GCRI now has its second academic publication: Teaching astrobiology in a sustainability course by Seth Baum (i.e. me, your humble GCRI blogger).

This paper is based on Geog 30, an introductory undergraduate sustainability course I taught at Penn State. The basic idea is that while sustainability education usually focuses on sustainability on Earth, much can be learned from considering life in the universe. (Astrobiology is the study of life in the universe.) This includes a direct connection to GCR: In order to sustain Earth-originating life beyond Earth’s habitable lifetime, people today should focus on preventing global catastrophes so that future eras of civilization can colonize space. The paper describes how to build ideas like this into an undergraduate sustainability course. It extends a previous paper I wrote, Is humanity doomed? Insights from astrobiology.