MSCI-282C Climate Change Science–Core (3 Credits)
Human civilization is threatened by its own success at a level not seen in recorded history. The threat, climate change, is well understood scientifically, technically, and economically. Although now penetrating the cultural realm, the political response remains woefully inadequate. This course will use the techniques of science to promote a deep understanding of the nature and urgency of the threat, preparing students to take part in the struggle against climate change that will occur in their lifetimes. The course will be based largely on reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), augmented by recent literature findings.
MSWI-210C Science and Society (3 Credits)
The Science and Society course explores some of the most pressing science issues facing the human condition today. Through lectures, readings, discussions, and writing, the class will explore issues such as climate change, alternative energy, genetic engineering, emerging infectious diseases, and the overall forecast for the human condition in the next several decades. Students will gain an appreciation of how science can inform policies that will shape our society and will recognize the limitations of our current knowledge in predicting how modern technology will shape the human condition in the future.
MSWI-270C Ecology Environment and Anthropocene (3 Credits)
Like any other organism, humans rely on their environment—most prominently the living part of that environment—in order to survive. But unlike any other species, humans have the ability to re-shape the diverse environments they inhabit in profound, fundamental, and potentially destructive ways. This course explores how living ecosystems function and how that functioning provides the resources required by both individual humans and the societies we form. It also considers how we have transformed our environment in ways that can threaten both our own health and the health of the ecosystems upon which human civilization depends. Many scientists suggest that we have entered a new geologic epoch, the anthropocene; this course explores ways in which the "age of humanity" can become a sustainable,rather than apocalyptic,episode in evolutionary history.
