The course is an introduction to geoengineering (or climate engineering), which could be defined as the voluntary modification of the climate. While humans have tried, throughout history, to influence the climate by various means, geoengineering has been gaining momentum during the last decade due to the failure of mitigation. Because governments have difficulties to coordinate and agree on sufficient carbon abatement for averting drastic climate changes, the possibility of modifying the climate through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) or solar radiation management (SRM) has become increasingly attractive.

The course’s aim is to present the main technologies of CDR and SRM as well as their technical, socioeconomic, environmental, political and ethical challenges. The ultimate goal is to reach a fine-grained view of the broad spectrum of the issues raised by various geoengineering techniques. At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Distinguish and describe the different CDR and SRM technologies,

Identify the main, specific, issues raised by each of them,

Present and discuss critically the main arguments in favour and opposed to geoengineering research and deployment,

Identify and evaluate the main issues in terms of global governance and justice posed by geoengineering.


This course focuses on American politics; we will not be tackling directly the day-to-day developments of the Trump presidency and the electoral debates, but will explore the U.S. presidency itself, as a historical and political object. By studying texts by Richard Hofstadter, Arthur Schlesinger and others, as well as extracts from speeches, T.V. shows and novels, we will try to understand the presidency as an institution, a political power but also as a social and cultural construct. This approach will enable us to analyze features of American contemporary political life while taking a step back from the immediacy of current events. 

Each week, students will be given texts to read, accompanied by vocabulary and reference notes as well as guiding questions. Vocabulary lists and grammar exercises will also be provided. We will organize an “election special” in the week of November 2.

As a result of this course, students will:

·      Increase their ability to analyze political essays and speeches, drawing on specific vocabulary, identifying structuring arguments and reusing elements from the various texts to articulate their own point of view on a given issue.

·      Improve their knowledge of historical and political issues that are at the forefront of current events.

·      Improve their level of spoken and written English through interaction with the teacher and among themselves.

·      Acquire rhetorical tools to debate economic, political and cultural issues in English.