Our Grandchildren’s Planet: Global Warming & the Case for Planetary Restoration (4 sessions)

This course will share basic information about the climate system, the nature & consequences of global warming, and restorative strategies being proposed. Readings will be taken from a range of sources including UN reports, articles & commentary by scientists, and groups advocating for climate restoration. Please note: The instructor is not an expert on climate. He views this course as an opportunity to join with fellow citizens to learn about global warming and its implications and to discuss possible solutions to the climate crisis.

• July 20: Why the Earth’s energy system is out of balance and what the implications are.
• July 27: Temperature thresholds, called “tipping points”, where components of Earth’s climate system are at risk of transitioning irreversibly to a hotter world
• August 3: Risks to human societies from crossing “tipping point” thresholds, including “known unknows” and “unknown unknowns”
• August 10: Strategies to manage global warming risks in order to keep our planet in a temperature range where human societies and the ecosystems and species we depend on as a global civilization can continue to thrive.

Instructor: Stephen Penningroth

Stephen Penningroth has a B.A. in German Literature from Brown and a Ph.D. in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University. After a 20-year academic career as Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Senior Lecturer in Toxicology at the Center for the Environment at Cornell University, he founded the nonprofit Community Science Institute in Ithaca in 2000 and served as Executive Director until his retirement in 2022. He is the author of an introductory textbook, “Essentials of Toxic Chemical Risk: Science and Society” (CRC Press, 2010) and over a dozen articles on cell motility, water quality and risk management.