From: Tynes, Sheryl On Behalf Of Academic Affairs
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 8:37 AM
To: Trinity Students
Cc: Hough, David H.; MacAlpine, Gordon
Subject: Great new science offering next fall--Energy and the Environment

Physics 1302 - Frontiers of Physics: Energy and The Environment (Fall, 2009)

Instructor: Gordon MacAlpine

Time and location: 11:30 MWF in 126 Chapman

Text: Energy, Environment and Climate by Richard Wolfson

Maximum Enrollment: 60

This will be a common-curriculum course, intended mainly for non-science majors

and open to all students with any background or class level.

The primary purpose is to inform students about past, current, or future United States

or world practices and consequences in terms of energy production and consumption. 

Related environmental, societal, and humanitarian issues will also be addressed.  Energy is

the major driver of life styles, populations, wars, economics, the environment, and climate change. 

As President Obama stated in an address to Congress, "It begins with energy."

This course will examine details of energy resources and how much we have left.  Topics will include

fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas, and coal, as well as nuclear energy, solar radiation, wind, water,

and biomass.  Because of energy issues, there is a strong probability that life as we know it will undergo

significant alterations during coming decades, and we will discuss ways to mitigate global warming.