History of Ecology and Environmentalism: Climate Change in History
HSCI 3473
Peter Soppelsa and Suzanne Moon
Focusing on the modern period of history in global perspective, this course explores the history of climate change from the emergence of climate science to the debates and projects aimed at mitigating or adapting to climate change. We will explore both the climate’s influence on human societies and human impact on the climate. The course therefore tells parallel stories of environmental change, human environmental knowledge, and human action on environmental issues. Under the broad umbrella of climate change, topics may include agriculture, deforestation, disasters, globalization, land use, population control, and the extraction and management of natural resources. Guest speakers will highlight: the Little Ice Age; problems of scale, risk, and infrastructure in climate research; indigenous responses to climate change; and imagining a low-carbon future. The course historically examines both the diagnosis of environmental problems and the design of environmental solutions, to show how past problems and solutions may inform wiser ethical and political choices today about environmental issues in the Anthropocene epoch, none more urgent than climate change.