GDEV 3150 - Climate Change and Global Development: Living in the Anthropocene

(CA-AG) (CU-SBY)

Fall. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

J. Goldstein.

This course investigates social, political, and economic life in the age of the “Anthropocene”: the current geological era in which humans have irrevocably altered the earth’s biophysical systems. We analyze what political-economic dynamics have led to this, how climate change is known and predicted scientifically, and the impacts it has on politics, economies, environments, and societies across scales. Drawing on case studies from around the world, we investigate topics including climate change impacts on land, oceans, animals, and forests; climate migrants and political instability; (un)natural disasters such as fires, floods, and hurricanes; and sea level rise and cities. We also investigate existing and potential political and economic responses to climate change ranging from international governance agreements and green markets to local climate justice movements.

Outcome 1: Critically analyze the uneven consequences of climate change on politics, environments, economies, and societies around the world.

Outcome 2: Connect localized impacts of climate change in particular places to global ecological and political-economic processes.

Outcome 3: Trace the causes of anthropogenic climate change and how knowledge about climate change has developed.

Outcome 4: Write and speak convincingly on sociological, geographical, and critical development concepts and how they relate to contemporary climate change.

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