GEOG*3020 - Global Environmental Change

Course Description

This course studies the social drivers of global environmental change and examines how influential governance organizations work in response. The course explores interactions among socio-economic systems, governance institutions, and biophysical processes. Specific attention is given to the causes of climate change and its implications for people and the places they call home.

Note: This course can be taken individually or as a part of a certificate program.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the learner should be able to:

1. Define climate, describe the greenhouse effect, and discuss post-industrialization emissions and climate change trends and patterns driven by human activity;
2. Summarize the history of the United Nations and outline key meetings, agreements, development goals, and other events important to the integration of environmental concerns into this international body;
3. Discuss and provide examples that support the claim that environmental change is uneven and socially complex;
4. Describe key methods and approaches used in climate and environmental science and explain how indicators help us to track and monitor the social-ecological impacts of global environmental change;
5. Explain achievements, challenges, and advances in global environmental governance and discuss reasons for 'hope' in the face of global environmental change;
6. Illustrate and apply key course concepts, including (but not exclusive to) mitigation, adaptation, sustainable development, environmental (in)justice, double exposure, common but differentiated responsibility, and social-ecological systems; and
7. Synthesize research on a specific country, an economic sector within that country, and climate science projections relevant to that country and sector.

Course Topics

• The Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change
• The United Nations and International Action on Global Environmental Change
• Global Environmental Change – Uneven and Socially Complex
• Taking Stock and Thinking Like a Social Scientist
• The UN and Efforts to Address Global Environmental Change
• Sustainable Development as a Response and Approach to Global Inequality and Rapid Environmental Change
• Global Surface Temperatures
• Extreme Weather and Climate
• The United Nations’ Approach to Global Environmental Change – Limits and Progress
• Caring, Sharing, and Talking About Global Environmental Change

Assessment

Applies Towards the Following Certificates

• Certificate in Environmental Citizenship : Electives
• Certificate in Environmental Conservation : Electives