CCGL9083 Global Issues

Happiness Amidst Climate Crisis?

This course is under the thematic cluster(s) of:

  • Sustaining Cities, Cultures, and the Earth (SCCE)

SDG-03
SDG-13
Sustainable Development Goals

Timetable for Lectures

Course Description

The climate crisis has become the defining global issue of the 21st century. Do you feel  anger, sadness, anxiousness, powerlessness, helplessness, guilt and/or betrayal when you think about the climate and the future?  If so, you are not alone: more than 75% of people under 25 years of age worldwide think the future is ‘frightening’.  Still, declining levels of economic, political, and social well-being are now inevitable.  Are youth inevitably destined to live less happy lives than their parents and grandparents? Or is it, instead, that the way we think about happiness and well-being must shift?  If we continue to teach 20th century approaches to happiness and well-being, will people be happy in the 21st century?  This course explores youth climate anxiety, global policy (Sustainable Development Goals), and various approaches to happiness, both from within and beyond Western psychology. It aims to provide space for students to discuss their anxiety, and – at its best – will equip students with strategies that can help alleviate anxiety related to the climate crisis.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completing the course, students will be able to:

  1. Explain how global policies, environmental sustainability, education, and self are interconnected.
  2. Analyze and compare different forms of self-construal found across cultures, and connect these to larger global issues.
  3. Demonstrate awareness for different approaches to addressing shared global challenges, and willingness to learn from different approaches.
  4. Make innovative connections between different disciplines (philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, sociology and natural science), with the aim of enhancing collaboration and cooperation.

Offer Semester and Day of Teaching

First semester (Wed)

Study Load

Activities Number of hours
Lectures 24
Tutorials 10
Reading / Self-study 60
Assessment: Essay / Report writing 24
Assessment: Presentation (incl preparation) 12
Total: 130

Assessment: 100% coursework

Assessment Tasks Weighting
Participation 20
Group presentation 30
Final project 50

Required Reading

  • All Living Things Environmental Film Festival. (2023). Feeling the Apocalypse | Official Trailer | ALT EFF 2023. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OrqdNjkoz4
  • Baggini, J. (2018). How the World Thinks – Global History of Philosophy. London: Granta Books.
  • DEMAIN le Film. (2015). Tomorrow – Trailer. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUN0QxRB7e0
  • Flanagan, O., et al. (2023). Against Happiness. New York Columbia University Press.
  • Hickman, C., et. al. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863-e873.
  • Jackson, L. (2021). Beyond Virtue: The Politics of Educating Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Jackson, L. (2024). Emotions: Philosophy of Education in Practice. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Joshanloo, M. (2014). Eastern Conceptualizations of Happiness: Fundamental Differences with Western Views. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15, 475-493. From https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9431-1
  • Komatsu, H., Rappleye, J., & Silova, I. (2019). Culture and the Independent Self: Obstacles to Environmental Sustainability? Anthropocene, 26, 100198. From https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2019.100198
  • Komatsu, J., Rappleye, J., & Uchida, Y. (2022). Is happiness possible in a degrowth society? Futures, 144. From https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2022.103056
  • Lu, L. (2001). Understanding Happiness: A Look into the Chinese Folk Psychology. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 407-432. From https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013944228205
  • Lu, L., & Gilmour, R. (2004). Culture and conceptions of happiness: individual oriented and social oriented swb. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5, 269-291. From https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-004-8789-5
  • Markus, H., & Conner, A. (2014). Clash! How to Survive in a Multicultural World. New York: Plume.
  • Mesquita, B. (2022). Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions. New York: W.W. Norton.
  • National Geographic. (2016). Before the Flood – Trailer | National Geographic. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9xFFyUOpXo
  • Rappleye, J., Komatsu, H., Silova, I. (2024). Re-thinking Pedagogies for Climate Change Activism: Cognitive, Behaviorist, Technological, or Cultural?. In J. Wyn, H. Cahill & H. Cuervo (Eds.), Handbook of Children and Youth Studies. Springer, Singapore. From https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8606-4_127
  • Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers. (2006). An Inconvenient Truth (2006) Official Trailer #1 – Al Gore Movie HD. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6SE5TYrCM

Course Co-ordinator and Teacher(s)

Course Co-ordinator Contact
Professor J.A. Rappleye
Faculty of Education (Social Contexts and Policies of Education)		 Tel: 3917 0356
Email: rappleye@hku.hk
Teacher(s) Contact
Professor J.A. Rappleye
Faculty of Education (Social Contexts and Policies of Education)		 Tel: 3917 0356
Email: rappleye@hku.hk