HHIS-199: A History of Climate Change

Climate change is the greatest existential crisis our planet has encountered since modern humans evolved, because it has already begun to radically alter our future. This course will examine our changing understandings of climate change from the late 18th century up to the present day: how we recognized, quantified, ignored, accepted, and embraced it -- and what it has meant for the role of science in a broader social and cultural context. The course will focus on a series of case studies over the decades and centuries, right up to the current moment. This is a story of hope as well as difficulty, and we will look at examples from the past and present which provide potentially positive outcomes.