Global Warming: Good Science or Bad Politics?

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Global Warming: Good Science or Bad Politics?

Sunday, September 16 - Friday, September 21, 2007
Applications are due by May 18
No fee

Applications are no longer open.

Instructors:

• Stephen Schneider, Professor of Biological Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Institute for International Studies, Professor by Courtesy in the
  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Terry Root, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, Biological Sciences

Global warming is a topic in which the scientific and political dimensions are equally complex and completely interrelated. The class will begin with a fast tutorial of the physical and biological scientific basis for concerns about global warming, as well as the contours of the debate among economists, sociologists, ethicists, ecologists, business and environmental stakeholders and policy makers. Two important topics that will be included are the range of feasible adaptation and mitigation options available to cope with scientific projections; and the challenge of explicitly separating value-laden judgments from scientific judgments.

Participants will have the opportunity to interact with a variety of speakers from different policy arenas and perspectives-government agency, NGO, legislative, media, and scientific. The workshop will combine lectures and discussions with group projects, role-playing, and field trips. For example, we may recreate media debates and congressional hearings. We plan to visit Jasper Ridge Ecological Preserve.

The course is for students currently registered in graduate programs at Stanford who will be continuing in the Fall.