JAN 203 - Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration

Instructor(s):  Croft, Gregory
Email:  gdc1@stmarys-ca.edu

Climate change has been described as the greatest challenge facing humanity. It has also been described as a hoax. Which is it? This course will look at the evidence in the context of climate variations since the last glacial maximum, about 20,000 years ago. We will also look at the history of fossil fuel use and deforestation and at the modeling approaches used to forecast climate change.
 
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that major efforts will be required on alternative energy, nuclear power, and carbon sequestration to mitigate human carbon emissions. All three of these approaches will be discussed, but most of the second half of the course will be devoted to carbon sequestration. This rapidly growing field remains controversial because its critics claim that it is simply a way to continue using fossil fuels. This criticism will be debated in class. We will examine the potential of forestry, carbon dioxide injection, and mineralization to store large volumes of carbon.
 
 NOTE: This is a science class. Although there are no prerequisites, students are expected to be interested in science and use their knowledge of it in class discussions.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
None

Credits: 3-CU