A self-guided course that equips learners with the knowledge and skills to understand the science of climate change and move toward solutions to combat our greatest existential threat.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The present climate and ecological emergencies can no longer be ignored, yet the social and political response to them does not match the scale and urgency of action required. A vague sense among Global Northerners that things are bad and that they will get much worse manifests as emotional paralysis, despair, and both active and passive denial. None of which help the individual, or to mitigate the crises. Conversely, because of their current realities, many Global Southerners are acutely aware of climate consequences in the present and want to inform their actions and adaptations with a firm grip of the science and socio-political dynamics.
This course aims to illuminate the dark cloud in our minds called climate breakdown, by equipping learners with the scientific knowledge, emotional clarity, and practical know-how to contribute to timely transformative systemic change in all aspects of society.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Articulate the basics of climate science and explain how the present climate emergency is human-caused, and still human-mitigatable.
- Understand what psychological barriers to action they may have been using to cope with the feelings that the climate emergency brings up, and how to process and overcome them.
- Explain the role of inequality, colonialism, and our present global economic system in perpetuating the climate emergency.
- Combine and transform the new knowledge into personal agency and collection action.
This course was last updated March 2024.
This course was created through and is part of :
COURSE-AT-A-GLANCE
This course contains 12 modules that walk the learner through climate literacy basics including the science, how to process the emotions that come up, and identifying meaningful ways to act to limit this emergency. The topical overview below provides an early taste of what you can expect through the course.
- Course Introduction – This module provides an overview of what will be covered in the course. It will take you through an overview of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s most recent reports on climate science, and the world’s governments responses to them. It will also outline by how much global CO2 emissions need to be reduced and by when, in order to have a chance at avoiding the worst consequences of climate breakdown.
- How do we know it’s because of us? – This module will explain some of the basics of Earth and geologic systems such as the Greenhouse Effect and the formation of fossil fuels. It will also walk learners through the two main lines of evidence that unequivocally demonstrate that the present climate emergency is a direct result of the human extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
- Earth Systems – This module is an introduction to systems science and important earth systems in regard to the climate emergency. Learners will understand how to describe complex systems using systems diagrams, identify feedbacks in systems, and understand tipping points in systems through examples from Earth’s climate past.
- What can we learn from the Climate Past? – Rocks, ocean sediments, and glacial ice cores contain abundant information on the scale and rate of ancient climate changes, and those stories tell us what is ‘normal’ or ‘abrupt’ change. How has climate change unfurled throughout the Earth’s long history, and what can it teach us about the present climate crisis?
- The consequences of inaction on Earth systems – What will happen to the Earth’s systems and the living world if the privileged of humanity continue on our present political-economic course? What can we expect to happen, and when? This module will examine the modeled IPCC Shared Socio-economic Pathways (SSPs) for greenhouse gas emissions reduction scenarios, and detail the impacts on Earth and natural systems for the SSP that governments have committed us to.
- The consequences of inaction on human systems – Building on the impacts of our present CO2 emissions course to natural systems, this module will examine the resulting losses and damages to human systems in the near-term as well as by the end of the century.
- What is not going to “save us” (why we need transformative change) – This module is an empirical examination of techno-optimism, ‘green’ growth, and geoengineering as proposed ‘solutions’ to the present climate and ecological emergencies.
- How does this make you feel? – This module welcomes guest speaker Dr. Kelly McKinney, a professor and ecoanxiety coach, to walk you through the feelings that may surface when you fully understand and absorb the implications of the climate science.
- Understanding inaction & communicating about the climate emergency – Why does it seem like the more people know about the climate and ecological emergencies in rich countries, the less they do about it? This module explores the psychology behind how most people in countries not yet directly affected by climate breakdown seem to behave as though there is no climate emergency even though they know that there is one.
- Climate Justice and the Just Transition – The climate and ecological crises were not created equally by every country, economy, culture, or individual in the world, nor are the impacts of them experienced equally. In this module, learners will explore several types of climate injustice, and how classic and neo-colonialism are intimately linked to the physical causes of the present emergencies, and are still perpetuating them today.
- What you can do – This module compares the relative effectiveness of individual versus collective action, and incremental versus transformative change, to reduce CO2 emissions in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate and ecological breakdown.
- Together: blueprints for transformative systemic change – This module explores existing and imaginative models for building a just, regenerative, and equitable world without fossil fuels and the power imbalances that come from a global economy based on the exploitation of humans and the living world.
- Summary: Every fraction of a degree matters; a better world in possible – This module is a re-cap of the functioning of positive feedbacks in Earth’s climate system, and a reminder that the latest scientific consensus has confirmed that the global surface air temperature will stabilize very quickly if we let it.
COURSE INSTRUCTION LANGUAGE
The learning materials in this course, including readings, pre-recorded video, audio and discussions are in English.
AUDIENCE
This course is designed for a diverse audience and appropriate for both Global North and Global South participants. It is particularly valuable to those interested in understanding the science behind climate change and interested in moving towards solutions to address this threat to our very existence. Students, parents, activists, policy makers, and simply concerned citizens are welcomed to engage with the content of this course.
Course INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Heather Short
Heather Short holds a PhD in Earth Sciences, and has been teaching college and university students geology and Earth systems science for 25 years, focusing on the present climate crisis for the last 15. She designed and taught the first Earth systems courses in the Quebec College system, guiding learners from climate science basics, through climate psychology, to the necessity of urgent collective action. In her spare time, Dr. Short advocates for transformative systemic change in all aspects of society. She grew up in Bristol, Vermont.
Disclaimer: Course descriptions on this webpage are for informational purposes only. Content may be updated or change as planning evolves. Sterling College reserves the right to alter the program specifics, including details about course content, instructors, collaborations, field trips, facilities and pricing, at any time without notice.
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