3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The world needs to change from a fossil fuel energy infrastructure to one based on renewable energy to decrease CO2 emissions and minimize the impacts of climate change. This switch will require massive changes to our existing infrastructure as well as how we consume energy in our daily lives. Understanding and quantifying energy use is important for making effective changes in our daily energy use. In this course we will quantify energy use, study how much energy and water we use in our daily lives, and determine how much CO2 gets emitted from our homes and through our activities, as well as by components of our infrastructure (electric power industries, food systems, building materials such as concrete and steel, and transportation). We will calculate energy consumed by electric vehicles versus cars with internal combustion engines and compare that energy to that used by other forms of transportation. We will evaluate how our homes and buildings, and food and transportation infrastructure can be modified to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. Greenhouse gases that cause climate change include more than just carbon from fossil fuels. We will therefore also discuss sources of other greenhouse gases and methods to mitigate and reduce their emissions. Other topics include modeling rates of renewable energy growth, energy storage, climate science, and environmental and climate justice. This course is most appropriate for Engineering students, but it can be taken by any student interested in the topic. Prerequisites are Math and Chem.