GEO 3402 -- Changes

Mon Dec 1 12:39:20 2008

Department: New:  11130 - Geology & Geophysics
Old:  11130 - IT Geology & Geophysics Admin
Editor Comments: New:  CLE proposal for Spring 2009 - resubmitted per Laurel Carroll.  Documentation already submitted.
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Faculty
Sponsor E-mail Address:
New:  katsumi@umn.edu
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Requirement
this course fulfills:
New:  ENVT - ENVT Environment Theme
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Criteria for
Theme Courses:
Describe how the course meets the specific bullet points for the proposed theme requirement. Give concrete and detailed examples for the course syllabus, detailed outline, laboratory material, student projects, or other instructional materials or methods.

Theme courses have the common goal of cultivating in students a number of habits of mind:
  • thinking ethically about important challenges facing our society and world;
  • reflecting on the shared sense of responsibility required to build and maintain community;
  • connecting knowledge and practice;
  • fostering a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents.


New:  Previously submitted to Laurel Carroll.
COMMON GOAL OF CULTIVATING HABITS OF MIND

The course will cultivate the habit of mind of “thinking ethically about important challenges facing our society and world” through analysis of the interaction of society with global warming.  Anticipated impacts include not just increases in surface air temperatures but also sea level rise, changes in precipitation, and spreading of diseases.  These impacts will vary geographically and temporally, implying interregional and intergenerational inequities.  Ethics will be central to discussing them in class.  The course will cultivate the habit of mind of “reflecting on the shared sense of responsibility required to build and maintain community” by understanding that all aspects of the global climate constitute a common public resource.  Global climate change can be viewed as a classic case of the tragedy of the commons where competition to maximize individual benefits (burning fossil fuels) will destroy the common good (clean air and thus equable climate).  A shared sense of responsibility is critical to motivate actions in mitigating future global warming.  The course will cultivate the habit of mind of “connecting knowledge and practice” by drawing links between individual actions as consumers, collective action by society; and by drawing links between personal beliefs, their manifestation as collective beliefs and the production of national government policies.  These links will provide evidence that our individual and collective actions have real consequences and larger impacts that are known but underappreciated.  Finally, the course will cultivate the habit of mind of “fostering a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents” both by showing how we have caused ongoing global warming unprecedented in scale and rate.  The conclusion that humans are now the dominant force of climate change is inescapable.

CRITERIA SPECIFIC TO THE ENVIRONMENT THEME

The course takes scientific and sociological approaches to examine global warming, which is arguably “one of the most significant environmental problems” facing the global society today.  Climate change cuts into society from various dimensions: sustainability, energy provision, environmental justice, technology, population dynamics, the organization of production and consumption, and national security.  By approaching from the perspectives of both natural and social sciences, this course gives “explicit attention to interrelationships between the natural environment and human society.”  The natural science half of this course will establish “the underlying scientific principles behind global warming” by explicating climate physics, atmospheric chemistry, and biogeochemical cycling of carbon.  This half will include the science of geoengineering as it relates to possible mitigation of global warming such as purposeful sequestration of carbon.  While the scientific and technological knowledge is clear to specialists, their knowledge is not translated into coherent government policies.  This is a central social science and political theme of the course that “explores the limitations of technologies and the constraints of science on public policy.”  Individual and collective action against climate change depends, first of all, on accepting the science, and then its risk and urgency.  Social resistance arises due, in part, to purposeful misinformation, but also to cultures of denial and derogation of science, habit-bound interest groups, opportunities for stakeholder participation, and to the governance capacities of the state.  The course will examine these issues and specifically address “how to identify and evaluate credible information concerning the environment.”  Finally the course will discuss ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions to solve global warming.  The ultimate solution will have to involve essentially all nations participating in some kind of a global framework that is “consistent with the ethics and values of the society.”


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Provisional
Syllabus:
Please provide a provisional syllabus for new courses and courses in which changes in content and/or description and/or credits are proposed that include the following information: course goals and description; format/structure of the course (proposed number of instructor contact hours per week, student workload effort per week, etc.); topics to be covered; scope and nature of assigned readings (texts, authors, frequency, amount per week); required course assignments; nature of any student projects; and how students will be evaluated.

The University policy on credits is found under Section 4A of "Standards for Semester Conversion" at http://www.fpd.finop.umn.edu/groups/senate/documents/policy/semestercon.html . Provisional course syllabus information will be retained in this system until new syllabus information is entered with the next major course modification, This provisional course syllabus information may not correspond to the course as offered in a particular semester.

New:  Science and Politics of Global Warming
GEO3402 and SOC3090-003

Spring 2009 Course Syllabus


Time and Place: 8:15 – 9:30 am in Pillsbury Hall Room 110


Instructors:        Katsumi Matsumoto
        Geology & Geophysics
        212 Pillsbury Hall
        katsumi@umn.edu
Jeffrey Broadbent
Sociology
909 Social Sciences Building
broad001@umn.edu


Office Hours: By appointment but feel free to stop by during regular working hours

Course website: WebVista via MyU Portal (http://myu.umn.edu)

Reading Materials:
        (1) David Archer, Global warming: Understanding the forecast, Blackwell Publishing, 2007
        (2) Articles and book chapters on E-Reserve

Grading: Quizzes 30%, Homework 30%, Final Exam 40%


Welcome to the Science and Politics of Global Warming!  Today media often carry headlines warning the public of the dangers of human-induced global climate change.  New “signs” of global warming, such as retreating mountain glaciers and shrinking Arctic Ocean ice cover, are reported.  At the same time there are claims and accusations that global warming is just a hoax.  On the socio-political front too, there are conflicting positions about what needs to be done if anything about global climate change.  Even amongst those who accept that global warming is occurring, there is little consensus about how to mitigate the human impacts and at what cost.  In this course, we will examine global warming from both the natural science and social science perspectives.  The goal of the science portion, taught by Matsumoto, is to clarify what we know and how well we know about global warming: the physics of greenhouse effect (why Earth is habitable compared to Mars and Venus?), the global carbon cycle (what is the consequence of burning oil?), and future global climate forecasts (what awaits us).  The goal of the politics portion of the course, taught by Broadbent, is to identify our options for lessening the risks posed by climate change, in particular by reducing our emissions of greenhouse-effect gasses, and to examine the social and cultural barriers against and pathways toward accomplishing such counter-measures.  



Brief instructor bios:

Jeffrey Broadbent is a professor in the Department of Sociology.  He has a PhD in sociology from Harvard University with a specialization in environmental sociology.  He is currently conducting a 15 country comparative study of the social and cultural causes of differences in national reactions to the looming risks posed by global climate change.  

Katsumi Matsumoto is a professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics.  He has a PhD in oceanography from Columbia University.  He uses numerical models of the ocean and global climate to study the global carbon cycle, addressing questions such as “What happens to the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning?”  He is a contributing author of the 2007 IPCC science report on global climate change.
The CLE Environment Theme
This course meets the Environment Theme of the University of Minnesota Council on Liberal Education.  A CLE theme course engages students in difficult debates about moral, legal, and ethical issues that require critical inquiry from a variety of perspectives and independent thinking.  The Environment theme in particular requires an in-depth examination of a significant environmental problem from various perspectives.  This course takes scientific and sociological approaches to examine global warming, which is arguably one of the most significant environmental problems facing the global society today.  Climate change cuts into society from various dimensions: sustainability, energy provision, environmental justice, technology, population dynamics, the organization of production and consumption, and national security.  By approaching from the perspectives of both natural and social sciences, this course gives explicit attention to interrelationships between the natural environment and human society.

Learning outcomes:
At the end of this course successful students will be able to:
•        Explain the basics of atmospheric structure, greenhouse effect, and global carbon cycle
•        Explain detection and attribution of global warming
•        Discuss climate modeling and future climate forecasts
•        Understand national and international policy options for dealing with global climate change
•        Understand the relationship between global climate change and energy production and usage.
•        Discuss the feasibility of alternative energy technologies and conservation as solutions.
•        Understand the projected impacts of climate change on global prosperity, health, migration, conflict, biodiversity and other social issues.    
•        Explain the social and cultural barriers against passing the most effective climate change counter-measures and how to overcome those barriers  

Attendance and Etiquette:
Regular attendance is expected.  Cell phones must be switched off.

Homework:
Homework will be due one week after it is assigned.  Some homework will require you to use numerical models noted in Archer’s book and accessible by web browser at: http://understandingtheforecast.org.  Some of these models run state of the art computer simulations that are actually used by active scientists to make global warming predictions, of IR radiation

Quizzes and Exam:
You will take two short midterm quizzes and a comprehensive final exam.  The quizzes are meant to give you feedback at relatively early stages of the course on how you are performing in class.

If there is a conflict in time with another university activity, the student needs to notify one of the instructors before the quiz/exam is administered in order to be allowed to make it up without penalty.  Sickness and family emergency are also acceptable reasons for penalty-free makeups, but this will need to be communicated without delay.  Otherwise, a makeup can be given within a week of the missed quiz/exam with a 25% penalty.

Academic integrity:
Academic integrity is essential to a positive teaching and learning environment. All students enrolled in University courses are expected to complete coursework responsibilities with fairness and honesty. Failure to do so can result in disciplinary action.  The University Student Conduct Code defines scholastic dishonesty, which includes plagiarizing; cheating on assignments or examinations.  A student responsible for scholastic dishonesty can be assigned a penalty including an "F" or "N" for the course.

Disabilities statement:
It is university policy to provide, on a flexible and individual basis, reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities or to meet course requirements.  Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the professor.

Grades:
Final course grades will be “curved” (i.e., not based on absolute scores).  As a rough guide, the top third of the class will get A’s, the next third B’s, and the last third C’s.  Students with scores significantly lower than the bulk of the last third may receive D’s or F’s.

Class notes:
Some class lectures will be posted on the web.

Class Schedule:
Week        Dates        Topics (instructor)        Events
1        1/20
1/22        Introduction and course logistics (JB, KM)
Energy and Civilization (JB)       
2        1/27
1/29        The greenhouse effect (KM)
Greenhouse gases and radiative forcing (KM)       
HW 1
3        2/3
2/5        The temperature structure of the atmosphere (KM)
The looming risks of global climate change (JB)       
HW 2
4        2/10
2/12        International climate change negotiations (JB)
Essentials of climate physics (KM)       
HW 3
5        2/17
2/19        Politics of sustainability 1: Developed nations’ reactions (JB)
Politics of sustainability 2: Developing nations’ reactions (JB)        Quiz 1
6        2/24
2/26        Feedbacks in the climate system (KM)
Fossil fuels and energy consumption – the Kaya identity (KM)       
HW 4
7        3/3
3/5        Factors generating greenhouse gases 1 (JB)
Factors generating greenhouse gases 2 (JB)       
HW 5
8        3/10
3/12        Natural carbon cycle (KM)
Anthropogenic carbon cycle (KM)       
Quiz 2
9        3/17
3/19        Spring Break       
10        3/24
3/26        Social dilemma theory (JB)
Social and political policy-making processes (JB)       
HW 6
11        3/31
4/2        Detection and attribution of global warming (KM)
Future climate projections (KM)       
HW 7
12        4/7
4/9        Politics of global warming 1 (guest Bob Holt)
Politics of global warming 2 (guest Bob Holt)        
HW 8
13        4/14
416        Climate change science and recognition (JB)
Interests, social learning, and the politics of global climate change (JB)       
14        4/21
4/23        Past climates and abrupt climate change (KM)
Impacts of climate change (KM)        HW 9
15        4/28
4/30        Climate change and culture (JB)
Social adaptation to global climate change (JB)        HW 10
16        5/5
5/7        Scientific consensus and climate change skeptics (KM)
Envisioning sustainable societies and pathways to get there (JB, KM)       
HW=Homework assigned.  Due one week later in class.
JB & KM = 2
JB           = 13
KM           = 13
Guests           = 2


Lecture topics and reading materials

1) Introduction and course logistics (JB & KM)   
Is global climate change occurring now and is it caused by human activity?  How did we get to this point?  What are the roles of social institutions in getting to this point and getting us out of this situation?  Why is it important to approach global climate change from both the scientific and politics perspectives?

2) Energy and Civilization (JB)   Topics: the relationship between energy use and social structure: hunting and gathering, agricultural revolution, industrial revolution.  Focus on industrial revolution driven by use of fossil fuels, class and urban transformations.   Electronics revolution.  Historical and current global/spatial  distribution of energy use.  Picture: Nighttime illumination of the globe showing energy use concentrations.  Comparing energy use and lifestyle in contemporary developed versus developing countries.   Energy budget for typical US lifestyle.  Effects of energy use upon greenhouse gas emissions.  
Reading:
Marx, Karl. 1867 (1977). "Machinery and Modern Industry". Capital Vol I. New York: Vintage. (pp 492-508)
Environmental Protection Agency. 2006. “The U.S. Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2004: Fast Facts.” (Tables)
Shah, S. 2004. Crude: The Story of Oil. NY: Seven Stories Press. Chapters 1 -2 (“The Eclipse of Coal” & “Exile from Tethys”)
Supplementary Reading:
Freese, B. 2003. Coal: A Human History. Cambridge: Perseus. Chapters 3-4 (“Launching a Revolution” & “Full Steam Ahead” pp 43-102) CR
Lenski, energy use and social structure.  
Odum, household energy inventory.  

3) The greenhouse effect (KM)
Basic physical concepts and terminology needed to discuss the greenhouse effect: electromagnetic radiation, wave number, frequency, Stefan Boltzman equation, and blackbody spectra. A simple radiation balance of the planetary surface that will allow us to understand the first order difference in the climatologies of Venus (hothouse), Earth (just right), and Mars (icehouse).
        Reading: Archer Chapters 2 and 3

4) Greenhouse gases and radiative forcing (KM)
The nature of optically opaque atmosphere.  What are the chemical composition of the atmosphere, radiative properties of greenhouse gases, selective absorption of infrared light, and saturation band width?
        Reading: Archer Chapter 4

5) The temperature structure of atmosphere (KM)
How do the vertical motion of air masses, cooling of temperature with altitude, and air compressibility impact Earth’s surface temperature (and the layer model of atmosphere).
        Reading: Archer Chapter 5

6) The Looming Risks of Global Climate Change (JB)
Predicted effects on human society and other life.  This is the largest example of a more general problem--the Growth/Environment (GE) Dilemma of Human Civilization.  Ecological Overshoot.  Limits to Growth.  New Global scale -- GCC.  Predictions of future risks from unabated climate change.  
Readings: Jared Diamond, Collapse, Chapter on Easter Island. ; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers (11/07 Valencia, Spain draft), 23 pp.

7) GCC Negotiations (JB)
Overview and history of global climate change politics, negotiations and agreements.  Kyoto Protocol —international mitigation efforts; cap and trade; CDM; joint efforts; post-Kyoto, Bali roadmap. Targets and timetables.  Puzzle of different national reactions and effectiveness in taking first steps (show table).
Readings: Bolin, Bert. 2007. A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. (excerpt)
Supplementary Readings:
Agarwal,
Oberthür, Sebastian Ott Hermann. 1999. The Kyoto Protocol: International Climate Policy for the 21st Century. New York: Springer (excerpt).
Cass, Loren R. 2006. The Failures of American and European Climate Policy International Norms, Domestic Politics, and Unachievable Commitments. SUNY Series in Global Environmental Policy. Albany: State University of New York Press.

8) Essentials of climate physics (KM)
What drives the winds and ocean currents?  What determines the temperature and precipitation distributions around the globe?  Touch on the great importance of the effect of Earth’s rotation on the motion of winds and currents.
        Reading: Archer Chapter 6
        Kump, Kastings, Crane, Ch. 4 + 5, The Earth Systems (2nd Ed), Prentice Hall, 2004.

9) Politics of sustainability 1:Comparing Developed Nations’ reactions to GCC: the “North”--US , Germany, Japan and Sweden (JB).
Reading: Schreurs, Environmental Politics in the US, Japan and Germany.  (excerpt).

10) Politics of Sustainability 2: Comparing developing nations’ reactions: the “South”--China and Brazil (JB)
Reading: Roberts, J. Timmons and Bradley C. Parks. 2007. A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and Climate Policy. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press (excerpt).  
Aldhous, P., 2005: China's burning ambition. Nature, 435: 1152-1154. CR
McKibben, B. 2005. "The Great Leap: Scenes from China's Industrial Revolution". Harper's 311: 42-52. CR
Supplemental Reading: Articles on Brazil

11) Climate feedbacks (KM)
Simple conceptual models like the layer model of the atmosphere are great tools to help facilitate understanding, but they are unfit for realistic predictions because the climate system has interacting parts.  The need to account for those interactions or feedbacks necessitate climate modeling.
        Reading: Archer Chapter 7
        Kump, Kastings, Crane, Ch. 6, The Earth Systems (2nd Ed), Prentice Hall, 2004.

12) Fossil fuels and energy consumption – the Kaya identity (KM)
Type and availability of fossil fuels.  How long are fossil fuels predicted to last (Hubbert curve and Kaya identity) and what do the predictions depend on?
        Reading: Archer Chapter 9

13) Factors generating GHG 1 (JB)
IPAT/STIRPAT/KAYA Identity - in these models, human societal decision-making still a black box).  IPAT/STIRPAT/KAYA Factors—Population (JB): Malthus.  Population Bomb.  effects on pollution and especially GCC.  Comparing population effects upon GHG emissions in US, G, C & B.  
Reading: York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. 2003. "Stirpat, IPAT and ImPACT: Analytic Tools for Unpacking the Driving Forces of Environmental Impacts." Ecological Economics 46:351-65; York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. 2003.
Pimentel, D. et al. 2005. “Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems”. BioScience 55: 573-582. CR.  Reading on population TBA.

14) Factors generating GHG 2 (JB)
More IPAT/STIRPAT/KAYA Factors—Affluence and Technology (JB) effects on GCC.   Comparing effects of affluence and technology on GHG emissions.  
Readings: Stern Review, The Economics of Climate Change, Nicholas Stern (2007): Executive Summary, 4 pp.  For longer version with graphics, see http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/4/3/Executive_Summary.pdf
York, Richard, Eugene A. Rosa, and Thomas Dietz. 2003. "A Rift in Modernity? Assessing the Anthropogenic Sources of Global Climate Change with the Stirpat Model." The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 23:31.

15) Natural carbon cycle (KM)
Carbon storage and exchange under natural circumstances or prior to industrialization.  Where is carbon in the absence of human activities and how does it move around?  A look at the roles the terrestrial biosphere, oceans, rocks, and atmosphere.
        Reading: Archer Chapter 8

16) Anthropogenic carbon cycle (KM)
Human perturbations to the carbon cycle: emissions of methane, carbon dioxide, deforestation, etc.  How have these activities modified the natural carbon cycle and the atmospheric chemistry?
        Reading: Archer Chapter 10
        Sarmiento, J. and N. Gruber, “Sinks for anthropogenic carbon”, Physics Today, Aug., p. 30-36, 2002.

SPRING BREAK


17) Social Dilemma theory (JB)
Common Pool Resources, Prisoner’s Dilemma (play game in class?), Tragedy of the Commons and its critiques.   Discounting the future.  Examples from climate change politics.  Fights over carbon tax, cap and trade, etc.    How to regulate the commons?  On a global scale?
Reading: Dietz et al, 2002, The Drama of the Commons, introduction pp. 3-35.

18) Social and Political Policy-Making processes (JB)
PC (Pollution Control)=F{DR (Degree of Recognition), SD (Strength of Demand [Social Demand/Social Denial or Resistance x Political Demand/Political Denial or Resistance]), GC (Governance Capacity to make, implement and maintain control policies) }.  Competing general theories: Ecological Modernization versus Treadmill of Production.   Comparative Illustrations from US, Germany, China, Brazil and at the global scale.   
Reading: Fisher, Dana R. 2006. "Bringing the Material Back In: Understanding the U.S. Position on Climate Change," Sociological Forum 21:467-494.
Supplementary Readings: Beck, Silke. 2005. "Localizing Global Climate Change in Germany." Pp. 173-94 in Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States, edited by S. Jasanoff. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Foljanty-Jost, Gesine and Klaus Jacob. 2004. "The Climate Change Policy Network in Germany." European Environment 14(1):1-15.

19) Detection and attribution of global warming (KM)
How do we know that global warming is actually happening?  Focus on empirical evidences, including instrumental measurements as well as proxy data.  How do we know that global warming is caused by humans?  The role of global climate models.
        Reading: Archer Chapter 11
        Kolbert, E., “The climate of man-I”, New Yorker, April, 25, 56-71, 2005.

20) Future climate change and projections (KM)
What are the future climate projections?  How global climate models are used to make predictions using greenhouse gas emissions as inputs.  What about for the Midwest?
Reading: Archer Chapter 12
IPCC AR 4 Summary for Policy Makers, 2007.

21) US politics of environmental protection and global warming 1 (guest lecture: Robert Holt)
        Reading: XXX

22) US politics of environmental protection and global warming 2 (guest lecture: Robert Holt)
        Reading: YYY

23) Climate Change Science and Recognition of GW/GCC (JB)
Comparative role of climate change science in the social and political recognition of GCC as a problem and worthy of counter-measures.   Bert Bolin.  Birth of IPCC. Relative receptivity of US, G, S, C, B to IPCC reports.  Casual factors: strength of domestic science establishment.  Scientists as knowledge brokers.  Networks of scientific information flow.   The role of climate change science in teaching and guiding society about the causes of and effective countermeasures to GCC; GCC science/policy interaction in different countries.
Reading: Jasanoff, Sheila and Brian Wynne. 1998. "Science and Decision-Making." In Human Choice and Climate Change, edited by S. Rayner and E. L. Malone. Columbus, Ohio: Batelle Press.

24) Interests, social learning and the politics of GCC (JB) —Differential national vulnerability to climate disasters, beneficial effects upon Siberia, Canada?  Debates on this.  Relative strength of civil society.  Openness of political institutions.  Opportunities for stakeholder participation.  Advocacy coalitions and policy networks.  Struggles between interest groups about GCC in different countries and at the global level.  Different stances by oil companies.  Insurance industry reactions.  Connection between the politics, institutions, and GHG counter-measures in different countries.  Curious history of cap and trade.  
Readings: Pulver, Simone. 2007. "Making Sense of Corporate Environmentalism: An Environmental Contestation Approach to Analyzing the Causes and Consequences of the Climate Change Policy Split in the Oil Industry." Organization Environment 20:44-83.
Supplementary Readings: Lahsen, Myanna. 2007. "Trust Through Participation? Problems of Knowledge in Climate Decision Making." Pp. 173-96 in The Social Construction of Climate Change: Power, Knowledge, Norms, Discourses, edited by M. Pettinger.

25) Past climates and abrupt climate change (KM)
How bad is the forecast relative to climate changes in the past?  A look at past climates and abrupt climate changes to get a point to reference to understand the magnitude of current climate change.  How have ancient civilizations been impacted by past climate change?
Readings: Alley, R.B., “Abrupt climate change”, Scientific American, Nov., 62-69, 2004.
Broecker, W.S., “What drives glacial cycles?”, Scientific American, Jan., 48-56, 1990.
Kolbert, E., “The climate of man-II”, New Yorker, May 2, 56-63, 2005.

26) Impacts of climate change (KM)
What impacts are anticipated?  A look at health, sea level, ocean acidification, and biodiversity.
Readings: Kolbert, E., “Butterfly lessons”, New Yorker, Jan. 9, 32-39, 2006.
        Doney, S.C., “The dangers of ocean acidification”, Scientific American, Mar., 58-65, 2006.
        Epstein, P.R., “Is global warming harmful to health?”, Scientific American, Aug., 50-57, 2000.
        Schneider, D., “The rising seas”, Scientific American, Mar. 112-117, 1997.

27) Climate change and culture (JB): New global culture of “only one planet” or “lonely planet” (impact of earth photo, show Powers of 10).  Climate change skeptics and denial.  Resistance versus support from religion, creationism.  E.O.Wilson, Consilience.   Deep ecology.  New Ecological Paradigm versus Human Exemptionalism Paradigm.  The social construction of climate change cultures.
Readings: McCright, Aaron M. and Riley E. Dunlap. 2003. "Defeating Kyoto: The Conservative Movement's Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy." Social Problems 50:348-373.  
Dunlap, Riley. 2008. "Climate-Change Views:  Republican-Democratic Gaps Expand." Gallup Organization website, May 29.
Supplementary Readings: McCright, Aaron M. and Riley E. Dunlap. 2000. "Challenging Global Warming as a Social Problem: An Analysis of the Conservative Movement's Counter-Claims." Social Problems 47:499-522.

28) Social adaptation to GCC (JB)
What to do if GCC really hits us.  GCC effects and how to adapt to them.  
Readings: McMichael, Anthony J., Rosalie E. Woodruff, and Simon Hales. 2006. "Climate Change and Human Health: Present and Future Risks." Lancet 367:859-869.  
McCormick, Sabrina. 2008. "Hot or Not?: Recognizing and Preparing for Climate-Induced Illness." (Check with author for source)

29) Scientific consensus and climate change skeptics (KM)
Is science just a special interest?  Peer –review process.  Who are the skeptics and what are their arguments?
Readings: Oreskes, N. The scientific consensus on climate change, Science, 2005.

30) Envisioning sustainable societies and pathways to get there (JB & KM)
What can you do to reduce GCC effects?  How can we organize society to reduce GHG emissions?  Geoengineering and wedges.
Readings: Herzog, H. Eliasson, B., Kaarstad, O., “Capturing greenhouse gases”, Scientific American, Feb, 72-79, 2000.
Socolow, R.H. and Pacala, S.W., “A plan to keep carbon in check”, Scientific American, Sept, 50-57, 2006.
Socolow, R.H., “Can we bury global warming?” Scientific American, Jul, 49-55, 2005.
Kolbert, E., “The climate of man-III”, New Yorker, May 9, 52-63, 2005.




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