Human wellbeing depends upon energy, food, and physical security. The greatest contributions of earth system science to date have mostly documented and quantified the (many) ways that our energy and food systems are degrading the environment. Increasingly, earth system scientists are also working to evaluate the consequences of environmental changes for human wellbeing, but an exciting research frontier exists where such scientists are applying interdisciplinary methods to identify and prioritize more sustainable solutions. The course will be structured around 8 different sustainability challenges. For each, we will explore the state of interdisciplinary scientific efforts to characterize and quantify problems and key barriers (Tuesdays) as well as efforts to identify, evaluate, and deploy solutions (Thursdays) - always including cross-cutting considerations of social, political, and economic factors, interactions among the challenges, and critical-but-unresolved research questions. Recommended prerequisite: EARTHSYS EARTHSYS 10.
4 units · Letter (ABCD/NP)
Human wellbeing depends upon energy, food, and physical security. The greatest contributions of earth system science to date have mostly documented and quantified the (many) ways that our energy and food systems are degrading the environment. Increasingly, earth system scientists are also working to evaluate the consequences of environmental changes for human wellbeing, but an exciting research frontier exists where such scientists are applying interdisciplinary methods to identify and prioritize more sustainable solutions. The course will be structured around 8 different sustainability challenges. For each, we will explore the state of interdisciplinary scientific efforts to characterize and quantify problems and key barriers (Tuesdays) as well as efforts to identify, evaluate, and deploy solutions (Thursdays) - always including cross-cutting considerations of social, political, and economic factors, interactions among the challenges, and critical-but-unresolved research questions. Recommended prerequisite: EARTHSYS 10.
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.