How does climate change affect our world?

Amy Schmid, Professor, Biology 

Justin Shapiro, Postdoctoral Associate, Nicholas School for the Environment 

How we speak shapes how we think and act. This course examines how the natural and social sciences, and the humanities and the fine arts, equip people to speak about, analyze and evaluate the many ways climate change is affecting our world today. Every week, we will feature a different climate expert who explains how their discipline approaches the problems that climate change poses. It gives students the philosophical tools they need to imagine and implement a more just and hopeful future. No prerequisites required.

Justin Shapiro, Postdoctoral Associate, Nicholas School for the Environment 

We currently live in a geological age that some experts call the Anthropocene. Although contested, the term does indicate the dominant role that humans and their activities now play in shaping the global climate. In turn, human-induced climate change poses the potential to dramatically disrupt the way we live today. The lessons we learn from past societies can help us understand our own place within the changng global climate.

Raquel Salvatella de Prada, Associate Professor of the Practice, Art, Art History, and Visual Studies 

This course examines the Anthropocene with climate change as a key marker, through the lens of artistic practice. Students will create work in a variety of media while exploring how both scientists and artists respond to social and ecological crises. Throughout the semester, the class will engage with readings, artworks, hands‑on art workshops, and guest visits from scientists, artists, and local organizations to build an understanding of key issues related to climate change, environmental justice, and the Anthropocene.   

A central component of the course will be creating art using sustainable, low‑impact, and responsibly sourced materials. Through guided workshops, students will experiment with environmentally conscious approaches to making, learning how material choices can reflect and reinforce ecological values.   

Working collaboratively with artists and scientists, students will craft interdisciplinary stories of the Anthropocene, using the arts to bridge disciplinary divides. Together, we will consider how artistic experiences can raise public awareness and deepen our collective understanding of how human activity is transforming the planet and its climate. 

By the end of the course, students will gain insight into the ways art can illuminate the ecological, social, political, and human dimensions of climate change.

Prasad Kasibhatla, Professor, Nicholas School for the Environment 

Climate change is one of the defining challenges facing humanity today. The goal of this first-year seminar is to develop a fundamental and integrated understanding of the physical science basis of climate change. We will begin with a discussion of the physical science of climate change and explore the potential societal consequences of a changing climate. We will then focus on understanding the sources of greenhouse gases, explore the potential of alternative low-carbon and carbon-free energy sources in the context of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. We will also discuss geoengineering options to mitigate climate change Finally, we will delve into specific strategies for tackling climate change in Duke University's Climate Action Plan.

Sandra Valnes Quammen, Senior Lecturer, Romance Studies 

Introduction to considerations of the ways language shapes our understanding of the 'environment' and the interactions between humans, other species and the natural world, and how language impacts our conceptions of and responses to climate change. Genres studied include scientific and journalistic communication, social media, film, and literary texts. Work will include introduction to methods of corpus linguistics, metaphor analysis, and critical discourse analysis. Will include comparative considerations across languages and cultures. 

Cross-list: ROMST 185CNS

Suzanne Crifo, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Mathematics 
Tom Witelski, Professor, Mathematics 

Introductory course providing basic approaches for describing real-world problems. Students will learn and practice the mathematical modeling process, in which they will iteratively identify a real-world problem, define variables, perform mathematics, analyze, test, and refine their solution, and eventually implement their model and present results. A variety of types of models will be introduced, including linear and nonlinear models, discrete dynamical systems, optimization, and statistics. The real-world problems will connect to a running theme throughout each semester.

Raffaella Taylor-Seymour, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies 

This course examines the work of religious ideas—and ideas about religion—in relation to human interactions with and understandings of the environment. In recent years, the idea of the Anthropocene has abounded in both academic and popular literature. This course uses religion as a lens to examine the role of humans in both creating ecological destruction and efforts to repair and rework relationships with the natural world. We will engage with religious texts and interrogate the forces that have shaped religion under modernity, including the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and secularization. By the end of the semester, students will have deepened and nuanced their understandings of the notoriously vexed categories of religion and the Anthropocene.  

Crystal Smith, Instructor, Thompson Writing Program 

This course introduces the poetics of haiku, specifically the topic of Zen-inspired haiku relational to nature writing. This ancient form originated in Japan and is still practiced globally by contemporary poets. Many scholars have proclaimed haiku, the poetic form of the Holocene. By way of seasonal references known as "kigo" and haiku's impermanence, a concern with the present moment, climate change effects are consequently recorded through human encounters. Such effects have been chronicled from the 17th through 21st centuries by haiku poets in keen observation of the natural world. This informal "field work" documents abrupt shifts in normal seasonal progression and natural phenomena rendering a record of phenomenal consciousness or mental impacts that differ from standard data points. Our course readings and writing assignments will cover subjects of environmental stewardship through the contexts of Zen philosophies. We will examine the principals of deep ecology which align precisely with the Zen practice of interbeing, a regard and adoration for all life formations. We will further examine the concept of Zen Minimalism and its capacity to disrupt normative human behavior and thoughts, allowing for more compassionate perspectives on climate preservation and conservation.

In addition to weekly writing assignments, students will write, analytically, producing two major writing projects that consider: poetry and ecological awareness, human-nature relationships, and nature documentation. Simultaneous creative and theory-based small projects will allow students to engage in haiku writing techniques that form "notes on a problem" and forest bathing in Duke Gardens. Some questions to consider for this course are: What is your relationship with nature? How does poetry interpret the world in ways other writings cannot?

Lindsey Smith, Lecturing Fellow, Thompson Writing Program 

In the 1980s, biologist E.O. Wilson popularized the concept of “biophilia,” that humans have an innate desire to connect with the living world. Yet, 60% of the global population now lives in urban areas that are more gray than green, and a recent Pew survey found that 31% of U.S. adults report being online “almost constantly.” Humans are increasingly disconnected from our inner biophilia, and that shift is negatively impacting our physical and mental health as well as the well-being of our cities. However, there is a movement underway to transform our concrete jungles into “biophilic cities,” filled with innovative greenspaces, wildlife-friendly design, green infrastructure, and habitat restoration that seek to reconnect humans with nature, increase biodiversity in cities, and make our urban centers more climate resilient. 

Through a blend of seminar-style discussions, research, and writing projects, we will examine nature’s vast benefits and explore what it takes to design thriving biophilic cities. Our course materials will come from environmental science, urban planning, psychology, and conservation journals, popular magazines and books, and documentaries. In your final project, you will work collaboratively to propose an initiative that seeks to integrate nature into an urban space of your choice. Throughout the semester, you will also take part in a fundamental element of academic writing: exchanging feedback with peers on your works in progress. And, of course, we will get our dose of nature by holding class outside as much as possible and practicing shinrin-yoku (a.k.a. forest bathing) in the Duke Gardens.