Course goals:

The topics of energy and the environment are not just academic - they are of real significance to all of us. To be good, informed citizens, we must be able to make rational decisions about energy usage, efficiency and conservation, pollution, and the related required public and private commitments. There are many goals in this course - to help you learn to apply quantitative reasoning and problem solving skills to complex and often emotional issues, to understand the underlying physical principles involved, to answer questions about energy conservation in your own lives (appliance choices, automobiles, insulation, and so on), and to allow you to make informed decisions about policies, regulations, and legislation regarding energy and the environment that you will surely encounter in your lifetime. I also want you to appreciate the nature of scientific argument, to increase your skills and confidence in quantitative estimation and physical "sense-making", and above all, to enjoy the course! Indeed, I hope this course will be flexible enough that you can have some say in the matter of course goals.

Tentative syllabus (definitely subject to change!)

We will basically be following the text throughout the semester. I anticipate somewhere between 3 and 5 lectures per chapter. Try to keep up with the reading, it's very important! We will have several invited speakers throughout the semester, to give us some alternative, and occasionally "real-world" perspectives on issues related to the course content.

The topics we will cover, in order, are