Spring 2021

ENERES 160 001 - LEC 001

Climate Justice

Daniel M Kammen

Jan 19, 2021 - May 07, 2021

Tu, Th

12:30 pm - 01:59 pm

Internet/Online

Class #:32272

Units: 4

Instruction Mode: Pending Review
Time Conflict Enrollment Allowed

Offered through Energy and Resources Group

Current Enrollment

Total Open Seats: 4

Enrolled: 78

Waitlisted: 0

Capacity: 82

Waitlist Max: 80

No Reserved Seats

Hours & Workload

3 hours of instructor presentation of course materials per week, 8 hours of outside work hours per week, and 1 hours of the exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week.

Other classes by Daniel M Kammen

+ 3 Independent Study

Climate change is transforming our world in ways we are only beginning to understand, and in many ways we cannot yet imagine. The emerging theoretical and practical lenses of social and environmental justice (EJ) provide tools with which to examine and understand this new world. Using literature, media, and engaged field experiences, this course brings together the scholarship, scientific and engineering innovation, policy, literature and media, and activism around the interacting themes of climate change and social justice.

Class Description

Climate change is transforming our world in ways we are only beginning to understand, and in ways we cannot yet imagine. At the same time, COVID-19, both bio- and cultural-biodiversity loss, and inequality are both changing the physical landscape, and altering our ability to respond to the pressures that come with life on a hot, crowed, interconnected, and deeply unequal planet. One of the emerging theoretical and practical perspectives which we can use to examine and understand this new world is that of the co-evolving lenses of social and environmental justice (EJ). Our response to crises from COIVD to climate change is informed by experiences that are themselves shaped by race, gender, socioeconomic status, and age. In this course we will explore the evolution of thinking about climate change and about justice itself. We will use the very different ways that our understanding of climate change, and our application of ideas of justice to different communities, has both mae responding to climate and to justice more difficult. We will bring together the scholarship, scientific and engineering innovation, policy, literature and media, and activism around the interacting themes of climate change and social justice. Basic principles, theories, and lessons from practitioners, will all be combined to examine how climate change shapes society, and how social justice movements shape our efforts to address these grand challenges of the 21st Century.

Class Notes

This class will mix lecture and small-group discussions, focused on interrogation of foundational texts, or classics in each of the EJ and climate fields. Through these materials we will also explore how these themes are represented in mainstream media and alternative forms of public expression and communication.

Lecture and sections will be balanced with ‘Field Engagements’, or practical laboratory sessions, where nodes of social and EJ activism will be examined and used to build experience with and study the context of theoretical ideas. These opportunities to ‘lift the hood’ and see how these organizations work will be the basis of opportunities to interrogate the intersection of climate justice theory, practice, and policy, and to build a network of contacts in this rapidly evolving and expanding field. This will also be a chance to engage with the ‘direct voices’ of frontline organizations and individuals.

Students complete 2 of 3 field engagements in the first half of the course, and one of two in the second half. show less