Open for the Climate

The main goal of this course is to teach you basic knowledge and skills in argumentation.You will be engaged in co-constructing evidence-based justifications as well as in analyzing existing justifications in search of argumentation fallacies. Individual work as well as group-based work will allow you to practice. You will analyze climate-related articles (published in scientific literature but also in the news) and will extract the implicit underlying arguments and provide their analysis.Ultimately, this course will help you to develop basic argumentative skills needed to critically join the debate in society on climate goals. Who is the course for?CLIMATE GOALS, ARGUMENTATION, EVIDENCE is aimed at anyone who is interested in moving the first steps into the argumentation domain with the purpose of joining the debate on climate goals.An engineer (but also a politician) is expected to have founded arguments before taking any (climate-related) action. A citizen is expected to have founded arguments before engaging and sustaining any climate-related political agenda. How is the course structured?The course is a 4-week course. Each week mainly focuses on a single Intended Learning Outcome.

Numerical models are used in every engineering task, from conceptual design to optimization, control, and diagnostics. As the process becomes more complex, data driven models are a powerful tool that allows to quantify relationships between available data and observations, which forms the basis for machine learning. Image recognition, spam filtering, and predictive analytics are some examples of how we can use data driven models. This course provides a simple introduction to fundamental techniques for dimensionality reduction, classification, and regression, which can be applied to all types of engineering problems.

Big data and the algorithms used in data science, together with the corresponding process and its technology tools, have important implications for addressing climate change. From machine learning algorithms to data visualization, data science methods are used to investigate and better understand climate change and its various effects on land, sea, food, etc.Data science is a powerful approach which is capable of helping practitioners, and policy-makers understand the uncertainties and ambiguities inherent in data, to identify interventions, strategies, and solutions that realize the benefits for humanity and the environment, and to evaluate the multiple– and sometimes conflicting–goals of decision-makers. In this MOOC course, we introduce methods pertaining to the growing field of data science and apply them to issues relevant to climate change. Topics Data science Analytics as a process Data-driven decisions Climate change Applications of data science in climate change Course content Understand data science Learn about the sources of big data Understand the basics of climate change, its impacts and sustainable development goals Get to know data-driven decisions and how they are made Highlight some climate change challenges that are directly or indirectly related to data science Apply data science knowledge and skills to make climate change related decisions Learn how others have used data science in association with addressing climate change problems You will learnBy the end of the course, you will be able to: obtain and analyze datasets; make data-driven decisions; identify and address climate change challenges using data science Who is the course for?This course is designed for those who want to improve their analytics and data-driven decision-making skills, with an emphasis on utilizing such skills for addressing climate change challenges. The course will also be useful for practitioners and policy-makers as they can benefit from understanding the uncertainties and ambiguities inherent in data and using it to identify interventions, strategies, and solutions that realize benefits for humanity and the environment.

UMA TALKS CLIMATE CHANGE 2022 Climate Adaptation of the Built Environment DESIGNING CYCLES AT 64°   Interior Urban Landscapes and the Water-Energy Food Nexus Climate change demands a recalibration of our built environment to become more resilient. Designing Cycles at 64° takes a multi-scalar approach addressing individual building typologies and, exemplarily for climate adaptation of northern climate zones, the city of Umeå with its diverse urban fabric as a whole. The active involvement of all stakeholders in the planning and future use of buildings and open spaces becomes key. How to create spaces that contribute to community building and social interaction while integrating a maximum of ecosystemic services is therefore a central question that demands for implementable methods, tools, processes and design solutions. At 64° latitude, interior landscapes and the water-energy-food nexus offer interesting possibilities to extend growing seasons and diversify crops, to reduce energy consumption while providing hybrid living spaces between inside and outside. By exploring greenhouse extensions and building envelopes as local passive architectural solutions, DC64° sets out to build productive interfaces between the private and public sector, academia involving the disciplines of architecture and urban planning, urban water management, plant physiology and vertical gardening, as well as the general public in a living lab format. Retrofitting the existing building stock, repurposing vacancies and expanding our building performance may accumulatively have a systemic impact both in terms of reducing water and energy consumption, as well as food miles, while buffering existing infrastructure networks and enabling local food production on site. Expanding on Bengt Warne’s Naturhus (1974) and following examples, we anticipate new multifunctional architectural models applicable in various contexts and scales. FORMAT / The program includes an introductory lecture that addresses climate urgencies and potential capacity for change in the context of the built environment the week before the one-day symposium (hybrid format). The symposium brings together practitioners, researchers and educators and consists of five thematic sessions that can be attended as a full day or individually as they are interrelated, yet also function independently (See program link below). INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES / Understanding of multi-scalar climate-adapation design approaches within the built environment with a focus on the Nordic context / Reflect on aspects of social sustainability when it comes to transforming buildings and inhabitants from being consumers to becoming producers /   Umeå University School of Architecture   Presentations   Program Nov. 30.     For any questions content-related questions please email us cornelia.redeker@umu.se sara.thor@umu.se constanze.hirt@umu.se  

Målet med kursen är att ge lärare fortbildning inom ämnet djurvälfärd och hållbarhet. Kursens mål är också att ge lärare inspiration att designa sin egen undervisning, att ge lärare möjlighet att ta till sig ny forskning och att dela med sig av läraktiviteter som kan användas av fler.

About the course:This course is a collaboration between Uppsala University and the United Nations Development Programme.  The course aims to strengthen participants' capacity to contribute actively to the fulfilment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the SDGs, in a complex, ever changing, global society. It will do so by clarifying the context of the SDGs in the international community, and by addressing the needed solutions from a both human and technical approach. The course consists of three modules, which will take you around 16 hours to complete. Module 1 will provide you with a wider background context to the SDGs and the aim is that following this module you will have gained insight into how humanity is being brought together. You will have received a basic understanding of the framework of the rules-based world order, within which the SDGs are set, how they link to this framework, as well as on how progress is maintained. Module 2 will provide you with collaborative learning tools and methods of co-creation. It will provide insights on why change fails and suggest planning tools and resources to enable transition from the current state to the desired state. It will show how you can apply some of these tools to foster collaborative innovations addressing sustainability challenges. Module 3 will provide you with current-day insights into the United Nations Development Programme, the UN body that manages and follows up the progress of the SDGs. You will be introduced to practical tools used by the organization to promote SDG fulfilment, the UNDP 7-step methodology, exemplified by a special focus on e-mobility. This online course is stand-alone, but it is also given as an advanced level as a five week course awarding university credits. Target group:The course has been created for those of you who are seeking a more in-depth understanding of the background and international context of the Sustainable Development Goals. It is for those of you who want to work hands-on with sustainable development, to strengthen this capacity, and are interested in both the human and technical side of delivering solutions. Suppose you are interested in the climate agenda and the power of collaboration, as well as curious to learn more about electrification in transportation systems. In that case, this is a course for you.        

FOR WHO: The course is targeting professionals who want to deepen their knowledge of emissions from transportation, e.g. high school teachers, civil servants and politicians in public administration, engineers in the field of transport (car manufacturers, fuel production, logistics, ...) WHAT AND WHY: The purpose of the course is to provide a holistic perspective and increased knowledge in air pollution, to distinguish between climate effects and health effects, but also to provide insight into the tools to bring about social change. The climate is changing at an increasingly rapid pace and all the focus is on reducing CO2 emissions. However, our society relies heavily on energy conversions, e.g. for transport. Although some transport uses renewable (liquid) fuels, the CO2 balance is affected. Even if some transport is electrified, more CO2 emissions arise in the manufacture of, for example, batteries (and many cases of fossil-based electricity production). But transport also creates other emissions, so-called local emissions which mainly affect people and nature. As modern combustion engines emit very little air pollution, the composition changes and so-called wear particles also play a greater role in human health. Air pollution causes about 5 million premature deaths and is, after cancer, the greatest threat to human health. But local emissions also affect the climate. For example, marine transport will contribute with so-called albedo effects due to particle emissions (from internal combustion engines) and risk worsening climate change even more. This course deals with all the different aspects of air pollution from transport. WHEN AND HOW: You choose when and at what pace you want to carry out the steps. All parts of the course are free of charge. The course consists of five modules: 1.     Introduction 2.     The energy system and energy carriers 3.     Energy converters (engines) and reduction of emissions (exhaust gas treatment) 4.     Measurement and monitoring 5.     Health effects, societal aspects Each module contains several lectures and for each lecture and module there is a quiz where you can get confirmation that you have understood the most important things. Going through the entire course takes about 3–5 weeks, depending on how intensively/extensively you read. You can also choose to read parts of the course

What can we do to address the sustainability challenges we face? In this course, you will gain insight into how individuals, organisations and societies approach sustainability challenges in different ways. In various parts of the world different challenges are prioritized and thereby, various approaches and solutions are needed. You will learn about the considerations needed to make decisions of how to prioritize sustainable development. You will also be introduced to different strategies for changing values, attitudes and behaviours. The course introduces enforcements that are applied to influence individuals within companies and in the society at large, including different incentives and instruments to ensure more sustainable behaviours. This course is relevant to professionals working in industry, policymakers, or students in engineering. What you'll learn Identify and prioritize solutions based on different perspectives About how the values, attitudes and behaviours for sustainable development are connected About different environmental management tools How to implement organizational learning, incentives and instruments to change behaviours for sustainable development Concepts used in the current sustainability debate See all free online courses that KTH offers

Materials are all around us, in your house, in your phone and in the air you breathe. But what is material and why is it so important? Right now, the green transition is underway, but how do we create a more sustainable world - from raw material to product? It's all about materials. How does material feel? How are materials chosen? What are the materials of the future? Join us and discover our world of materials! The course containsIn this course we go through the basics of what materials are and why they are so important. You get to discover materials, get to know materials and be inspired by the materials of the future. The following areas are included in the course: What is material? How does material feel? How are materials chosen? How are materials recycled? What are the materials of the future? You will learnAt the end of the course you should be able to: Discover and reflect on the world and meaning of materials Get a feel for different materials Discover and analyze materials in your vicinity Understand that different materials are chosen based on the area of use Understand and reflect on the possibilities of materials and their role in the green transition Who is the course for?This is a course suitable for EVERYONE who is curious about the materials in their surroundings, regardless of background and age. The course requires no prior knowledge. It is for those of you who have an interest in a sustainable future and who wonder what role materials have in the green transition. The course is given in Swedish.