Energy Resources in Transition

Catalog description

The increasing impacts of the climate change crisis present us with the urgent challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, requiring an energy transition on a scale humanity has never attempted. This course examines current energy sources to assess their impacts on the global environment and evaluate their fitness for long term sustainability. Existing and potential energy sources, from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources, including nuclear, geothermal, solar, wind, hydro, and tidal, will be examined from the geologic processes that create them, technological advances in production and utilization, to their limitations and societal impacts. The evolving status of sustainable energy sources will be evaluated, projecting forward to anticipate energy needs and future availability of resources on decade to century time scales.