3.00 Credits
The principle focus of the course elaborates on how the Earth system functions interacts amongst its subdomains, but also addresses how humans interact within these sub-systems and how those sub-systems impact humans. The course integrates the approach of Sustainability and explores how today's human societies can devise adaption and mitigation strategies in a rapidly changing climate. The concept of climate resilience is stressed with the challenges of ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. Sustainability is a multi-disciplinary field, requiring a broad understanding of Earth systems as well as human motivations. Sustainable practices and theories are introduced and are inclusive of but not limited to population dynamics, ecosystem science, global change, energy, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history. A rapidly changing climate necessitates the importance of identifying suitable Sustainable practices and their implications in both the natural and social sciences as well as the technical challenges and limitations available at present. The student should have been exposed to a background in the Earth sciences and/or other core science concepts (e.g., Biological Sciences, Physics/Chemistry). The course will present real-world examples and/or case studies allowing the students to be exposed to contemporary challenges in environmental management.