Since the 1850s, and more strongly beginning in the 1970s, researchers have been warning about the detrimental impacts of human-exacerbated global warming. Predictions of warmer air and ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and more intense and frequent storms, as well as increasing varieties of illnesses, mass extinctions and shifting human populations are now being realized. But one aspect of human-influenced climate change was not recognized until the late 1990s. It’s the unexpected and surprising impact of global warming on geohazards.

Geohazards are natural geological and environmental processes capable of causing widespread damage or risk, especially when people encounter them. The consequences of geohazards influenced by climate change were only identified and forecasted in the last 25 years. Yet, those predictions are already coming to fruition. Did you know that volcanic and earthquake activity, along with landsliding and methane releases, are increasing due to global warming? The future is now!

In this six-week course, participants will be exposed to current thinking and predictions about human-aggravated global warming. Focus will then be given to five classes of geohazards: tectonic, hydrologic, erosional, gaseous, and mass-wasting. The ways in which the number and severity of these geohazards are being altered by global warming will also be considered.

Each class will address a specific topic through lecture, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on activities, demonstrations, and discussions.

Students are expected to have access to a computer and email.