GLBE11-100: Climate Change and the Future World

Understanding how the planet works has never been more crucial in tertiary education. A practical understanding of this and its impact on humanity is vital. This knowledge is essential across all career structures to combat climate change. Understanding climate change is now as important as understanding the economy, the legal system, and our national and international societies, as it will affect all these areas in the future. This subject introduces you to climate change through Earth and Global Systems, climate mechanisms, ocean and atmospheric interactions, and future world changes. The complexity of climate change is explained within the realm of general undergraduate knowledge. We will discuss current and future outcomes of climate change, its impacts on biodiversity, oceans and human activity, and we will study best practice climate adaptation and mitigation efforts of communities, cities and governments. Major climate adaptation issues include drought, desertification, rising heat, natural disasters, and the loss of habitats and agricultural areas. Increasing sea levels and severe weather events will impact human habitation, cause forced migration, affect food production, and lead to the loss of animals, fish, and their habitats. These issues will challenge the world’s economic systems, political boundaries, global communities, international law, geopolitical boundaries, and our philosophy towards others and the natural world. Forced population movements and migrations caused by sea level rise, as well as changes in disease patterns, will compound these problems, particularly with a growing world population. This subject will equip you with the ability to filter out misinformation about the causes and consequences of climate change and help you face the future with a greater understanding of how to tackle a changing world.