Environmental Sciences

This course is designed to provide a general context for understanding Earth sciences and biology while taking into account the fields of the humanities and social sciences. The Earth of today is not disconnected from its past. To understand the impacts of environmental and climate changes on planet Earth, a diachronic approach (long-term, change over time) and a synchronic approach (spatial variations) are necessary.

Consequently, this course presents the history of the Earth through geological time. It discusses the Earth’s structure, composition, and processes. Issues, concerns, and problems related to natural hazards are also included. The course will also provide students with the foundational knowledge necessary to understand the societal challenges surrounding climate and environmental issues. The impact of this course unit is essential for the well-being of tomorrow’s society, as it helps train young citizens and future professionals to analyze, critique, and reflect on past, present, and future environmental and climate issues, and to participate in decision-making within societal debates addressing environmental risks. This course unit was therefore designed by faculty members from various scientific disciplines (Earth and Water Sciences, Ecology, Philosophy, Political Science), demonstrating that approaches ranging from the fundamental to the operational are necessary.

Hourly volumes:

CM: 36 hours

The objectives of this teaching unit are to provide a solid scientific framework for the concepts commonly known as “global warming.”

Behind this societal challenge of global change lies a multitude of scientific questions spanning just as many disciplines, yet these disciplines struggle to break down their silos. The primary objective of this course unit—which centers on the “terrestrial environment”—is to break down disciplinary barriers and demonstrate that climate and environmental issues must be studied using a variety of concepts and tools. The goal is to learn the language of interdisciplinarity necessary for understanding the complex system that is Earth. Students will take courses taught by geologists to learn how to characterize the physical Earth, by paleontologists to understand how biological diversity has varied over time, paleoclimatologists and biogeochemists to teach methods for reconstructing changes in the carbon cycle and past and future climates, ecologists and hydrologists to address the impact of global changes, philosophers to examine the relationship between humans and nature, and political scientists to present the various forms of conflict and resource mobilization in the process of shaping environmental policies.

The educational objective is to help students understand the interactions between geophysical and social processes, and to encourage them to critically examine, analyze, and understand the strategies employed by various actors, the interests at stake, and the expertise drawn upon within institutional frameworks to define and impose a particular interpretation of environmental issues.

No

Continuous Assessment (CA): 100%

1) Scientific Background (10 CM)

- Introduction to the EU and its interdisciplinary nature. Overview of the course objectives and the integrated teaching method (1CM)

- Introduction to the Earth System, Physical Earth, Earth's Evolution (2CM)

- Paleobiogeosphere/geological crises, habitat fragmentation... (2 CM)

- Radiative balance, passive measurements - Satellite instruments (1 CM)

- The Carbon Cycle: “Everyone’s Talking About It”—COP, IPCC, IPBES—Short-term biogeochemical carbon cycles—Long-term carbon cycle (2 CM)

- Water Cycle (1CM)

- Overview of climate change: long-term versus current and future trends (1CM)

Conferences (2CM)

• Past geological events (e.g., volcanism, rocks, the Deccan Traps)
• Extinction Crisis – Paleobiodiversity

2) Methods (3 CM)

- Satellite tools with various applications (living systems/physical Earth +- natural hazards), radiation balance, passive measurements

- How to reconstruct the past (paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, paleoenvironment, paleoecology, etc.): 1) climate and environmental records (ice, speleothems, etc.) 2) Tools for reconstructing the past (carbon and oxygen isotopes, pollen, charcoal, etc.) 

- How to predict the future: climate models (climatologists, etc.)

3) Causes of Natural Climate Variability—The Role of the Oceans—Orbital Parameter Cycles (2 CM)

4) Impacts and Proposed Solutions (4 CM)

- the effects of climate change on biodiversity (1 CM)

- the effects of climate change, land use, and anthropogenic vegetation cover on water resources (e.g., SNO AMMA CATCH studies) (1 CM)

- global changes in marine ecosystems (1 CM)

- ecosystem protection/restoration/resilience (dams, etc.) (1 CM)

5) Climate and Society Debate (3 CM)

-Analysis of Environmental Policies: Institutions, Interests, and Expertise (1 credit)

-Anthropology of Nature (1 credit)

-Scientific documentary: Climate-Society Debates (1 CM)

Note: The lectures will be scheduled at the end of each thematic block.