• Home
• Study
• Study Information
• Modules
• Module Information

Climate Change: Science and Society

Module description

In this module, you will develop your skills in the analysis of global climate change, using perspectives from physical and human geography, economics and politics. You will get a strong grounding in climate and society relations, economic principles, ethical dimensions and the governance and politics of climate change. You will be challenged to think about the topic’s interlinked human and physical geographic dimensions through the assessment; and particularly to grapple with the idea of societal transformation to climate change.

The assessment is designed to stimulate your interest in the module content beyond the taught material. It is  designed to promote peer-to-peer and independent learning.

The assessment is based around a week-long challenge to address climate change mitigation or adaptation. You will choose a challenge, and carry it out over a week . The challenge could be related to food, travel, waste or energy use, for example. The assessment is then an essay, based on your personal experience of carrying out the challenge, placing it in the wider context of a societal transformation in responding to climate change. Essays will explore action and barriers to inaction, and interdisciplinary theories of the embodied experience of living with climate mitigation and adaptation, drawing on the literature on public engagement with climate change and environmental risk. You will work independently to complete your challenge, supported through peer feedback in the workshops and scheduled drop-in sessions.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module will:

• analyse human-environment relations through examining how weather, hazards and long term environmental change affect society, through issues related to ongoing faculty research such as flooding, heatwaves, migration, and risk communication
• analyse the causes and consequences of global scale changes in environment
• analyse the interaction of consumption with greenhouse gas emissions intensity, and options to dematerialise the economy
• explore alternative perspectives, theories and methods for investigating climate change as a social phenomenon and environmental reality, as embedded in current research on climate change risks and on emissions reduction behaviour.

Through the module you will develop the following graduate attributes:

• interpersonal skills through digital discussion boards
• confidence in assessing the robustness of scientific evidence
• problem solving through moral reasoning and analysis of justice criteria; analysis of social strategies, resolving moral dilemmas, and policy formulation
• articulating scientific concepts and evidence with confidence through enquiry-led research on your challenge topic; including providing peer feedback on other students’ challenges during class time

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Describe how the main scientific and social concepts of climate change have developed
• 2. Outline the concepts and principles of policy analysis applied to climate change issues at various scales, from energy choices to global environmental agreements
• 3. Illustrate the interdisciplinary nature of climate change research, policy and practice

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Adopt a cross-disciplinary perspective for the development of knowledge and understanding
• 5. Illustrate and discuss the contested and provisional nature of knowledge and understanding
• 6. Analyse critically data on the causes, impacts and consequences of climate change as an example of human-environment relations
• 7. Analyse critically data on the social dimensions of climate change; including through geopolitical relations, economic dimensions, and hazards and vulnerability approaches

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 8. Communicate ideas, principles and theories effectively and fluently; through written means
• 9. Develop a sustained and reasoned argument and identify, acquire, evaluate and synthesise data from a range of sources
• 10. Undertake independent/self-directed study/learning (including time management)

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content varies from year to year (partly so it can response to the current geopolitical environment; e.g. the COPs, the School Strikes), it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Human causes and impacts of climate change
• Decarbonising the economy and reducing climate change
• Land use change and its links to climate change
• Adapting to changing weather and climate risks
• Social approaches to hazards and vulnerability to climate change
• Climate policy and governance
• Public engagement with climate change
• Ethics of climate change

The challenge essay will consider pertinent contemporary questions regarding the interdisciplinary and contested nature of climate change science, society and policy. 

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Leichenko, R. and O’Brien, K. (2019) Climate and Society: Transforming the Future, Wiley.
• Dryzek, J., Norgaard, R. and Schlossberg, D. (eds.) (2011) Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford University Press.
• Hulme, M. (2009) Why we Disagree about Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=9308
  

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

Two important journal resources are:

• Nature Climate Change http://www.nature.com/nclimate/index.html
• Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresJournal/wisId-WCC.html

Key words search

Climate change, climate impacts, vulnerability, hazards, geopolitics, energy