FOURTEEN YEARS OF TEACHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE AT COMMUNITY COLLEGE: MEETING DISCONNECTORS, DENIERS, AND DESPARATES ON PROGRESSIVE GROUND FOR SUSTAINABLE FUTURES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Teaching about climate change since 2007 has become a most contentious experience in community college geoscience courses at Century College, in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Divisions exist even amongst faculty about the evidence and links to human actvity. Are we now in a crucible monent with the need to act decisively to avoid Malthusian outcomes? Or will observers continue to debate a human connection and severity of outcomes? The authors of this presentation share over 20 years of teaching experience about climate change, evidence of links to anthropogenic influences, and the energy prescriptions most often made for abatement. Emphasis is given to what we know and how we know what we know as embedded in multiple strategies for student investigation and learning. Minnesota energy policies help our teaching strategies gain traction for the range of viewpoints and are offered as a pathway to sustainable development in the 21st Century and as guidance to community college geoscience faculty.