Climate Politics

This course examines the history and politics of anthropogenic climate change—the warming of the planet driven by human activity. We take a historically grounded approach to political institutions, tracing how European industrialization emerged amid the climatic shift from the medieval warm period to the little ice age (1300-1850), followed by the post-1945 great acceleration in carbon emissions and energy use. We analyze how commitments to fossil fuels became embedded in laws, markets, and institutions, shaping both obstacles to and strategies for climate action. Frameworks such as policy drift, path dependence, and institutional conversion guide our case studies, including the US Clean Air Act, central bank climate finance, and the Montreal Protocol. Contemporary issues—renewable energy transitions, geo-engineering, climate litigation, and Indigenous-led justice movements—round out the course. Class sessions combine discussion, mini-lectures, film clips, and presentations.