Reading to be done before Class: AE Articles 26 "The Truth About Denial", 27 "Swift Boating, Stealth Budgeting, and Unitary Executives",  28 "The Myth of the 1970s Global Cooling Scientific Consensus" 29" How to Stop Climate Change: The Easy Way"
Come to class with a basic familiarity with the following concepts and ideas: Concepts
Additional Assignment: Assignment

To prepare for discussion This week we examine four articles that collectively examine the political debate over climate change.  While scientific evidence in support of anthropogenic climate change has become more convincing, skepticism from the public, the media, and politicians has delayed taking actions to mitigate or adapt to climate change.  The articles help to document the political debate over climate change and seek to refute some of the arguments posed by skeptics.  The articles explore the fascinating interface between the worlds of science and the world of politics.  The slow pace and global scale of climate change creates uncertainty about the connections between causes and effects. On the one hand, though global temperatures and greenhouse gas levels have both risen, it is difficult to fully prove that human actions have caused global warming. On the other we will not know for decades whether any actions we take today to mitigate global warming will have been effective. Mitigation efforts to achieve a "low-carbon" world will need to take place slowly in order to avoid economic disruption. The authors of the last article, however, argue that addressing climate change should not be all that challenging.  By shifting the focus from debate to action, focusing on solutions that have widespread support already, and by focusing on technological innovation we can make significant progress in mitigating climate change. 

Questions to be discussed

1. What evidence is there in support of climate change? How certain is it that human activities have caused global warming?

2. What evidence is there that our climate is already changing? How certain can we be that this evidence is connected to global warming?

3. What are some of the arguments against climate change? Have they been sufficiently refuted to justify taking action to mitigate climate change? 

4. In the absence of a national will to address global warming, localities and states are acting independently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Will these actions at the local scale help to mitigate climate change?

5.  Is mitigating climate change as easy as the authors of the last article "How to Stop Climate Change" suggest?

6. What actions to mitigate climate change can be taken at the local scale? What actions cannot be taken at the local scale? Why is it important to "think both locally and globally."