Harvard Extension School - ENVR - E-130

Global Climate Change: The Science, Social Impact and
Diplomacy of a World Environmental Crisis
After Copenhagen, 2009
William R. Moomaw and Timothy C. Weiskel
Co-Directors, "The Climate Talks Project"
Teaching Assistants:
  
 
Lectures - Wednesdays, 5:30-7:30 - 1 Story Street - Rm 306 | Class Discussion Section - TBA
Class Schedule
Course Readings
   
Course Description:

     This introductory course will give students an integrated overview of the science of climate change and an analysis of the implications of this change for patterns of daily life in their own circumstance and around the world.

Climate Change Headlines
[via moreover.com]

 

     Humankind is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis of global proportions. Scientists from across the world have issued stark warnings about the potential disruption and destabilization that changes in Earth’s climate will most likely cause in the near future for the life systems upon which modern civilization depends. The social and political implications of climate change have begun to become apparent as local communities in widely different parts of the world struggle to adapt to new patterns of excessive rainfall, prolonged droughts and severe weather events. Internationally, nation states have endeavored to forge diplomatic agreements to help humankind cope with both the causes and consequences of global climate change.

     This course has three principal objectives. First, it will introduce students to the science of climate change, drawing attention to the latest research and evolving pattern of scientific data that has emerged on climate in recent years. Second, emphasis will be given to analyzing the social changes and adaptations that human communities have already made and those they will most likely to have to make as the Earth’s climate continues to change in the coming years. Finally, specific attention will be given to the diplomatic efforts that have been launched since the creation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) during the first world-wide Earth Summit on the environment in Rio de Janeiro in June of 1992.

Particular attention will be devoted to addressing the question of how the global human community is likely to behave after the Conference of Parties (COP-15) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark from 7-18 December 2009, and what the proposed plans of action might achieve in the face of the ongoing trends of change in the global climate.

Operative Course Schedule
[Suject to periodic updates. Please consult each week.]

Week 1
27 January
Introduction & Overview
  Timothy Weiskel & William Moomaw
  Introduction to Course

Week 2
February 3
History of Climate Science
 

William R. Moomaw
The History of Climate Science and the Science of Climate History
   

Week 3
February 10
History of Climate Science
 

Timothy C. Weiskel
The Social Context of Scientific Knowledge
   

Week 4
February 17
State of Play in the Evolving Debates
  Timothy Weiskel & William Moomaw
   

Week 5
February 24
A 'Southern' Perspective on Climate Change
  Adil Najam
    The Frederick S. Pardee Professor for Global Public Policy
Director, The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future
Professor, Department of International Relations
Boston University

Week 6
March 3
Monitoring the Ongoing Literature
 

Dr. George E. Clark, Harvard University Library
Timothy Weiskel - on climate research in the Blogosphere
   

Week 7
March 10
The Environmental Impact of Climate Change -1
 

Local & Global Water Issues
  Paul Kirshen, Battelle

Spring Break

Week 8
March 24

Midterm Exam

+
The Pace and Scope of Change
  Timothy C. Weiskel & William Moomaw

Week 9
March 31
The Environmental Impact of Climate Change - 2
 

Climate Change and Public Health
  Paul Epstein, Associate Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School
  [Note: brief Prospectus for Term Research Paper is also due.
Click here for "Guidelines" for this exercise.]

Week 10
April 7
Social Impact of Climate Change - I
  Climate Change and Environmental Justice Issues
Timothy C. Weiskel

Week 11
April 14
Climate Change and The Polar Regions
   

Week 12
April 21
Social Impact of Climate Change - II - A Personal Story and Example
  William Moomaw - Living Deliberately in the 21st Century

Week 13
April 28
Views in Washington, D.C. + Geo-Engineering
  Ira Magaziner, The William Clinton Foundation
   

Week 14
May 5
Covering the Global Climate in the Press
  Ross Gelbspan
  Bill Blakemore, ABC News
** All Course Papers Due **

Week 15
May 12
Final Hour Exam - 1 hour allotted
+
Summation & Farewell: Where can we go from here?
  William Moomaw & Timothy Weiskel

Spring Semester 2010

Course Requirements

Requirements for the course include completing

1) a mid-term examination - Wednesday, 24 March 2010 - [ Distance learning students should consult the procedures for "Proctored Examinations" in the Extension School catalogue. You are responsible for identifying an appropriate Proctor, completing the online proctored examination form and making arrangements for the administration of the examination at a distance.] (This exam counts for approximately 20% of the final grade):

2) a final exercise - Wednesday, 12 May 2010 – (to count approximately 20% of the final grade);

3) class participation - (including classroom participation, where possible AND completion of all online class assignments, quizzes, etc)

and

4) A Prospectus & Final Research Term Paper - to be submitted in writing, in class on or before Wednesday 31 March 2010 and Wednesday, 5 May 2010, respectively . [That is, a brief prospectus for this paper must have been submitted by Wednesday 31 March 2010, while the term paper itself is due on Wednesday, 5 May 2010]. The Prospectus and the Research Term Paper will together account for approximately 60% of the final grade.

Further guidelines on the Midterm Exam, Final Exercise, Prospectus and Research Term Paper will be given in class and posted online when appropriate. But Nota Bene: Distance Learners who will not be taking the "Final Exercise" in class are required to make arrangements for a Proctor. Instructions for "Proctored Examinations" are available in the Extension School Catalogue, and you must complete an online proctored examination form for this Final Exercise -- just as in the case of the mid-term.

N.B. The final grade for the course will be assessed on approximately the following basis:

1) Mid-term examination - 20% of the final grade
2) Final hour exam exercise - 20% of the final grade
3) Prospectus - 20% of the final grade
4) Term Paper - . 40% of the final grade

Assigned Reading for the Course are drawn from:

Spencer Weart
 
2003
 The Discovery of Global Warming (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2003) [with support material.]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC)
  2001 Climate Change 2001: Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC, 2001).
  2007 Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers [Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (This Summary for Policymakers was formally approved at the 10th Session of Working Group I of the IPCC, Paris, February 2007.)], (Geneva, Switzerland, IPCC, 2 February 2007).
  2007 Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Summary for Policymakers: Working Group II Contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report Climate Change 2007 [ IPCC WGII Fourth Assessment Report ], (Geneva, Switzerland, Brussles, Belgium, 6 April 2006).
  2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III - Summary for Policymakers, (Bangkok, Thailand, 4 May 2007).
  2007 IIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report—Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report— Summary for Policymakers. UNFCCC. (17 November 2007)
National Assessment Synthesis
  2000 Climate Change Impacts on the United States The Potential Consequences of
Climate Variability and Change: Overview Report (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2000)
 Shaw, Jonathan
 
2002 
 "The Great Global Experiment," Harvard Magazine.(November-December 2002) [or the HTML version ]
Elizabeth Kolbert
 
2006 
 Field Notes from a Catastrophe (New York, Bloomsbury USA, 2006).
James Hoggan
  2009 Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming ( N.Y., Greystone Books, 2009).
James Lovelock
  2010 The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (N.Y., Basic Books, 2010).
Eugene Linden
 
2007
 The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations (New York, Simon Schuster, 2007)
Joe Romm
 
2008
 Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution (New York, Harper Perennial, 2008)
Worldwatch Institute
  2009  State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World (New York, Norton, 2009)
 
Recommended
Tony Blair (Foreword), Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (Editor), Wolfgang Cramer (Editor), Nebojsa Nakicenovic (Editor), Tom Wigley (Editor), Gary Yohe (Editor), Rajendra Pachauri (Introduction)
  2006 Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006).
[PDF version]
 
     
The Unassigned, Required Reading & Listening/Viewing
The New York Times
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