Climate, Development, and Energy: Renewing Our Future

FACILITATOR: Timothy DenHerder-Thomas
CONTACT: tdenherder-thomas@macalester.edu
TIME: Two sections (to accommodate for the volume of students) 7-9PM Wednesdays (Feb 6-Apr. 30) and Tuesdays 7:30-9:30.
PLACE: Macalester College, Olin Rice 101 (Weds, MOVED from Car 05), and Carnegie 208 (Tues)
CHAPTER: Macalester

In the past few years, society has suddenly awakened to global warming, which presents a bold challenge to the way we develop our economies, organize our communities, and operate our daily lives. We now embark on an intense period of building solutions – a transition that will transform our energy systems, agriculture, urban structure, the global economy, and our everyday lives. Are we ready for this challenge? As scientists struggle with technology, leaders fight entrenched political and social assumptions, economists try to rethink global markets, and everyday people prepare to adapt, we will unravel the challenge of our century.

Is this about the environment? Development? Culture? Technology? Foreign policy? Social justice? Community empowerment? Your worldview? Global Citizenship? The answer is yes. With so many facets, I will encourage participants to work with me to develop a focus for their inquiry and identify outside readings, news sources, and initiatives for them to pursue – Macalester students can expand these into for-credit independent studies. During class time, we’ll use these focuses, guest speakers, and discussions of current events to investigate the problem as a whole. We’ll discuss the affects of global warming on our society, economy, and world, the global and local human response, the structure of a society up to the challenge, and how we can renew our future. Our intimate relationship through energy to our local communities, global economy, and biosphere will play a central role in our discussion. You will have some prior knowledge whether you’re an economics student, an environmental activist, or a local resident – no one is unqualified or unrelated. Prerequisites are a strong interest in looking at the world as a whole and investigating the future of our lives within a global community.