GEOG 5215 - Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation

One of the most widely discussed issues today is the future change in the Earth’s climate, with predicted increases in global temperature and resulting effects on climate regimes world-wide. These changes will impact both natural and human systems through sea level rise, the displacement of populations, health issues and changing availability of resources. In this class we will review the expected future shifts in climate and study the expected impacts of these changes on physical, biological and social systems, as well as the regional and social inequities in these impacts. With this knowledge, we will look at some of the methods that have been proposed to adapt to or mitigate these changes, including management and geoengineering of the Earth System. We will concentrate critically on the knowns and unknowns of future change and our ability to deal with it.