The Science of Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” “the warmth of the last half century is unusual in at least the previous 1,300 years,” and “most of the observed increase in global average temperatures…is very likely” the result of human activities. Why do human activities affect climate? What climatic changes can we expect, and what will be their impacts? What’s the science behind the “350” movement? The answers to these questions lie, fundamentally, in the basic physical processes that govern the flows of energy to and from Earth and its atmosphere, the changing composition of the atmosphere, and materials cycling among Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. This course explores these processes and their implications for human-induced climate change, giving students a solid grounding in the latest understandings of climate science. Students will work with real climatic data and will develop simple climate models capable of exploring future climate scenarios. This course counts as a natural science cognate. (MATH 0121 or waiver for high-school calculus) 3 hrs. lect. and workshop