Overview
In ENVS 325, students examine climate change from scientific, social, economic, and affective perspectives. Students gain a critical understanding of drivers of climate change and the way that different responses to climate change are driven by divergent values and understandings of the problem.
The course is divided into three parts. The first part provides foundational knowledge about the science of climate change, the historical development of this climatology, and global policy responses to it. The second part introduces key concepts for a critical understanding of climate change informed by climate justice, including an introduction to the underlying social and economic causes of climate change and their implications. You will also examine how the ways in which we frame and feel about climate change have crucial implications for how we understand and respond to the problem. The final part builds on the previous sections to examine divergent values and assumptions that animate different responses to climate change in different fields and contexts. This section examines the way in which responses depend on how we understand the problem. Themes include disaster preparedness, farming and food systems, and Indigenous perspectives.
The assignments in this course support students to articulate key concepts from each unit, find connections between them, and deploy them to analyze climate change initiatives.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of ENVS 325, successful students will be able to achieve the following course learning outcomes:
- Explain what climate change is and distinguish between related matters over which there is considerable scientific confidence from matters around which there is still scientific uncertainty
- Outline the general history of climate science and global policy responses to it
- Explain competing theoretical perspectives that theorize the causes, effects, and potential responses to climate change
- Engage with course learning materials to explain key concepts for understanding climate change and responses to it, and articulate the connections between key concepts highlighted throughout the course
- Critically assess divergent responses to climate change by analyzing these as stories and frames and applying insights from climate justice and intersectional perspectives
- Deploy course concepts to critically evaluate climate change policies, campaigns, or initiatives
Outline
ENVS 325 consists of nine units:
Unit 1: Climate Science—Evidence, Causes, Effects, and Limitations
Unit 2: The History of Climate Science and Global Policy
Unit 3: Emotions and Framing Related to Climate Change
Unit 4: Climate Stories—Urgency, Dystopia, and Hope
Unit 5: Climate Justice and Intersectionality
Unit 6: Green Growth and Degrowth
Unit 7: Disaster Preparedness—Prepping and Mutual Aid
Unit 8: Industrial Agriculture and Agroecology
Unit 9: Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change
Evaluation
To
receive credit for ENVS 325, students must complete the quiz and receive a grade of 50 percent or higher, as well as receive a composite grade of 50 percent or higher on the three assignments. Students must also achieve a course composite grade of at least
D (50 percent). Students will be graded on the following:
| Activity | Weight |
| Quiz | 15% |
| Assignment 1: Unit Worksheets | 30% |
| Assignment 2: Concept Map | 20% |
| Assignment 3: Critical Analysis of a Climate Change Strategy | 35% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
All materials are available online.
Challenge for credit
Overview
The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.
Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.
Evaluation
The ENVS 325 Challenge for Credit process has three parts:
- Part 1: A quiz that tests foundational knowledge about climate change science, the history of climatology, and global policy responses to it (25%)
- Part 2: A concept map (25%)
- Part 3: Critical analysis of a climate change strategy (50%)
ENVS 325 challenge students must achieve a cumulative grade of 60 percent in the challenge process. Successful completion of the process will earn you three credits in ENVS 325.
You will be offered no assistance from any tutor to complete this challenge for credit process.
Challenge for credit course registration form