This is a snapshot of project information archived on 2 September 2022. Please contact the project team for most recent updates.
Conversations with the Earth
Subject: Environment & Earth Sciences
Book Language: English
Audience: Non-STEM college students who want to understand climate change and what to do about it
Book Cover: Rebus.jpeg - Google Drive
Created date: February 11, 2022
Updated date: March 17, 2022
Target Release Date: 2022-12-31
License:
- Attribution
- Non-Commercial
- Share Alike
Needs:
- Lead Editors
- Proofreaders
Short Description:
Is one generation responsible for leaving a habitable climate for the next? This course is all about helping you and your students address that question, through
a steely-eyed equity lens.
Human actions are fundamentally altering the processes which have shaped Earth’s climate over its 4.5 billion-year history. In the first part of the course, students consider the responsibility that each generation has to leave a habitable climate for the next and, in the second part, they examine the earth system, how that system evolved over time, and how human activities are rapidly changing the climate in which the human species flourished.
Our equity-based approach includes:
Access (reducing barriers that prevent equitable access to education), Community and connection (facilitating connections across classrooms, campuses, communities) and Ownership (protecting agency and ownership of one’s own learning experiences).
Outline
Conversations With the Earth
Part 1: Loomings
1 Climate and Change
2 Climate and the Anthroposphere
3 Energy, Heat, Temperature and Light
4 Earth’s Many Temperatures: From the Greenhouse Effect to Zonal Averages
Part 2: Earth Systems
6 The Geosphere & Plate Tectonics
7 The Atmosphere
8 The Hydrosphere
9 The Biosphere and life: its definition, evolution and repercussions
10 The Cryosphere
11 Uniting the Spheres: Carbon & the Carbon Cycle
12 Climate regulation and variability over geologic time
13 Climate regulations and variations: Quaternary Glaciations and the past 2.8 My.
Part 3: Anthroposphere
14 The Anthropocene: From Agriculture to fossil fuels
15 The Holocene: Understanding “normal” climate & its variations.
16 Recent Climate Change I: Observations
17 RCG II: Driving Forces & Impacts
18 RCG III: Mitigation & Adaptation
19 RCG IV: What can one person, city do?
