Global Warming: Good Science or Bad Politics?
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Global Warming: Good science or bad politics?
Classes on Sept 2, 3, 4, 15 and 16; dinner on Sept 14
No Fee.
APPLICATION DEADLINE - May 15, 2008
Organizing Faculty:
Terry L. Root, Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment
Stephen H. Schneider, Civil and Environmental Engineering
The class begins with a fast tutorial of the physical and biological scientific basis for concerns about global warming. Then we will discuss the debate among economists, sociologists, ethicists, ecologists, business and environmental stakeholders and policy makers over the range of feasible adaptation and mitigation options needed to cope with the scientific projections. This discussion will reveal the need for explicit separation of value-laden judgments from scientific judgments. The need for such separation, we will see, is often obscured in media debates and in political forums like Congressional Hearings.
After quickly laying out the background, we will move to group participation via role playing: divide the class into groups, such as Climate-Change Scientists, Naysayers, Media of all types, and Policy Makers. The Climate-Change Scientists will present the science, the Naysayers will provide information countering the science claims, and then each side will have a chance to rebut. The Media and Policy Makers will be allowed to ask questions at a press conference following the rebuttal. The Media folks will base their reports on insights from the presentations and the press conference. After watching all the various groups report and debate, Policy Makers will each present a plan of action, such as a draft of appropriate legislation. In addition, students will learn how to be interviewed by the media by participating in mock on-camera interviews. Being on film will allow each of the interviews to be evaluated.