ERG Summer Courses Available

For the first time, the Energy and Resources Group is offering four of its most popular courses during Summer Sessions, and registration is now open to the public and UC Berkeley students. Register today!

• Energy and Society – (4 units) 06/20-08/12/16, MW 2-5P & Tu 2-330P (discussion section): This course offers an overview of the global energy system, spanning basic principles like energy sources, conversions, thermodynamics of combustion, differences in energy use globally, forecasting, economics, environmental impacts, and policy. The course also offers a “deep dive” into lower-carbon energy technologies, including end-use efficiency, renewable sources (wind, solar, hydro, biomass, etc.), nuclear energy, hydrogen, batteries and electric vehicles, and carbon capture and sequestration. Analysis of current and future energy choices is stressed, as well as energy’s role in determining both local environmental conditions and global climate.
• Ecology and Society – (3 units) 06/20-08/12/16, MWF 12-2P: This course introduces students to the many ways in which our lives are intertwined with the ecosystems around us. Topics will include ecological limits to growth, climate change and other threats to biodiversity, the value of ecosystem goods and services, the ecology of disease, ecotoxicology, the evolution of cooperation in ecosystems, industrial ecology, and the epistemology of ecology.
• Ecological Economics – (3 units) 06/20-08/12/16, TuTh 2-5P: The goal of this class is to help students understand 1) the development and coevolution of modern economies and economic theory; 2) the treatment of energy, ecology, and the economy in ecological economics; 3) the broad array of economic issues around climate change. Topics include classical political economy, energy histories, neoclassical and contending approaches to the environment, economies as complex adaptive systems, and climate change. The course consists of lectures, group discussions and climate negotiating exercises.
• California Water – (3 units) 07/05-08/12/16, TuWTh 9:30-12: Northern California has a relative abundance of water while the most productive agriculture and largest cities are located in the south. For six decades, California has debated how to best move water from North to South while balancing water reliability for users with protecting the environment, economy, and culture of the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta. This course covers the history of California water development and environmental transformation and focuses on the science, economics, and politics underlying current water debates, especially around the future of the Delta.