Foundations of Earth system history, including the geologic record of life and global change, biodiversity, evolution, ecological changes, extinction, global biogeochemical cycles, sea-level, and climate change, with quantitative analysis of environmental records and measurement of geologic time.
Athena Title
Earth Hist Life Global Change
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in GEOL 1122H, GEOL 1260, GEOL 2360H
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
Through this course students will develop their critical and analytical thinking by analyzing rock and fossil records to understand past and present environmental changes.
Students will recognize global change and geological history, both ongoing and shaped by both natural processes and human activities.
Students will understand the interconnection of geology, biology and evolution and the geological time scale, illustrating how Earth's system evolve together.
Students will strengthen their communication skills through debates, presentations and discussions, articulating scietific concepts effectively.
Students will gain social awareness and responsibility by evaluating how environmental shifts impact ecosystems, civilizations and sustainability
Students will analyze geological and environmental problems throughout history, develop evidence-based solutions, and critically evaluate conclusions drawn from quantitative data
Students will apply scientific reasoning to assess climate history, resource management, and future environmental challenges, fostering informed decision - making for global stewardship.
Topical Outline
This course on Earth’s History of Global Change examines interactions between human activity and the environment. Chronologically, this proceeds from the early Holocene with the beginnings of agriculture and landscape modification to modern introduction of DDT, CFCs, radionuclides, lead, and anthropogenic carbon dioxide into the environment at regional to global scales. The course considers both the natural and human systems affected and the cultural, economic, and political forces that influence recognition, acceptance, and remediation of environmental problems.
Geological materials
The age of the Earth and its implications for human resource consumption
Biological evolution and the emergence of humans
Long-term change of the global environment as a context in which to examine human-induced change
Human modification of the landscape throughout the Holocene
Modern environmental problems (DDT, CFCs, water and air pollution, radionuclides, lead) and the pathways to their (partial) resolution
Anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane as causes of global climate change: scientific and political contexts
Natural ecology and human ecological-economical interactions
Human behavioral changes that would lessen human environmental impacts
Views of the human relationship to nature and the environment in various cultures
Aldo Leopold’s The Land Ethic, an argument for ethical treatment of land parallel to that regarding people and animals
