Curriculum: Core Course Descriptions

Dynamics of Climate Variability and Change
This is the comprehensive climate science course in the program. Students learn how the climate system works, primarily on large scales of time and space. It is these large-scale features and processes that dominate variability of the regional and local climate immediately relevant to social and individual decision making. Regional climate is the subject of the second semester of the physical climate sequence (see the description of Regional Dynamics, Climate, and Climate Impacts, taught in the spring semester). View Syllabus

Regional Dynamics, Climate, and Climate Impacts
The dynamics of environment and society interact with climate and can be modified through use of modern climate information. To arrive at the best use of climate information, there is a need to see climate in a balanced way, amongst the myriad of factors at play. Equally, there is a need to appreciate the range of climate information available and to grasp its underlying basis and the reasons for varying levels of certainty. Many decisions in society are at more local scales, and regional climate information considered at appropriate scales and in appropriate forms (e.g., transformed into vegetation stress) is key. Building a sufficient understanding of the science behind the information, and providing examples of how the information can and is being used, mean this course seeks to contribute toward the holistic understanding needed for wise use of climate information.

Quantitative Models of Climate–Sensitive Natural and Human Systems
Quantitative models are used routinely to evaluate impacts of climate variability and climate change. In their subsequent careers, students will be called upon to interpret and evaluate the results of both statistical and dynamical models. This course is intended to equip students with an understanding of how climate-societal and intra-societal relationships can be evaluated and quantified using relevant data sets, statistical tools, and decision models. In addition to experimenting with statistical techniques, students have an opportunity to do some simple decision model experiments and evaluate the results. View Syllabus

Integrative Seminar: Managing Climate Variability and Adapting to Climate Change
This spring semester course exposes students to the ideas and methods now being used to analyze how problems, values, and policies relevant to socioeconomic development are shaped in today’s complex world of competing interests and incomplete scientific understanding. Students explore the dynamics of a coupled system: the socioeconomic and climate subsystems.

Key themes are the dynamics of global changes, their impact on societies, and issues of sustainability; public policymaking and stakeholder politics; and policymaking to manage climate variability and climate change. In each of the themes, we investigate mainstream approaches as well as explore their critiques from social equity and sustainability perspectives. Distinguished practitioners from the UN and elsewhere are invited to present, in order to complement the theoretical and case literature of the course. View Syllabus

Professional Development and Internship Preparation
Students in the program participate in this seminar to help prepare them for internship selection and professional development. Résumé writing, job searches, interview technique, and career options in the field of climate and society are addressed.

Summer Internship or Summer Research Project
In the summer semester, students choose either to write on a thesis research project or else to complete a research or policy internship with the IRI or another institution in the New York metropolitan area.

Summer Seminar
All students are enrolled in the Summer Seminar, where they discuss methodology and present their work on the thesis or at the internship. For students pursuing an internship, written work for the Summer Seminar requires in-depth treatment of case studies
or detailed field reports integrating theory with practice. The Summer Seminar is supervised by a faculty adviser from the program.