SCWK 8840 Climate Change and Environmental Justice: Implications for Social Work

Realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals necessitates understanding the interface of developmental aspirations and environmental degradation and their impacts on the most fragile and vulnerable communities of the world. This course is designed as a seminar to give students an in-depth understanding of environment and climate change--its interface with communities and its impact on vulnerable populations in North America and the Global South (particularly South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa). Topics discussed in this course will explore current literature and evidence on the interactions between ecological and social systems. Students will learn about the debates and issues foregrounding the need to view ecology and human society as a whole in order to understand and prepare for these changes. The course emphasizes evidence-based approaches for arriving at program strategies and policy recommendations to improve environment and climate response of the most vulnerable. This course will cover three broad aspects: (1) Environmental and climate variability and development. Concepts on vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience. Social-Ecological-Systems Framework for understanding environment and climate impacts on communities; (2) Interventions, policies and programs in this realm in North America as well as South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa; (3) New ways of involving communities to understand and design strategies to environment and climate risk.