GSCI 150 - N/The Geology of Climate Change and Energy

2020-2021 Catalog Year

Credit(s): 3
Lecture: 3
Non-Lecture: 0
General Education Area(s): Natural Sciences

This course is intended for non-science majors who have an interest in understanding the relationship between energy usage in the industrial era and climate change. Understanding and adapting to global-scale climate change is one of the most important issues facing scientists and world leaders in the 21st century. The interrelationship of past climate changes and energy consumption from fossil fuels is clear, and understanding the response of the Earth system to rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is of critical interest as the human population approaches maximum sustainable levels. This course explores the fundamental geologic records of global climate change, Earth-system processes in the context of climate change and the global carbon cycle, critical improvements to the scientific understanding of natural verses human-induced climate change, and the recent and future impact of global-scale energy use on the Earth system.

Corequisite(s): GSCI 151.
Offered: Not on a regular basis