Somewhere in the mix of three decades investigating the pollution dynamics of indoor built environments, Professor William Nazaroff became more attuned to climate change.
In 2003, he created a new environmental engineering course, CE 107, called “Climate Change Mitigation.”
Nazaroff’s course revolves around one concept: “As society gets serious about counteracting anthropogenic climate change, we need to understand what role technology will play,” he says.
“That leads us back to a discussion about energy. It turns out that half of the course is dedicated to energy, but not just the supply side. We don’t assume that we need so much energy; what we take as a given is that we desire the products and services that energy provides for us.”
He conceived of the idea for a climate change mitigation course following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “It was sort of odd to make this connection,” he says, “but when 9/11 happened, I thought, ‘I’m a full professor now, in the middle of my career. This is the opportunity to step back and do something really important.'"
See Imagining a post-combustion world (Berkeley Engineering, 6/19/17)