Local Climate Change From the Equator to the Poles

Catalog description

How is climate change immediately impacting you? How is it impacting your community back home? How about an endangered species on the other side of the planet? For many of us these are hard questions to answer right away, as we tend to think of climate change in primarily a global context. However, always thinking globally can promote climate anxiety and a lack of a sense of control. In this course, we will discuss climate change on a global scale and gain a greater understanding of this issue. But we will primarily think about how (and when) to recenter our climate change focus to a more local scale in order to foster deep understanding and promote effective and achievable community climate action. Using specific case studies from our backyard (the mid-latitudes) to the farther-away tropics and poles, this course will cover specific climate change issues (such as sea level rise, coral bleaching, urban heat waves, etc.) and explore their causes and repercussions alongside potential mitigative and adaptive actions on local/community scales. Some of the case studies are set, but others will be determined by student interest. Together, we will immerse ourselves in a variety of regions, ecosystems, and communities and come out prepared to travel to a specific locality, develop an understanding of it, and make a difference in it.