ERG 100 - Energy and Society (Fall)
Kammen, Farrel
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
Energy sources, uses, and impacts: an introduction to the technology, politics, economics, and environmental effects of energy in contemporary society. Energy and well-being; energy in international perspective, origins, and character of energy crisis.
posted by GSPP EPG at 10:59 AM
5 Comments:
While I enjoyed parts of this broad survey course, I think it can be accurately characterized as a "mile wide, inch deep" approach.
Prepare to spend hours on tedious, but conceptually straightforward, problem sets, and to bounce from the sexual politics of energy in the third world to the second law of thermodynamics.
This course charts an ambitious course across the interdisciplinary field of "energy studies", but necessarily offers only glimpses of the often fascinating subject matter.
Finally, I found myself a bit annoyed that politically incorrect energy perspectives were not seriously presented or engaged. Rather, the course was an extended commercial for a particular, if appealing, "energy solution".
Also, the midterm and final are VERY HARD - the midterm, especially, is time constrained, so practice, practice, practice solving those problem sets on the fly!
There is merit to my friends' comments above, but personally I found the class to be fun, interesting, and informative. I didn't mind the roller coaster survey approach. Whether or not it was fully balanced or too broad, I was always excited to come to class and I soaked up a lot of useful knowledge that provides a good basis for further study.
The difficulty of the problem sets and exam problems, also, may depend a great deal on your previous quantitative and/or physics background.
The problem set problems are not difficult but rather tedious. Similarly with the mid-term, be warned to study and take the test with an emphasis not on depth of understanding but SPEED. Seriously consider writing the essay(s) in outline form -- the grade you receive on that section depends exclusively on your mentioning the points the graders are looking to find.
That said, I went into the class knowing very little about energy and energy policy, and learned an enormous amount. It gave me a good framework for later reading and research.
I fully agree that the approach was one-sided. And, I thought the policy aspect of the class was rather thin -- mostly because we avoided looking at the political reality and focused instead on how to build the case for alternative energy sources.
However, I will add that this was one of the best organized classes I've attended at Berkeley. It was a great way to get plugged into a number of different energy-related fields and projects at Berkeley.
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