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Introduction to Sustainability

This course introduces the academic approach of Sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. The course focuses on key knowledge areas of sustainability theory and practice, including population, ecosystems, global change, energy, agriculture, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history. This subject is of vital importance, seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet. As sustainability is a cross-disciplinary field of study, this foundation requires intellectual breadth: as I describe it in the class text, understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management).

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Rating 4.7★ based on 225 ratings
Length 9 weeks
Effort 8-10 hours/week
Starts Jul 10 (42 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
Instructor Dr. Jonathan Tomkin
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Engineering Social Sciences Science
Tags Physical Science And Engineering Environmental Science And Sustainability

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What people are saying

enjoyed this course

Overall, I really enjoyed this course.

enjoyed this course very much and learned a lot from it.

But it got me so engaged and interested that I finished it in 4 days.A Great thank you, Mr. Jonathan Tomkin As someone who, upon starting, did not know anything about this topic, I thoroughly enjoyed this course.

I really enjoyed this course.

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so much

I learned so much and the course was the right place to start to learn about environmental policy and sustainability.

This course was a great intro to many different aspects of sustainability and I learned so much.

I learned so much about sustainability and feel that I now have the tools to be critical about media news pieces about the environment.

Thank you so much to Dr Tomkin and Illinois University for such a great course!

I learned so much.

Learnt so much and its helped me understand what i as an individual can do as well to live a more sustainable life as well as ease my worry about us as humanity being doomed.I found the way the questions were asked got me confused at times and that is where i struggled my only critic.I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn this course and being allowed to extend my course deadlines a bit further due to work commitments and still be able to pass I am really happy.Thank you.I will most certainly be looking for more courses to start soon and continue to follow my passion.The videos were great and so informative.

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jonathan tomkin

Thankful to Dr.Jonathan Tomkins for the time and effort taken to put this together.

It provided a very interesting introduction to various diverse components of sustainability, and was taught - via the lectures by Dr Jonathan Tomkin - in a highly approachable and enjoyable way.

Thank you so much Dr. Jonathan Tomkin.

I would like to thank professor Jonathan Tomkin for teaching this wonderful course.

I can´t thank enough professor Jonathan Tomkin and team for the tremendous effort.

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really enjoyed

I really enjoyed the course, it gives a good foundation about the huge topic which is sustainability.

I really enjoyed it all.

It was very well done and I really enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed the course, great content and instructor.

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highly recommended

Highly recommended.

Highly recommended!

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in sustainability, or even just to debate issues like climate change and the impact of world population with buddies in a bar.

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well explained

Complex subjects such as Malthusian thinking, Tragedy of the Commons, Milankovitch cycles, climate vs. weather, greenhouse gases, and many others were very well explained by Prof. Tomkin.

Amazing how things are well explained and detailed!

Very interesting course and well explained and organized.

Very complex concepts well explained by Dr Tomkin.

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lot from

I was a bit reluctant to participate in the discussion forums at first (as this was my first MOOC), but once I did I learned a lot from it.

Learned a lot from it.

I learnt a lot from him.

I have learnt a lot from it.

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well structured

Es un extraordinario curso, me gustaron mucho las lecturas bastante entendibles y los videos muy amenos para el aprendizaje, vale mucho la pena tomarlo good Ótimo curso Creo que es un herramienta sumamente valiosa para cualquier individuo Excelent course, very well structured, very well conducted by the teatcher.

A very comprehensive introduction, well structured and narrated.

Very good It was a great course that's well structured.

Awsome, interesting, well structured.

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Careers

An overview of related careers and their average salaries in the US. Bars indicate income percentile.

Document Change Control $53k

Change Control Specialist 1 $71k

Change Control $82k

Program Analyst, Ozone Depletion and Global Climate Change $82k

Engineering Change Coordinator 1 2 3 $85k

Project Manager, Global Climate Change Initiative $97k

IT Specialist - IT Change Management $100k

IT Change Management Analyst $100k

Change Management Coordinator 1 $103k

Change Specialist 2 $112k

Change Management / Training $119k

Change Configuration Management $120k

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Rating 4.7★ based on 225 ratings
Length 9 weeks
Effort 8-10 hours/week
Starts Jul 10 (42 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign via Coursera
Instructor Dr. Jonathan Tomkin
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Engineering Social Sciences Science
Tags Physical Science And Engineering Environmental Science And Sustainability

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