War, Energy and Climate Change
Department of History University of Michigan
History 223 Winter 2027
SYLLABUS
Course Title: War, Energy and Climate Change
Office Hours: Weds. 2:30-3:30 and by appointment
Instructor: Juan Cole uniquename: jrcole
This exciting new course treats the impact of coal, petroleum and fossil gas on modern history in the context of colonialism, anticolonialism, the world wars, the increasing effects of climate change, and the rise of green energy. It attends to the burgeoning of the petroleum industry in West and Southeast Asia, the significance of the automobile, and the colonial and postcolonial conflicts that oil provoked. It explores the ways in which climate change increasingly threatens large-scale population movements because of aridification, coastal erosion, flooding of low-lying regions, extreme heat and weather, decline in wildlife populations, and the political conflicts that result. The twenty-first century emergence of China as a green-energy electrostate and its implication for global power politics is explored. Fulfills requirements for Minor in History and in Global History. Grading based on midterm, final, and special projects to be assigned in Section. Students are to keep a weekly journal consisting of a paragraph, poem, sketch or watercolor reflecting on the place of nature in their lives, the impact of climate change as they experience it, worries about environmental degradation, and hopes for green technology. This assignment is not graded.
Class Texts:
Johnson, Ayana Elizabeth, ed. What if we Get it Right? Visions of Climate Futures (New York: Oneworld, 2024). ISBN 978-0593229378
Srinivasan, Piya, ed. Living with the Weather: Climate Change, Ecology and Displacement in South Asia (New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2023). ISBN 978-93-82579-90-8
INTRODUCTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Jan. 13 Orientation
Jan. 18 Martin Luther King Day
Jan. 20 The Science of Climate Change
Kate Marvel, “Earth is the Best Planet,” in What if we Get it Right? Pp. 16-30.
Mikalai Filonchyk, et al., "Greenhouse gases emissions and global climate change: Examining the influence of CO2, CH4, and N2O," Science of The Total Environment Volume 935, 20 July 2024, 1-7.
HISTORY OF CO2 EMISSIONS
Jan. 25 The Industrial Revolution
Robert C. Allen, “Backward into the future: The shift to coal and implications for the next energy transition,” Energy Policy, Volume 50, November 2012, Pages 17-23.
E. A Wrigley, “Energy and the English Industrial Revolution,” Philosophical Transactions (2013): 1-10.
Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, “Introduction to Coal in India: Energising the Nation,” The Coal Nation (Routledge, 2014), 1-15.
Becky Little. How Early Signs of Climate Change Date Back to the Industrial Revolution. History.com. April 18, 2023.
Jan. 27 Petroleum, Imperial Naval Power and WWI
William Engdahl, “Oil and the Origins of the Great War,” History Compass
Volume 5, Issue 6 , 11 October 2007, pp. 2041-2060.
George E. Gruen, “The Oil Resources of Iraq: Their Role in the Policies of the Great Powers,” In The Creation of Iraq, 1914-1922, Reeva Spector Simon and Eleanor H. Tejirian (eds.) (Columbia University Press, 2004), 110-124.
Feb. 1 Colonial Petroleum
Kaveh Ehsani, “Oil, state and society in Iran in the aftermath of the First World War,” First World War and Its Aftermath, ed. Edited by T. G. Fraser, Gingko, 2015, pp. 191-212.
Melle van Maanen, “Global Capitalism, Dutch Imperial Oil.” 2020. Academia.edu
Saiful Khairi Kamarudin, “British Protectionism and Oil Industry,” MALIM: Jurnal Pengajian Umum Asia Tenggara 21(2020): 15–25.
Feb 3 The Burgeoning of Carbon Transportation
Mattias Näsman and Grace Ballor, “The car industry and climate change: A historical review,” Working Paper Series, No. 24. Econstor, 2024, read 1-24 (double-spaced).
Peter J. Hugill, “Petroleum Supply, Marine Transportation Technology, and the Emerging International Order of the Post World War One Period,” in Maximilian Mayer et al. eds., The Global Politics of Science and Technology, Vol. 1 (Berlin: Springer, 2014), 141-159. Downloadable. Also in Canvas files as a Word document.
Feb 8 World War II as a Petroleum War
Howard Duhon and Tony Richards “SPE Delta Section: A Study of the Role of Oil in World War II and Its Strategic Impact,” J Pet Technol 77, 2 (February 01 2025): 48–53.
Michael Martorelli, “The Importance of Oil in World War II,” Museum of American Finance, Spring 2020, 28-31.
Ben de Vries, “The Battle for Oil in the Dutch East Indies,” International Planning History Proceedings, Vol. 18 No. 1 (2018):1-12.
Feb 10 The Oil Struggles of the Cold War
David S. Painter, “Oil and the American Century,” Journal of American History, Volume 99, Issue 1, June 2012, Pages 24–39
David S. Painter, “Oil and Geopolitics: The Oil Crises of the 1970s and the Cold War,” Historical Social Research, Vol. 39, No. 4 (2014), pp. 186-208
Feb 15 Agriculture and Emissions
J. Poore, J., & Nemecek, "Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers." Science, 360, 6392 (2018), 987–992.
Johnson, ed., What if we Get it Right? Pp. 37-85.
Feb 17 Building Construction, Emissions, and Land Use
Johnson, ed., What if We Get it Right? Pp. 88-117.
Mark Jennings, Neil Hirst, Ajay Gambhir, “Reduction of Carbon Dioxide Emission in the Global Building Sector to 2050,” Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, pp. 1-22.
THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Feb 22 Heat, Health and Urbanism
T. Kjellstrom, E. Oppermann, and J. K. W. Lee, “Human Health, and Socioeconomic Factors: Climate Change, Occupational Heat Stress, in Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health, ed. Töres Theorell (Berlin: Springer Nature Link, 2020):72-84.
Michael J W Boyle, “Wet-bulb temperatures reveal inequitable heat risk following climate change in Hong Kong,” Environ. Res. Lett. 18 (2023):1-9
Rohinton Emmanuel, “A climate-sensitive tropical urbanism under extreme heat,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Lecture Series (29 December 2025): 1-9.
Amanda Zain, et al. “Climate change and its impact on infectious diseases in Asia,” Singapore Medical Journal 65, 4 (April 2024): 211-219.
Feb. 24 Cyclone Monsters and Noahide Flooding
Shuvankur Ghosh, “High/Low: Navigating Cyclones and Covid-19 in the Sundarbans,” in Srinivasan, Living with the Weather, Ch. 10.
Naeem Mughal, “New Study Shows Climate Change Made 2025 Asia Floods 10% Deadlier,” The Think Tank Journal, December 11, 2025
Friederike E. L. Otto, “Climate change likely increased extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding highly vulnerable communities in Pakistan.” World Weather Attribution. September 19, 2022.
How Badly is Climate Change Affecting the Philippines? GreenDev, rev. Feb. 25, 2026.
Jamie Taylor, “Climate change intensified typhoons Kalmaegi & Fung-wong, damages up by 42%,” Imperial College London, 14 November 2025
Mar 1 Review toward the Exam
Mar 3 Midterm
Mar 15 Sea Level Rise and Vulnerable Nations
F. A. Samiul Islam, “Impact of Climate Change and Sea Level Rise on Coastal Zone of Bangladesh,” American Journal of Innovation in Science and Engineering (AJISE) Volume 4 Issue 1 (2025):112-122.
Dipanjan Sinha, “Finding Neverland: The Invisible Journey of Climate Migrants,” in Srinivasan, Living with the Weather, ch. 9.
Anh Cao, et al. “Future of Asian Deltaic Megacities under sea level rise and land subsidence: current adaptation pathways for Tokyo, Jakarta, Manila, and Ho Chi Minh City,” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, Volume 50, 2021, Pages 87-97.
If sea levels are rising, why is the Maldives still above water? Science Feedback, 2025-03-28
Mar 17 Drought and Drylands
“Enframing and Digression: Pandemic, Drought and Migrant Accounts from Western India,” in Srinivasan, Living with the Weather, Ch. 4.
Mujib Ahmad Azizi, “War, Conflict, Climate Change and Internal Displacement in Afghanistan,” in Srinivasan, Living with the Weather, ch. 6.
Ladan Naderi et al. “Impact of climate change on water crisis and conflicts: Farmers’ perceptions at the ZayandehRud Basin in Iran,” Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Volume 54 (August 2024): 1-15.
Ali Mirchi, et al. “Iran’s president calls for moving its drought-stricken capital amid a worsening water crisis – how Tehran got into water bankruptcy,” The Conversation, December 1, 2025
Mar 22 The Seas: From Carbon Sink to Acid Bath
Johnson, ed., What if We Get it Right? Pp. 400-419
Smithsonian Institution, “Ocean Acidification,” January 2014.
Climate Change and Fisheries in Asia: Risks and Adaptations, Climate Change Academy, October 2, 2025.
B. Irfan et al. “Climate change and aquatic food systems: fish species shifts, productivity threats, and adaptive pathways.” Theor Appl Climatol 156, 647 (2025)
Mar. 24 Declining Wildlife Diversity: Land
William J. Ripple et al., “Climate change threats to Earth's wild animals,” BioScience, Volume 75, Issue 7, July 2025, Pages 519–523
Maud Abdelli et al., Living Planet Report 2024: A System in Peril, World Wildlife Foundation, October 9, 2024, 18-86.
SEEKING CARBON NEUTRALITY
Mar. 29 Oil and Gas Powers and Climate Change Denialism
Deborah Coen, “The 19th-century tumult over climate change – and why it matters today,” The Conversation, September 10, 2018.
Juan Cole, Greenwashing the Planet, Tomdispatch.com, Dec. 9, 2023.
Juan Cole, “The War of the AI Moguls on Climate Science,” Tomdispatch.com, November 23, 2025
Michael E. Mann and Peter Hotez, “Petrostates,” in Science Under Siege : How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World (New York: PublicAffairs, 2025), Chapter 3.
William J Ripple et al., “The 2025 state of the climate report: a planet on the brink,” BioScience, Volume 75, Issue 12, December 2025, Pages 1016–1027.
Mar. 31 China's Energy Revolution: Electrostate
Bruce J. Dickson, The Party and the People: Chinese Politics in the 21st Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021), Ch. 1: “What Keeps the Party in Power,” pp. 11-36.
Johnson, ed. What if We Get it Right? Pp. 260-281
Guoguang Wu, “Climate Change in China’s Governance,” Asia Society, June 2024
Apr 5 China: Wind and Solar
Ligang Song and Yixiao Zhou, The Great Energy Transformation in China (Canberra: ANU Press, 2025), Chapter 1: “China’s energy transformation: Experiences and outlook,” pp. 1-18.
Ember, “China Energy Transition Review 2025,” September 9, 2025. (Download PDF or press arrow at bottom right to go to next chapter).
Ma Li and Charles Bourgault, “China's renewable energy boom has its own challenges. Here's what we can learn,” World Economic Forum, Dec 3, 2025
Matt Randolph, “China Does In Fact Have Wind Turbines, A Lot Of Them,” Forbes, Jan 12, 2026
Jayant Mundhra, “Rise of China’s Wind Giants,” Medium, Jan 2, 2024.
Apr 7 The Rise of the EV
Shanjun Li et al., “The rise of electric vehicles in China: Growth, challenges and future prospects,” in The Great Energy Transformation in China edited by Ligang Song and Yixiao Zhou (Canberra: ANU Press, 2025), 109-124.
Euan Graham, “The EV leapfrog – how emerging markets are driving a global EV boom,” Ember, 16 December 2025.
Gregory F. Randolph and Sabina Dewan, “Driving uneven development: The emerging geography of India's electric vehicle transition,” Applied Geography, Volume 183, October 2025, pp. 1-9.
Aidan Jones and Ushar Daniele, “Iran war oil shock accelerates Southeast Asia’s EV revolution,” South China Morning Post, March 8, 2026.
Apr. 12 India and Pakistan: Green Energy and Development
Vanessa Chishti, "The Modi Phenomenon,” Catalyst, Vol. 9, Issue 1 (Spring 2025): 1-14.
“How India is scaling its energy-technology innovation ecosystem,” World Economic Forum, Feb 25, 2026
“India to overtake US as world’s second-largest solar market in 2026,” ET Energy World, Economic Times, January 14, 2026.
“How India’s Renewable Energy Milestones in 2026 are Shaping a Greener Future,” All India Roundup, March 1, 2026.
Matthew J. Nelson, “Pakistan in 2024: Reconstituting a Hybrid Regime,” Asian Survey 65, 2 (2025): 202–213.
Juan Cole, Consumer Solar Surge: Pakistan Shows you Don’t Need Government Programs to Green the Grid, Informed Comment, November 28, 2024
Jigar Shah, “The Perfect Storm Fueling Pakistan’s Solar Boom,” World Resources Institute, October 1, 2025.
Apr 19 Battery Storage Plus Solar
Aditya Lolla et al., “Batteries and energy storage,” Ember, March 2, 2026
Feng Wang and Yongxuan Xue, “A Review of the Development of the Energy Storage Industry in China: Challenges and Opportunities,” Energies 18, 6 (2025): 1-21.
Simon Stolp and Surbhi Goyal, “India’s first battery storage plant in Chhattisgarh paves the way for green energy,” World Bank Blogs, July 7, 2025.
Apr. 21 Follow the Money: Divestment
Johnson, ed., What if We get it Right? Pp. 138-178
Apr. 26 Review toward the Exam.
Final Exam: TBA
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Academic Integrity Policy: this History class follows the academic integrity guidelines set forth by the College of LSA and the History Department. Students should familiarize themselves with both of these documents, which explain the standards of academic integrity and clarify the prohibited forms of academic misconduct. Students in this History class should utilize the Chicago Manual of Style Online for all issues of source citation, along with any specific guidelines provided in the course assignments. Clarifying the disciplinary standards of research ethics and source citation is part of the educational mission of this course, and students should consult the faculty instructor and/or GSI regarding any questions. The penalties for deliberate cases of plagiarism and/or other forms of academic misconduct are a failing grade on the assignment. Cases that the instructor judges to be particularly serious, or those in which the student contests the charge of academic misconduct, will be handled by the office of the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education. All cases of deliberate academic misconduct that result in formal sanctions of any kind will be reported to the dean’s office, as required by LSA policy, which also ensures due process rights of appeal for students.
Student Well-Being
Students may experience stressors that can impact both their academic experience and their personal well-being. These may include academic pressure and challenges associated with relationships, mental health, alcohol, drugs, identities, finances, etc.
If you are experiencing concerns, seeking help is a courageous thing to do for yourself
and those who care about you. If the source of your stressors is academic, please contact me so that we can find solutions together. For personal concerns, U-M offers the following resources:
• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) - confidential; 734-764-8312; for
after-hours urgent support, call and press 0; counseling, workshops, groups and more
• Dean of Students Office - 734-764-7420; provides support services to students and manages critical incidents impacting students and the campus community
• Ginsberg Center for Community Service Learning - 734-763-3548; opportunities
to engage as learners and leaders to create a better community and world
• Maize and Blue Cupboard (MBC) - 734-936-2794; Food pantry with groceries,
kitchen and cooking supplies, personal and household items, and support
• Multi-ethnic Student Affairs (MESA) - 734-763-9044; diversity and social justice
through the lens of race and ethnicity
• Office of Student Conflict Resolution - 734-936-6308; offers multiple pathways for resolving conflict
• Office of the Ombuds - 734-763-3545; students can raise questions and concerns
about the functioning of the university.
• Spectrum Center - 734-763-4186; support services for LGBTQ+ students
• Trotter Multicultural Center - 734-763-3670; intercultural engagement and
inclusive leadership education initiatives
• University Health Service (UHS) - 734-764-8320; clinical services include nurse
advice by phone, day or night
• Well-being Collective - searchable list of many more campus resources
• Wolverine Wellness - confidential; 734-763-1320; provides Wellness Coaching,
Collegiate Recovery Program, and much more
Syllabus online here: https://websites.umich.edu/~jrcole/syl/syl223.html
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