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SPRING 2008 Environmental Health Sciences Division The Health Implications of Climate Change and Society's Response Fridays 2-4pm - 332 Giannini PH 298.38 - CC#76642 (2 units P/NP) "Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to public health, and changes the way we must look at protecting vulnerable populations." - WHO, 2007. How and why is the global climate changing? What are the health implications of these changes and society's responses to them? What roles do health scientists have in addressing the risks created by climate change? This course will begin by providing a basic foundation in the physical and societal basis of climate change, including atmospheric structure and feedbacks, carbon cycling, and the sources and trends of human and natural greenhouse pollutant emissions. Forecasts of future climate, and their uncertainties, will be discussed, emphasizing parameters of potential relevance to human health. We will explore epidemiologic, risk assessment, and statistical methods appropriate for understanding the impact of climate on health in different populations, including reviews of current burden of disease estimates of avoidable and attributable risk. The public health implications, positive and negative, of society's efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change will be elaborated, including discussions of ethical, political and economic aspects. Each student's performance will be evaluated based on a term paper and participation in student-led sessions on selected aspects of the subject matter. The material will be presented with minimal expectation of a background in physical science, although some additional reading may be needed for students with no university science courses. Prerequisite: PH150A, PH250A/B or other introductory course in epidemiology. Grading will be pass/not pass, although individual requests for a grading option will be considered. Instructors: Justin Remais, Research Scientist, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health Kirk R. Smith, Professor of Global Environmental Health Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health For more information, contact Justin Remais <mailto:jvr@berkeley.edu><jvr@berkeley.edu> or Kirk R. Smith <mailto:krksmith@berkeley.edu><krksmith@berkeley.edu> in the Environmental Health Sciences Division.

Drawing on the tools of economics and finance, we study the business and public policy issues that these changes have raised in energy markets. Topics include the development and effect of organized spot, futures, and derivative markets in energy; the political economy of deregulation; climate change, environmental impacts and policies related to energy production and use; privatization of publicly owned energy assets; market power and antitrust; and the transportation and storage of energy commodities. We examine the economic determinants of industry structure and evolution of competition among firms in these industries; investigate successful and unsuccessful strategies for entering new markets and competing in existing markets; and analyze the rationale for and effects of public policies in energy markets.

Study of air pollutants in indoor environments such as private residences, offices, schools, and commercial and public buildings. Overview of the factors that govern indoor pollutant concentrations. Building ventilation principles and practice. Detailed exploration of characteristics and control of several pollutant classes, such as radon and its decay products, volatile organic compounds, and combustion byproducts. Elements of a control strategy

This introductory course is designed to explore fundamental legal and policy issues in environmental law. By focusing on constitutional issues and a limited number of federal statutes--principally the the Administrative Procedure Act, the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; CERCLA (the Superfund law),; the National Environmental Policy Act; and the Endangered Species Act--the course exposes students to the principal approaches to environmental law (litigation, command and control regulation, market incentives, and providing information), as well as to the challenges of setting environmental policy goals and choosing policy targets. The course is designed both for students who intend to pursue environmental studies further and for those who simply want to gain a basic understanding of this key area of public policy.

An overview of the processes that control water supply to natural ecosystems and human civilization. Hydrologic cycle, floods, droughts, groundwater. Patterns of water use, threats to water quality, effects of global climate change on future water supplies. Water issues facing California.

The geology, physics, chemistry, and biology of the world oceans. The application of oceanographic sciences to human problems will be explored through special topics such as energy from the sea, marine pollution, food from the sea, and climate change.

Collecting, analyzing, and presenting stratigraphic data; dating and correlating sedimentary rocks; recognizing ancient environments and reconstructing Earth history; seismic and sequence stratigraphy; event stratigraphy and neocatastrophism; applications of stratigraphy to climate change, petroleum geology, and archaeology

The natural environment and technology are inextricably linked. The natural environment provides both the initial inputs as well as the ultimate disposal locations for the technologies that drive today's economy. As a result of the close relationship between the environment and human technology, technology has at times been cast as both the ultimate villain and the ultimate hero in environmental policy circles. This class introduces students to many features of the relationship between technology and the natural environment over time. It explores past (for the most part) environmental policy issues, such as acid rain and ozone depletion, through the lens of specific technologies that were important to both policy and business interests. It introduces some of the environmental strategies that are being used by both policy-makers and business to affect technology development and adoption today (e.g., Energy Star, TQEM). And it delves into the climate change debate, an ongoing issue on the environmental policy agenda in which harnessing the forces of technological innovation will be crucial to environmental progress.

This seminar will focus on one or several related issues in society that have a significant bearing on chemistry. Particular topics will differ from course section to course section and from year to year. Representative examples: atmospheric ozone, nuclear waste, solar energy, water, agrichemicals. Students will search information sources, invite expert specialists to speak, prepare oral and written reports.

The scope of modern environmental engineering requires a fundamental knowledge of microbial processes with specific application to water, wastewater and the environmental fate of pollutants. This course will cover basic microbial physiology, biochemistry, metabolism, growth energetics and kinetics, ecology, pathogenicity, and genetics for application to both engineered and natural environmental systems