Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability MSc

About the Course

This is a multi-school, interdisciplinary programme that explores the likely impacts of global climate change on society and the wider environment.

Aims

We aim to provide students with an interdisciplinary knowledge of the potential impacts of global warming and climate change across a variety of key areas, including public health, business and economics, national and international policy and technological development, underpinned by a critical understanding of the concept of sustainability as applied to resource and energy use.

In so doing, we aim to meet the changing needs of society by generating graduates able to tackle the challenges presented by climate change, thus preparing them for careers that will likely span the transition to a post-carbon economy.

Enquiries

Institute for the Environment
Brunel University
Email ife@brunel.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1895 266105

Course Director: Dr Daniel Pickford

Special Features

Research within the Institute covers:

• Air pollution and public health
• Clean process technology and recycling
• Ecosystems and disease environments
• Ecotoxicology, chemicals in the environment, endocrine disruption and chemical safety assessment
• Environmental change, climate change, geological and hydrological hazards
• Water, waste and industrial wastewater treatment
• Climate modelling
• Palaeoclimatology
• Antarctic climate dynamics
• European thunderstorms
  

Course Content

Typical Modules (all core)

Research and Critical Skills in Environmental Sciences

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment)

Main topics of study: methods and techniques for knowledge analysis; skills associated with critical and reflective understanding/evaluation; skills associated with communication of scientific issues; issues associated with professional practice and research in environmental sciences; case studies in global climate change – development of an integrated understanding of the impacts of climate change on society and the environment and the increasing importance of sustainability as a guiding principle in all arenas of human activity.

Global Climate Change

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment)

Main topics of study: relationship between climate and biophysical and social systems; instrumental record of climate and what it reveals about variability and reliability of climate; past global changes, including past climates and societal responses; climate models and predictions of future climates; future impacts: biophysical systems, agriculture, human health, resources, energy usage; rapid change caused by natural hazard processes.

Ecosystem Function

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment)

Main topics of study: global ecology; biodiversity and ecosystem function; ecological energetics and nutrient cycles; factors affecting biodiversity and conservation.

Environmental Hazards and Risk

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment)

Main topics of study: probability and the concepts of hazard, exposure, risk and uncertainty; approaches used in for characterising hazard and exposure in human health risk assessment and environmental risk assessment; case studies of human and environmental risk assessment in relation to chemical contaminants; PCBs and remediation; environmental impact assessment; managing risks presented by climate change – mitigation and adaptation; risk communication: the nuclear power industry and risk in energy economics; geohazards and risk; flooding and desertification – risk mapping in response to climate change; risk perception, uncertainty, and the precautionary principle: genetically modified organisms, food shortage and agricultural practice, biofuels and the organic devolution.

Sustainable Development in Practice

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment)

The key aim of this module is to develop the skills required to analyse, research and tackle sustainable development problems. This is achieved via a series of group projects that illustrate the complex interplay of environmental, societal and economic implications for a range of stakeholders in real sustainable development case studies. Developing the process of personal review, reflection and development is the second major aim of the module.

Climate Change Responses in Developed Societies

(15 credits - Brunel Business School)

The aim of this module is to provide an integrated view of how developed societies (such as in the UK) can achieve greater levels of sustainability through legislative, voluntary and market-led initiatives. This will be achieved by evaluating developed-world economic activity through the triple-bottom-line, and exploring the ways that modern day corporate actors will need to adapt their activity to meet increasingly stringent targets to minimize future climate change.

Climate Change Policy and Law

(15 credits - School of Social Sciences, Department of Politics and History)

The module’s intellectual aims are to explore the development of environmental issues as problems of public policy since the 1960s, with particular reference to climate change; identify the challenges that climate change poses to the neoliberal paradigm; evaluate key strategies to combat climate change, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme; and critique proposals for a more radical response to climate change from the perspective of green theory.

Climate and Health

(15 credits - Institute for the Environment and Brunel Graduate School)

Main topics of study: fundamental descriptors of population health in humans; epidemiological methods for assessing human and environmental health at population level; direct mechanisms for impact of climate change on human health, incident solar radiation and cancer, impacts of climate on non-infectious diseases, changes in distribution and transmission of infectious diseases; indirect mechanisms for impact of climate on human health: climate variability and drought, flooding, and famine.

Dissertation

(60 credits)

For dissertations using secondary data sources, students are encouraged to choose their own topic; for dissertations generating primary data (e.g. laboratory studies) suitable topics are chosen by the supervisor in order to fit into the research expertise of staff. Dissertations involving work with external organisations to produce primary data can be developed in cooperation with a suitable external supervisor.

Assessment

A range of assessment methods are employed including coursework reports, group and individual presentations and exams. Group work features strongly in the Sustainable Development in Practice module, which employs problem-based learning methods throughout

Careers

Global warming is a pressing and universal environmental issue, which is likely to affect essentially all arenas of human activity. This will create demand for professionals with the knowledge and understanding of how to mitigate our impact on the atmosphere and how to adapt to climate change. These professionals will be needed in a wide variety of organisations in public, private and charitable sectors; in energy, transport, mining, heavy and light industrial, service and retailing, financial, marketing and insurance.

Fees for 2012/13 entry

Home/EU students: £5,060 full-time, £2,530 part-time

International students: £13,860 full-time, £6,930 part-time

Read about funding opportunities available to postgraduate students

Fees quoted are per annum and are subject to an annual increase.

Entry Requirements for 2012 Entry

Applicants should normally hold at least a second class science social science or law based degree from a British University (or overseas equivalent) for admission to the Masters degree programme. Lower or other qualifications will be considered if supported by science A-Level (or equivalent) and / or relevant work experience. Applicants with prior experiential learning will be considered for admission.

English Language Requirements

• IELTS: 6.5 (min 6 in all areas)
• TOEFL Paper test: 580 (TWE 4.5)
• TOEFL Internet test: 92 (R20, L20, S20, W20)
• Pearson: 59 (51 in all subscores)
• BrunELT 65% (min 60% in all areas)

Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.