The History of Global Warming
GRST 293
Fall 2026
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENVS 304, COL 324 |
Our planet is now significantly hotter than at the beginning of modern industrialization, and more places on earth are on the brink of becoming uninhabitable due to extreme heat. Droughts, fires, floods, and ever-more extreme temperatures are not only deteriorating vital planetary conditions; they are also breaking down the distinction between human and natural history. With the passing of every critical tipping point, catastrophic changes become irreversible. On an overheated planet, naturally recurring climatic oscillations that cause phenomena such as "El Niño" are also, and increasingly so, large-scale social disasters. As Kohei Saito '09 puts it, we are witnessing the end of progress, putting to rest the Enlightenment belief in history inevitably moving toward higher stages of civilization. With the collective failure to curb the burning of fossil fuels, earth has entered a new period described by Wim Carton and Andreas Malm as "The Long Heat." Drawing on their and the work of other historians and critical theorists, we will explore the past, present, and future history of global warming, from the mass adoptions of first coal and later oil and gas as the "prime movers" of industrial production, to the politically embattled introduction of alternative energy sources, at each turn reflecting on the kinds of ownership, labor, and technology (from mining to fracking) employed to reactivate latent subterranean fossilized energy as a modern combustible commodity. We will ask why there has not been a universal transition to green energy, and what forces and assumptions are driving the proposed geo-engineering solutions to temperature overshoot. In doing so, we will interrogate concepts such as "energy," "growth," and "value" and seek to understand both their material import and their ideological dominance. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA GRST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (College of Letters)(Environmental Studies Minor)(Environmental Studies)(German Studies Minor)(German Studies)(Social, Cultural and Critical Theory Certificate) |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Major readings:
Mike Davis, LATE VICTORIAN HOLOCAUSTS: EL NIÑO FAMINES AND THE MAKING OF THE THIRD WORLD (Verso) ISBN: 9781784786625
Timothy Mitchell, CARBON DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL POWER IN THE AGE OF OIL (Verso) ISBN: 9781804292495
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Plass,Ulrich Times: ..T.... 07:10PM-10:00PM; Location: FISK412; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 3 | | |
| | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 4 | FR: X |
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