This course is a foundational introductory, interdisciplinary course about the nature, causes, and impacts of climate change. Resources will include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Canadian and BC government reports as well as significant current journal articles and publications. Impacts covered will include warming, sea level rise, melting of permafrost, and altered distribution and migration patterns as well as impacts on livelihoods and cultures. It will combine perspectives from geology, biology, sociology, and modelling.
This course reviews and evaluates existing policy instruments and governance institutions designed to address climate change (both adaptation and mitigation) now and in the future: e.g. COP process including COP 21- the Paris Agreement, UNFCCC, local, regional and national policies in Canada and elsewhere. It will include human dimensions of such policies and governance such as gender, equity, indigenous rights, communication and others.
This experiential course enables students to work with their own or other organizations addressing climate change. It represents the transdisciplinary part of the course as it promotes working with and incorporating other ways of knowing and non-academic organizations. Students will arrange placements with First Nations, Government Departments at any level, Business and Industry and Civil Society, or NGOs. They will work with a supervisor in that organization as well as an academic advisor to enable them to wrest meaning from the experience and add value to the organization.