Grounding Global Warming: Environmental History for a Changing World

The climate crisis is an issue for which the past is paramount. From past efforts to entrench fossil fuels to the historical inequalities that have shaped which communities are most vulnerable to climate disasters, the past looms large in the present and future. This class explores the history of global warming in three parts. The first part, Crisis, focuses on its causes and controversies. The second, Energy and Mitigation, explores past experiences with low-carbon energy and other mitigation strategies. The third part, Extreme Weather and Adaptation, covers past experiences with the extreme weather at the frontlines of the crisis.