Lower-Division

Exploration of cinema's role in defining societal awareness of Earth sciences (underlying concepts and factual basis) for disaster and adventure movies and in more subtle presentations. Topics include evolution of life, surface environment and the planet's deep interior, natural hazards, global warming, and meteorite impacts. (Formerly course 80D, Earth Sciences and the Cinema.)

Learn scientific concepts required to be an informed environmentalist. Topics include urban smog; water resources and pollution; waste treatment; acid rain; global climate change; fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy; overpopulation; and how an individual can minimize his or her environmental impact.

Over the past 4.5 billion years, planet Earth has evolved in exciting ways. Environments, climates, and life forms have come and gone in fascinating combinations. Course examines changing physical, biological, and climatological conditions through geologic time, beginning with the evolution of the Earth through changes leading to the current state of the planet, and considers prospects for Earth's future.