Environmental Sciences: Climate Change I

Explores how and when climate has changed over time and its impact on people and ecosystems; how humans have altered Earth's climate historically; how climate will change in the future; and implications for people and planet. Learn to communicate about climate change and take action. Credit not awarded for both ENSC 1490 and ENSC 2490.

Open to Degree and PACE students; Co-located with ENSC 2490 A

Human-induced climate change has become the most pressing environmental issue of our time. If you want to understand the science behind climate change and the impact of climate change on people, what is happening today, how climate has changed in the past, and how it may change in the future, this class is for you. In this class we specifically address issues related to the sustainability of human life and civilization of our planet. In one semester, you will learn the science of climate change, climate prediction, and the global impacts of a changing climate. You will understand how Earth’s rocks, oceans, atmosphere, and vegetation influence how climate changes naturally. You will appreciate the impact of people who for thousands of years were subtly altering Earth’s climate across the globe. Then came the Industrial Revolution and now human-induced climate changes are easily detectable and wreaking havoc with every society on Earth, the result of burning fossil fuels and wholesale land clearance. Using data from climate models and from prior warm periods, we’ll peer into a warming world and examine the climate of Earth centuries and millennia into the future. We will spend significant time exploring how people take action to address, mitigate, and respond to climate change and how to communicate your feelings about a warmer, stormier future in order to make productive change.

This is a class about learning and finding out just how much fun and how interesting climate and climate change science can be. We have several simple and straightforward expectations of you as a student in this class: 1. We expect you to respect your classmates and faculty at all times when they voice opinions that may differ from yours. This is a class that could raise emotions. Please respect your peers' feelings. If you cannot conduct yourself respectfully, you will be asked first to stop being disrespectful and then asked to leave class to cool down. 2. We expect you to participate in the class by asking questions in class and in review sessions. We expect you to participate out of class by reading all assignments before the class at which they are due. 3. We trust you and expect complete academic honesty. We expect that you will neither give nor receive information on the quizzes and tests and that assignments you hand in are your own work (ie, not that of AI or your roommate). You will sign an honor statement on each test. Violations of this trust and our community will be handled according to UVM protocols. 4. We expect you to read this class syllabus carefully and inform yourself about the class, the assignments, and their due dates. We will do our best to remind you but it is your responsibility to know what assignments are due and when.

We will use a variety of means to assign grades. Your grade will be based on quizzes (one each week, see schedule), tests at the end of each of two blocks, and a final essay. There is no final exam.