The land we live on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink are all part of the Earth’s climate system. This remarkably complex system has changed dramatically over the past four and a half billion years. Changes in climate have occurred for a variety of reasons and on a variety of timescales. Some of those changes are well understood while others are still being studied today. Recently, we have reached a new paradigm where human activity is the predominant cause of climate change. In the 21st century, arguably no other scientific field has made such broad inroads into the public’s consciousness and no other topic has been so thoroughly misunderstood, demonized, and misrepresented as climate science. This course will cover the complexities of natural and anthropogenic climate change through the fields of paleoclimatology and Earth systems science. We will explore the many methods of paleoclimatic reconstruction using proxy climate indicators, how the carbon cycle is connected through Earth’s four major subsystems, how climate affects biota and vice versa, and what past abrupt climate changes can tell us about future climate changes. We will end the semester by contemplating the future of Earth’s climate including climate mitigation strategies such as geoengineering.