Climate Change: Causes, Effects, And Why It's A Big Deal
Taught by Eric Siwy
Eric has a Doctorate of Architecture from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. And since you asked (or were about to, seriously everybody asks): he came back east because most of his family and friends are here, and it turns out monotonous perfect weather still gets monotonous after a lot of years. While in Hawaii his appreciation for the environment increased tenfold. He also ran the Environmental Lab at the university, has worked at the Rocky Mountain Institute (a sustainable design think tank), and is currently an architectural project manager here in the city.
What is climate change? Why should I care? And what can I do?
Climate change is real. Most of you probably agree with that statement, but maybe you don't understand what that means. Maybe you recently saw something that implied the current warming was part of a natural cycle and that seemed plausible. Maybe you're enjoying the warmer winters and don't understand what the big deal is. Well, if you want to delve a little deeper about the causes and effects of climate change, to what extent it's caused by humans, and why a rise in temperature of only a couple degrees celsius is seen as such a big deal, then this class is for you.
And while we'll look at the science and refute some of the common arguments put forth by skeptics, this class is decidedly for non-scientists.
By the end you'll have a good handle on what we mean by climate change as well as what the United States and the world are doing to combat it. We'll discuss some methods for weeding out #alternativefacts or when someone is cherry-picking data (hint: one year of data does not constitute a trend). We'll also look at some related topics like lifecycle cost, whole-systems thinking, and the relative value of actions you can take in your own life to address it. Given the current political climate we'll also talk about effective activism and organizations already doing good work.
