Spring 2022 GEOG 530 Seminar in Human-Environment Interactions
Humans in the Earth System
- Instructor: William E. Easterling
- Semester: Spring 2022
- Class Time: Thursday, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
- Contact: grad@geog.psu.edu
- Credits: 03
- Place: 319 Walker Building
- Section: GEOG 530-001
Description
Earth System Science is an approach to understanding how the planet operates as a single, complex adaptive system driven by the diverse interactions among energy, matter, and organisms, especially including humans. This seminar explores the power of the Earth System approach to understanding dynamic change that is altering the sustainability of the biosphere across scales and ecosystems.
It will particularly focus on the tight coupling of human activity with changes in Earth’s life support system, including, for example, how humans are directly and indirectly changing Earth’s biogeochemical cycles creating feedbacks on human welfare. Readings will consist of journal articles and a new National Academy of Sciences monograph on Earth System Science I commissioned on behalf of the National Science Foundation that is due out this Fall. Discussion of readings will be led by me and by small groups of students. A final project is required wherein students will work together in teams to develop and present mock proposals for funding to study selected topics in Earth Systems.