Environmental studies: Climate Change
TED Studies, created in collaboration with Wiley, are curated video collections — supplemented by rich educational materials — for students, educators and self-guided learners. In Climate Change, speakers give talks that boldly illuminate the nature and scale of current-day climate science, policy and ethics. They explore the economics and psychology of individual and collective action — or inaction — on climate change in order to assess the costs of our choices and opportunities for change. Relevant areas of interest, study and coursework include: ecology, atmospheric science, oceanography, glaciology, energy development, environmental policy, science in the media, political science, ethics, sociology, behavioral psychology and cultural studies.
Learning outcomes
TED's Climate Change will enable learners to:
- Understand that climate is not only a scientific issue, but also one of politics/policy and values/ethics
- Understand scientific uncertainty around climate change and the ways in which it has been used to fuel the climate controversy
- Recognize that there is a distribution of relevant expert views on climate change depending on which aspect of climate change is under consideration
- Recognize that climate policies at the international, national and local scales are entrenched in issues of economics, politics and justice
- Understand that climate policies at all scales need to account for differences in culture, history, geography, politics and economics.
Relevant talks
Gordon Brown
Global ethic vs. national interest
James Balog
Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss
James Hansen
Why I must speak out about climate change
Johan Rockström
Let the environment guide our development
Lee Hotz
Inside an Antarctic time machine
Naomi Klein
Addicted to risk
Vicki Arroyo
Let's prepare for our new climate
About the educators
Maxwell Boykoff is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Science and Technology Policy at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where his research interests include climate adaptation, cultural politics and environmental governance.
Kanmani Venkateswaran is a graduate student in Environmental Studies at CU-Boulder, where she’s working with the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Center to examine anticipatory climate management in Zambia for her thesis research.
About TED Studies
TED Studies created in partnership with 
Each TED Study offers a curated and sequenced set of TED Talks, along with specially commissioned materials for teaching and self-guided learning. Created by world class experts, they cover topics ranging from "Understanding Happiness" to "Covering World News" to "Ecofying Cities." An abbreviated version of TED Studies is offered here; the full curricula — including special modules on each talk with questions, assignments, key terms and recommended reading — are available for licensing to academic institutions, ministries of education, and media companies worldwide.
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