Course Schedule:

PART 1 – Introduction and background on climate change

January 25 (Th) – Overview of course, assignments, expectations

1. Read syllabus and review OER site
2. Recommended: Sign up for the “Climate Forward” newsletter from the New York Times: 

First, sign up for a New York Times account (if you don’t have one already). Follow these steps: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/c.php?g=1072166&p=7810786

Once you’re officially a subscriber, you can sign up for the “Climate Forward” newsletter here: https://www.nytimes.com/column/climate-fwd

3. *Register for the OER platform: we will do together in class 
4. Form pairs and sign up for student constructed Reading Quizzes

January 30 (T) – The challenges of climate change and overview of climate change science 

Reading Quiz 0 – first quiz prepared by Professor Lewis as a model

1. Chapter 1: The Social Challenge of Climate Change in Climate and Society: Transforming the Future by Robin Leichenko and Karen O’Brien. Pp. 1-18. Password Protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=75201989
2. Chapter 2: Scientific Evidence of Climate Change in Climate and Society: Transforming the Future by Robin Leichenko and Karen O’Brien. Pp. 19-40. Password Protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=75201989
3. “What We Know About Climate Change.” https://climate.mit.edu/what-we-know-about-climate-change. This site provides a series of quick overviews about climate change from a respected institution. We will be using the site’s “Explainers” throughout the semester to provide context for our more detailed examinations into various climate change topics.
4. “IPCC Explainer: The Science of Climate Change.” https://eciu.net/analysis/infographics/ipcc-science-of-climate-change. An outstanding infographic summarizing the findings of the International Panel on Climate Change.

February 1 (Th) – Climate change impacts on cities

 (Reading Quiz 1 – student constructed)

1. “Climate Change Overview.” https://unhabitat.org/topic/climate-change. This is the climate change site from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), which is mandated by the UN General Assembly to “promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities. UN-Habitat is the focal point for all urbanization and human settlement matters within the UN system.” It provides a global view of what is happening to cities around the world.
2. “Cities and Climate Change.” Open Access at https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/cities-and-climate-change. One of the MIT “Explainers” mentioned above, this site introduces the concepts of “low carbon” and “resilient” cities.
3. “Climate Change Impacts on the Built Environment” https://www.epa.gov/climateimpacts/climate-change-impacts-built-environment. This site is generated by the Environmental Protection Agency and outlines some of the concrete impacts of climate change on infrastructure, raises the issue of “environmental justice,” and suggests some actions that can be taken to lessen the impacts of climate change.
4. Solecki, W., & Rosenzweig, C. (2019). New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report Chapter 9: Perspectives on a City in a Changing Climate 2008-2018. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1439(1), 280–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14017

PART 2: Key historical themes in the history of New York City and linking them to our experiences

February 6 (T) – Brief history of the peoples and ecology of NYC: indigenous peoples, colonization, Manahatta, ecological changes 

(Reading Quiz 2 – student constructed)

Climate change narrative assignment introduced

1. “Manahatta to Manhattan: Native Americans in Lower Manhattan.” 2010. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-10/manahatta_to_manhattan.pdf
2. Tarr, Joel A. “Land Use and Environmental Change in the Hudson-Raritan Estuary Region, 1700-1980, with an Addendum to 2018” in Coastal Metropolis: Environmental Histories of Modern New York City, edited by Carl A. Zimring, and Steven H. Corey, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021. Login with BC Library credentials at: ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brooklyn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=28433366&pq-origsite=primo
3. Excerpt from The Sociological Imagination (1959), pp. 6-13 in Thirty Readings in Introductory Sociology (2^nd edition) edited by Gould and Lewis, 2017. Password Protected at: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74917666

February 8 (Th) –  Introduction to Research Projects and group assignments; focus on discussion of primary and secondary data; form groups

1. “Primary and Secondary Sources: What’s the Difference?” 2 June 2022.  https://www.grammarly.com/blog/primary-and-secondary-sources/
2. “Primary vs. Secondary Sources | Difference & Examples.” 15 May 2023. https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/primary-vs-secondary-sources/

February 13 (T) – a brief history of the city’s development featuring the development of the working waterfront, deindustrialization, neoliberalism, and gentrification 

(Reading Quiz 3 – student constructed)

1. Chapter 3. “Cities and the Economy” in The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945 by J.R. McNeill and Peter Engelke (2014) Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 103-154. Password Protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=75071878
2. Chapter 5. “The Gowanus Canal: from open sewer to the Venice of Brooklyn.” Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (2017). Green Gentrification: urban sustainability and the struggle for environmental justice. Routledge. 85-114. Password Protected at: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74917691

February 15 (Th) – documentary viewing:

 “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power available through BC Library online and at BC Media Center. Login with BC Library credentials at Alexander Street Press: http://brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/login?url=https://brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/login?url=https://video.alexanderstreet.com/p/28D3qD7JP

February 20 (T) – Placing our biographies within history: sharing our climate change narratives and generating research topics and questions for the group projects

Due: Climate narrative

February 22 (Th) – Classes follow Monday schedule

PART 3: Climate change, power, and inequality

February 27 (T) – Social causes of climate change

 (Reading Quiz 4 – student constructed)

1. Shannon Bell. 2021. “Energy, Society, and the Environment.” In Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology (3^rd edition). Edited by K. Gould & T. Lewis. Oxford University Press, pp. 137-158 (Lesson 9) Password protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74918166.

1. Laura McKinney. 2021. “Climate Change.” In Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology (3^rd edition). Edited by K. Gould & T. Lewis. Oxford University Press, pp. 271-292 (Lesson 15). Password Protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=75058970.
2. Monbiot, George. 2021. “Capitalism is killing the planet: It’s time to stop buying into our own destruction.” Guardian, October 30. Open Access at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/30/capitalism-is-killing-the-planet-its-time-to-stop-buying-into-our-own-destruction

February 29 (Th) – Group presentations: research proposals and initial bibliographies due – workshop in class

March 5 (T) Power and climate denialism

 (Reading Quiz 5 – student constructed)

1. Kari Norgaard. 2021. “Normalizing the Unthinkable: Climate Denial and Everyday Life.” In Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology (3^rd edition). Edited by K. Gould & T. Lewis. Oxford University Press, pp. 295-309 (Lesson 16). Password Protected at https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74918167.
2. Mann, Michael Mann. 2021. The New Climate War: Fight to Take Back Our Planet, Chapters 1-3, pp 9-62. Password Protected at: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74917683.
3. Bohr, Jeremiah. “The Structure and Culture of Climate Change Denial.” Footnotes 49 (3). Open Access at: https://www.asanet.org/footnotes-article/structure-and-culture-climate-change-denial/

March 7 (Th) – Climate (in)justice

 (Reading Quiz 6 – student constructed)

1. “What is Climate Justice?” 29 July 2020. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/what-is-climate-justice/. This website from Yale provides a quick overview of the concept of “climate justice” and provides links for diving deeper.
2. Tietjen, Bethany. 2022. “Loss and damage: Who is responsible when climate change harms the world’s poorest countries, and what does compensation look like?” The Conversation. 2 November. Open Access at: https://theconversation.com/loss-and-damage-who-is-responsible-when-climate-change-harms-the-worlds-poorest-countries-192070
3. Gould, K. A., & Lewis, T. L. (2018). Green Gentrification and Disaster Capitalism in Barbuda. In NACLA Report on the Americas: Eye of the Storm: Capitalism, Colonialism, and Climate Change in the Caribbean (Vol. 50, Issue 2, pp. 148–153). Routledge. Password Protected at: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=74918162.
4. Mattar, S. D., Jafry, T., Schröder, P., & Ahmad, Z. (2021). Climate justice: priorities for equitable recovery from the pandemic. Climate Policy, 21(10), 1307–1317. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2021.1976095
5. Climate Justice Alliance (https://climatejusticealliance.org). This is an example of a climate justice activist group.

PART 4: Policies and case studies

March 12 (T) –Mitigation and adaptation policies

 (Reading Quiz 7 – student constructed)

1. “Mitigation and Adaptation.” https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/mitigation-and-adaptation. This simple “Explainer” describes the difference between the two terms.
2. Chapter 9: Adapting to a Changing Climate in Climate and Society: Transforming the Future by Robin Leichenko and Karen O’Brien. Pp. 1-18. Login with BC Library credentials at Proquest E-books: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brooklyn-ebooks/reader.action?docID=5790519&ppg=22&pq-origsite=primo
3. Siders, A.R. 2019. “Social justice implications of US managed retreat buyout programs.” Climatic Change 152:239-257. Open Access at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-018-2272-5.
4. White House-National Climate Task Force. https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate/ An overview of President Biden’s climate change actions.
5. Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice. “AdaptNYC” https://climate.cityofnewyork.us/initiatives/adaptnyc/. NYC’s plan to adapt to climate change.

March 14 (Th) – Case study: Superstorm Sandy; history of sea level rise and hurricanes in NYC; immediate and long term impacts of Sandy

 (Reading Quiz 8 – student constructed)

1. Sandy a story of complete devastation, courage, and recovery. (2013). Triumph Books. Parts I-IV. Login with BC Library credentials at Proquest E-Books: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/brooklyn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1184824.
2. “Sea Level Rise.” 25 May 2021. https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/sea-level-rise
3. “Hurricanes.” 20 November 2020. https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/hurricanes. This website draws attention to protecting coastal communities, like NYC.

Group annotations due

March 19 (T) – Responses to Sandy with an emphasis on inequalities and disaster capitalism

 (Reading Quiz 9 – student constructed)

1. Greenberg, M. (2014). The Disaster inside the Disaster: Hurricane Sandy and Post-crisis Redevelopment. New Labor Forum, 23(1), 44–52. Login with BC Library credentials at https://journals-sagepub-com.brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/doi/10.1177/1095796013513239
2. Koslov, L. (2016). The Case for Retreat. Public Culture, 28(2), 359–387. Open Access at: https://climateaccess.org/sites/default/files/The%20Case%20for%20Retreat%20-%20Public%20Culture.%20pdf.pdf 

March 21 (Th) – Individual presentations and primary data due

March 26 (T) – Heat islands and cities

 (Reading Quiz 10 – student constructed)

1. “Extreme Heat.” 23 June 2022. https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/extreme-heat
2. “Urban Heat Islands.” 16 April 2021. Open Access at: https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/urban-heat-islands
3. Wu, Shuang-Ye. 21 September 2022. “Looking back on America’s summer of heat, floods and climate change: Welcome to the new abnormal.” The Conversation.
4. Raven, J., Braneon, C., Rosenzweig, C. (2021). Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning and Urban Design in New York City. In: Ren, C., McGregor, G. (eds) Urban Climate Science for Planning Healthy Cities. Biometeorology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. Login with BC Library credentials at Springerlink: https://doi-org.brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/10.1007/978-3-030-87598-5_3
5. Wilson, Bev. 2020. “Urban heat management and the legacy of redlining.” In Journal of the American Planning Association, 86(4), 443-457. Open Access at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341589168_Urban_Heat_Management_and_the_Legacy_of_Redlining7 

March 28 (Th) – Guest speaker, Professor Sarah Wolf, Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences will discuss heat islands 

April 2 (T) – Group presentations: outlines with recommendations due 

April 4 (Th) – Persistent flooding in cities

(Reading Quiz 11 – student constructed)

1. “Climate Change Indicators: Coastal Flooding.” https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-coastal-flooding. This page from the Environmental Protection Agency provides data on the increase in flooding in the United States since the 1950s.
2. “Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding.” https://www.c40.org/what-we-do/scaling-up-climate-action/adaptation-water/the-future-we-dont-want/sea-level-rise/. This page from the C40 network provides data on coastal flooding from around the world.
3. Orton, P., Lin, N., Gornitz, V., Colle, B., Booth, J., Feng, K., Buchanan, M., Oppenheimer, M., & Patrick, L. (2019). New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report Chapter 4: Coastal Flooding. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1439(1), 95–114. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14011.
4. Rosenzweig, Bernice, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Lauren McPhillips, Robert Hobbins, Timon McPhearson, Zhongqi Cheng, Heejun Chang, and Yeowon Kim. 2019. “Developing knowledge systems for urban resilience to cloudburst rain events.” In Environmental Science & Policy. Vol. 99, Pp 150-159. https://www-sciencedirect-com.brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S1462901118310876?via%3Dihub

April 9 (T) — Guest speaker, Professor Brett Branco, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Director of the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay will discuss flooding in the city 

April 11 (Th) – Draft presentations and workshopping

***Registration will be open for the conference April 15-May 1, 2024***

PART 5: Shaping the Future: Players and Possibilities 

April 16 (T) – Key players in shaping the future: state actors, civil society, corporations

1. Carlson, Kathleen and Sabrina McCormick. 2015. American adaptation: Social factors affecting new developments to address climate change. In Global Environmental Change, Vol. 35 Pp 360-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.09.015.
2. Latkin, Carl. Lauren Dayton, Haley Bonneau, Ananya Bhaktaram, Jukia Ross, Jessica Pugel, and Megan Weil Latshw. 2023. “Perceived barriers to climate change activism behaviors in the United States among individuals highly concerned about climate change.” In Journal of Prevention, Vol. 44, Pp 389-407. Login with BC Library credentials at Springerlink: https://doi-org.brooklyn.ezproxy.cuny.edu/10.1007/s10935-022-00704-0
3. Ruiz Manuel, I., Blok, K. Quantitative evaluation of large corporate climate action initiatives shows mixed progress in their first half-decade. Nat Commun 14, 3487 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38989-2.
4. Check out a few of the websites from leading activist groups. Here are some samples:
   1. Extinction Rebellion (XR) https://rebellion.global – a direct action climate activism organization.
   2. Citizens Climate Lobby https://citizensclimatelobby.org  – a bipartisan climate lobbying organization.
   3. Sunrise Movement https://www.sunrisemovement.org – a youth climate activist organization promoting the Green New Deal
   4. Climate Action Network International https://climatenetwork.org –  a coalition of 1,900 climate organizations in 130 countries.
   5. 350.org https://350.org/?r=US&c=NA -one of the largest international climate action organizations.
   6. Fridays for Future https://fridaysforfuture.org – an international student climate strike organization founded by Greta Thunberg

April 18 (Th) – Possible futures: decarbonization, degrowth, transitions

1. New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report: Conclusions and Recommendations. (2019). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1439(1), 306–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14032
2. IPCC Explainer: Stopping Climate Change https://eciu.net/analysis/infographics/ipcc-explainer-mitigation-climate-change. An outstanding infographic summarizing the recommendations of the International Panel on Climate Change.
3. “What is degrowth?” https://degrowth.info/degrowth This website summarizes the concept of degrowth and links to numerous resources.

Spring recess

PART 5: Your turn: presentations

May 2 (Th) and May 7 (T) – optional (recommended) practice presentations for groups wanting feedback for conference presentations

CUNY-wide “Planning the Future of New York City” Conference

Conference Specifics

Students are required to attend. Each research team will make a 10-minute presentation on their proposal to solve a problem related to the effects of climate change that are currently faced by city residents. Experts in the field will provide the teams with feedback on their proposal.

In Person at Macaulay Honors College, 35 West 67 Street
May 4, 11:00-1:00 and 2:00-4:00
May 5, 11:00-1:00 and 2:00-4:00

Online
May 7, 5:00-7:00
May 8, 5:00-7:00

May 9 (Th) — Conference reflections; course reflections and conclusion; in class assignment: assessment of OER.

May 14 (T) – Final group presentations and Executive Summaries due

By May 15 (W) – Individual reflective assessments of group projects due