New Climate Course Added

By Broadside Asst. News Editor Becca Fulton

A new course, titled CLIM 101: Weather, Climate and Global Society, will be taught at George Mason University starting the fall of 2009. This course, taught by Jagadish Shukla, who, according to an e-mail sent to Broadside from Tara Laskowski, is an internationally known climatologist and founder of the graduate Climate Dynamics Program at Mason.

The course is described as providing “a survey of the scientific and societal issues associated with weather and climate variability and change. Students are not required to have a science background in order to take the course.”

Shukla, who is also known for being an author and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the same panel that holds the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, describes his goals for the course to be creating environmentally well-informed students.

"I hope to give students an understanding of the basic science behind climate and climate changes," said Shukla in the same e-mail to Broadside.

"The goal is for these students to know enough that they can be good, informed citizens and take part meaningfully in the public debate on global warming."

For more information, visit the online course information.