Friday, September 13, 2013

Climate change knowledge inventory -- for ESS

We inventoried ESS 01 students' climate knowledge on Wednesday, in small groups and as a whole class. These are the things you believe you need to know more about.

I transcribed them, collated them, rephrased some of them (if needed -- most were perfectly lucid, even erudite and well-considered), and organized them in what I thought would be a logical order for learning.

How to understand current confusing climate fluctuations, including temperatures? 
Related: We would like to try to settle confusion over whether climate denier claims have any scientific validity at all. A minority would particularly like to know how to "debunk the debunkers."

Carbon sinks and sources. We would like to know more about where atmospheric carbon comes from and goes to, and what is does when it gets into the atmosphere. Related: possibilities for carbon sequestration.

Adaptation: How can we adapt to changing climates? Related: Definition and explanation of Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience
Positive and negative side effects of solutions: Are there ways we could make this a worse problem, by doing the wrong thing?

Policies and politics in the USA: How should we understand why we don't seem to be able to do (much) about climate change in this country?
Related: Perceptions: How worldviews, perceptions, and preconceived notions effect how we approach climate change. (To include Kahan et al and Six Americas)

Natural resource law (your phrase, not mine, most likely from other classes), but essentially, what are the policy options for climate change? Do any have good economics, i.e., a positive payback?

Related: What are the economics of climate change?

Social freedom and social control: Does climate change help us move to a more liberal (with a small "l", meaning "more free", not politically Liberal), society, or a more authoritarian one?
How are relations between countries impacted? How have other societies ("cultures") dealt with climate change?

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