USS-SWC 2013 – Climate studies

The 13th Vienna Summer University was held on July 1–12, 2013.

Climate is both a familiar dimension of human experience and a product of complex physical, chemical and biological processes. Recent concerns over anthropogenic global warming have sparked renewed attention to climate from a variety of perspectives: natural scientists are attempting to understand the record of past climate changes and the dynamics of the climate system; social scientists are investigating the human impacts of climate change, as well as opportunities for mitigation and adaptation; and scholars in the humanities are exploring historical perspectives on climate, the epistemology of climate science, the politics of the global warming debate, and ethical dimensions of climate change.
The course engaged with historical, philosophical, political and sociological dimensions of climate and climate change. Historical perspectives received particular attention, as the epistemology of climate science.