ENV 705a/EVST 394 () / 2025-2026

Global Climate Change: Simple, Serious, and Solvable

Credits: 3 Fall 2025: Time and location TBA

SIMPLE: Earth’s climate is determined by the balance of radiation inputs and outputs at planetary scale. Greenhouse gases produce a radiation imbalance that forces change. Basic physics and paleoclimate agree that modern changes are enormous. SERIOUS: Impacts of 21st Century climate change on weather, drought, fires, famines, and floods pose the greatest threat to ecosystems in millions of years and the worst threat to the global economy since the Black Death. Worse, the changes are essentially permanent. SOLVABLE: Rapid and complete decolonization of the global energy system  is feasible and affordable, but politically difficult. We consider economic, policy, and engineering solutions and finish by examine cultural narratives about solutions.