Global ecological crisis has become the normal condition within which world politics takes place. This condition has generated new planetary-scale systems of concern such as climate and biodiversity, as well as its own geologic era (the Anthropocene). On one hand, it has reinforced the idea of the human species as an historical agent, both of responsibility and redemption; on the other hand, it has also spawned more specific categories of political belonging and difference, highlighting and reframing divides of geography, culture, geopolitics, governance, and development. To understand these issues, the course first surveys a range of contending political approaches to planetary issues; it then considers the politics of key elemental planetary objects, including climate, biodiversity, fire, mountains, and water. We conclude by considering implications for global political ecology as practice and scholarship.