Global Change - Sustainability Studies
Course URL: http://globalchange.umich.edu/
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Summary
In this third section of a three quarter sequence, students examine solutions to providing a sustainable, healthy relationship between humans and the natural world. Students will integrate previously learned materials with new lecture material using discussion and modeling. The course is divided into three main themes: Impacts, Institutions/Policymaking, and Response. Each theme will be explored by examining case studies of human and policy dimensions of global climate change in different parts of the world, especially in less developed countries. Course Context:
This course, offered in the Winter term of 2004 at the University of Michigan, has no prerequisites, but there are two other courses in this sequence (see below). The class includes 2 lecture sessions per week.
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Course Content:
From Syllabus: This course is designed to analyze how human and social systems affect and are affected by environmental change on Earth. Its main goal is to study public policymaking and the institutions designed to mitigate and adapt to global climate change at the local, national and global scales. It is critical to our survival, and the survival of our planet, that we not only understand that the global environment is changing, but how we can prevent, adapt to, or mitigate the negative aspects of global change. The course builds on the foundation laid by the first two Global Change courses in order to study the solutions to providing a sustainable, healthy relationship between humans and our world. It will focus both on theories of public policy as well as in-depth case studies of the human dimensions of global climate change with a special focus on the United States and less developed countries.
Teaching Materials:
The texbook required for this class is Environmental Governance: The Global Challenge by Lamont C. Hempel (ISBN: 1-55963-448-0). There are also web resources that will be used over the course of the term. -- http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange_links/links.htm
Assessment:
All students are expected to participate in evaluation activities, which will occur throughout the term and can be accessed from the web page. These consist of short, weekly questionnaires and 2 term assessments.
References and Notes:
The University of Michigan is a NASA/USRA ESSE school 
