“This is a course that is so valuable that I will retake it. It is taught by one of the leading planetary stewards, Johan Rockström, founder of Planetary Boundaries.” – Nancy Roof, Editor, Kosmos Journal

On Monday 14 September the second edition of the massive open online course (MOOC) on the state of the planet will be launched by the Stockholm Resilience Centre in partnership with the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Education Initiative (SDSN EDU).

Enroll here

The eight week course – Planetary Boundaries and Human Opportunities: The Quest for a Safe and Just Operating Space – features lectures from some of the world’s leading experts on global sustainability and resilience, such as Centre director Professor Johan Rockström.

Centre director Johan Rockström gives a background to the major environmental challenges the world is facing and how to deal with them. This is a teaser for the second edition of the free online course – Planetary Boundaries and Human Opportunities.

Becoming planetary stewards

The course is an essential introduction to how our planet is changing, the causes of change, and the risks and the solutions for long-term planetary stability as our population grows to 9 billion people within a few decades.

“We wanted to create a course that will change worldviews. Anyone who has an interest in the future of our planet should enroll and become planetary stewards,” says Johan Rockström, Centre director.

“There is now a mountain of evidence that humans have pushed Earth into a new state, a geological epoch, the Anthropocene, where humans begin to dominate processes at the scale of the earth system.”

SDSNedu and Stockholm Resilience Centre are aiming to attract more than 10,000 participants to the MOOC, which is open to anyone with an interest in the subject and does not require a specialist background.

The interactive MOOC contains eight different modules, covering key sustainability science topics such as: the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, and resilience thinking.

Throughout the course, Professor Rockström and colleagues from the Stockholm Resilience Centre will hold live hangouts to answer questions about the course and engage in discussion around global sustainability. These hangouts are in addition to discussion forums where participants can engage with fellow students and course staff.

The video below gives you a small taste of what you can expect if you enroll:

BACKGROUND RESEARCH PAPER: Sustainable Development and Planetary Boundaries