Course manual 2019/2020

Course content

Climate Crisis

What explains our failure to act? One major challenge in the present climate crisis is that it requires input from different scientific disciplines. Therefore, in order to fully understand the case, we need to incorporate knowledge from several fields of expertise. How has climate science evolved? What do we know about the impacts on human society and ecosystems? What are our options to deal with climate change? Should we mitigate, adapt or geo-engineer the climate? How can we act as individuals? Perhaps going vegan? What does economics tell us about the costs of climate policy and the most efficient policy instruments? What does psychology teach us about why we fail to act? How does philosophy look at our moral duties towards future generations? What is the politics of international climate negotiations? All these topics will be discussed in the interdisciplinary course Climate Crisis.

Study materials

Literature

Articles and book chapters online

Objectives

show insight in the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of the climate debate.
reproduce the core insights from the various scientific disciplines in relation to the issue of climate change.
describe the practical hurdles to effective climate policy.
reflect on one’s own thoughts and acts in relation to climate change.

Teaching methods

Lecture
Self-study

Learning activities

Activity	Hours
Hoorcollege	24
Self study	144
Total	168	(6 EC x 28 uur)

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
0.5 (50%) Exam
0.5 (50%) Essay

Fraud and plagiarism

This course adheres to the general rules on ‘Fraud and Plagiarism` as set by the UvA. Students are expected to have familiarized themselves with these rules.

The terms Fraud or Plagiarism are to be interpreted as the copying of the work of peer-student and/or the copying of (scientific) sources of information, without explicitly referring to its source.

Fraud/plagiarism is forbidden and actively checked by staff. When one is suspected of having committed fraud/plagiarism, the exam committee of beta-gamma and future planet studies will be informed. The highest punishment for fraud/plagiarism involves the student to be disallowed to partake of any exams or examination activities within the future planet studies programme, for the duration of a whole academic year, or may even face dismissal from the programme. More information about Fraud and Plagiarism can be found at: www.uva.nl/plagiaat

Course structure

Weeknummer	Onderwerpen	Studiestof
1	Introduction	Page 29-50 of http://www.john-adams.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/RISK-BOOK.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_report_HR.pdf
2	Climate Science	http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/exec-office-other/climate-change-full.pdf Optional extra: https://whatweknow.aaas.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/whatweknow_website.pdf
3	Climate debate	https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Consensus_Handbook-1.pdf https://theconversation.com/humans-are-hardwired-to-dismiss-facts-that-dont-fit-their-worldview-127168 http://climatechangenationalforum.org/the-public-debate-on-climate-change-by-dr-bart-verheggen/ Optional: Chapter 6 of https://www.academia.edu/36989813/Merchants_of_Doubt_-_Naomi_Oreskes
4	Impacts and vulnerability	https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_report_LR.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar5_wgII_spm_en.pdf Optional: Almassi, B. (2012). Climate change, epistemic trust, and expert trustworthiness. Ethics & the Environment, 17(2), 29-49.
5	Response options	https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_summary-for-policymakers.pdf
6	Energy system	https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/SR15_SPM_version_report_HR.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519305257 Optional: David McKay (2009), Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air http://www.inference.org.uk/sustainable/book/tex/sewtha.pdf IPCC, 2015, Chapter on Energy Systems: https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_chapter7.pdf
7	Why would we care for the future?	Davidson Chapter 2 and 4 available on Canvas under 'Files: Readings'
8	Psychological hurdles	The Tragedy of the Commons https://science.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6335/275
9	Cost benefit analysis	Broome 2008 available on Canvas under 'Files: Readings' Additional: Arrow 1996 (IPCC) available on Canvas under 'Files: Readings'
10	Economic instruments
11	International negotiations	Chapter One Atmosphere from Peter Singer's One World (2002). Available on Canvas under 'Files: Readings'
12	What can I do?	Broome 2012 available on Canvas under 'Files: Readings'.

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Last year's course evaluation

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student evaluations to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Course Name (#EC)	N
Strengths	Notes for improvement
Response lecturer:

Contact information

Coordinator

prof. dr. Marc Davidson

Owner	IIS keuzevakken
Coordinator	prof. dr. Marc Davidson
Part of	Instituut voor Interdisciplinaire Studies (algemeen), algemene vakken, year 1 Exchange Programme Faculty of Science, specialisation BSc Interdisciplinary (IIS), year 1