Climate and Humanity

Catalog description

Are humans making the natural environment unsuitable for their own existence as advanced, civilized societies? Humans are interacting with the environment at an unprecedented scale. Human activities may change the global climate, wipe out entire ecosystems, and exhaust natural resources. But our societies may not be robust enough to withstand the change. This course addresses the question in two stages: the first part establishes a solid foundation based on the science of the Earth system. This is an interdisciplinary subject that brings together mathematics, physics, chemistry and ecology. The second part examines the interaction between human societies and the Earth system. This interplay is initially framed in the language of ecology, and humanity is presented as part of the system, rather than as separated from it. Later, the perspective is broadened, to include engineering and economics, and then flipped, examining the problem from the viewpoint of media and politics. This course was not designed from a climate activist perspective. The course requires that students engage in rigorous mathematical and quantitative thinking before drawing any conclusions.