EnvStud 825 – The Earth´s Climate Crisis
Content:
The state of the earth. What is Gaia? The Life History of Gaia. Forecasts for the Twenty-first Century. Sources of energy. Chemicals, food and raw materials. Technology for a sustainable retreat. A personal view of environmentalism. Beyond the terminus.
Course Lecturer: Gerhard Berchtold, PhD
ECTS credits: 6
Coursebook:
The Revenge of Gaia. Earth´s Climate Crisis & the Fate of Humanity.
James Lovelock
Basic Books, 2006, Member of Perseus Group, Member of Penguin Group
Paperback published 2007 by Basic Books
ISBN-13: 978-0-465-04169-5
ISBN-10: 978-0-465-04169-8
One of the hardest tasks we face in life is to be the bearer of seriously bad news. Without our realising it we have poisoned the earth by our emissions of greenhouse gases and weakened it by taking farmland and housing the land that once was the home of ecosystems that sustained the environment. We hav driven the earth to a crisis state from which it may never, on a human time scale, return to the lush and comfortable world we love and in which we grew up. The great party of the twentieth century is coming to an end, and unless we nowstart preparing our survival kit we will soon be just another species eking out an existence in the few remaining habitable regions. We should be the heart and mind of the Earth, not its malady. We should remember that we are part of Gaia, and she is indeed our home.
- Teacher: Gerhard Berchtold
- Teacher: Peter Hodecek