Climate, Catastrophes, Civilizations and Collapses

Catalog description

This course explores how the Earth system processes that shape our physical environment can – via gradual or sudden environmental change – stress human societies and cause them to collapse. In this course, we will examine the physical basis of earth system processes that adversely affect human societies, including seismic events, geological hazards, and climate variability. We will utilize scientific evidence and inquiry to critically assess case studies of past societies that attempted to cope with environmental changes. How those societies had adapted to their environment, the environmental changes that occurred, and the response of those societies to these stressors will be examined. We will use the concepts of environmental vulnerability, resilience and societal collapse to examine the role environmental change has on society, how it relates to other stressors, and how failures to identify, plan, or adapt to environmental hazards can lead to a society’s collapse. This course is suitable for all majors.