Time Capsules for Climate Change, to be Opened at Your Reunions

This seminar is about thinking about the future of the planet and your own future. You will create four time capsules, to be opened at your graduation and at your 10th, 25th, and 50th reunions. These capsules will contain your essay, which will treat a single topic that you work on all semester. Some of your analysis will be quantitative; you should enjoy numbers and have an appetite for arithmetic. Lectures will introduce the Earth as a physical system affected by human activity; fossil, nuclear, and renewable energy; uses of energy and land; and low-carbon policy. You will read some published science papers.