. Students will have opportunities to study specific areas of interest in greater depth through research. They will write short essays every other week, and a synthesis/analysis at the end of the quarter. We will have one primary text, supplemented with recent and classic literature in the field.

Workshops will facilitate development of quantitative reasoning skills, including pre-calculus and graphical analysis. Algebra is pre-requisite, and this will be an opportunity to improve algebra skills. More advanced analysis skills may be developed in the context of student research. 

Undergraduate juniors and seniors who want to take this course should email the faculty a paragraph that describes their previous academic experience and to receive a signature override to register.