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Course Home Class schedule E-mail the class Class discussion board READINGS Introduction Climate 1 Climate 2 Evolution 1 Evolution 2 Conclusion PAPER |
Schedule and Readings for the Climate Section
Tuesday, 8 October: The Early History of the Greenhouse Effect
Please read chapters 1-4 of Weart's The Discovery of Global Warming. Weart argues that prior to about 1960, scientists and non-scientists viewed climate as unchanging and human forces acting on climate as insignificant, but by 1960 or so, scientists and non-scientists alike believed that climate could change markedly and that human activity would significantly change climate. After reading these chapters, and before 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct 8, please post your thoughts on the following:
Thursday, 10 October: The Basic Science of the Greenhouse Effect Read Weart Chapters 5 and 7 (pgs 86 - 113; 138 - 154) and then by 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 10, please post an essay (up to two pages) on the following: What were the seminal social and political events and scientific advances during the period 1960 through the late 1980s that conspired to place climate change high on the list of concerns for climate scientists and for the public? Tuessday, 15 October: The IPCC; The History of Climate Models This assignment has three parts: (i) a general overview of the IPCC, (ii) the IPCC definition of Uncertainty, and (iii) a summary of the climate modeling that informed the conclusions of the most recent IPCC report. The writing assignment is limited to the first two topics. Introduction to the IPCC process: Please read the first two pages of the document: "Overview of the IPCC". Most of the documents referred to in the first two pages are found on pages 3-13; read the ones you are most interested in. You can get this document here Uncertainty: The IPCC puts a premium on quantifying uncertainty and its sources -- in observations, models, historical reconstructions of climate, and in projections of future climate. Please read (i) section 1 "Introduction" in the Technical Summary chapter (pages TS-3 to TS-5, and see Fig 1 of Box TS.1 on page TS-80) and (ii) section 1.4 "Treatment of Uncertainties" in Chapter 1 (pages 1-15 to 1-19) of the 2013 IPCC Working Group 1 report. Write an essay (up to 300 words) that address the following questions:
Climate Modeling: Notes: The 5th IPCC Assessment of the State of Climate Science by Working Group 1 can be found here . You already have chapter 1. Please download the Technical Summary and Chapter 9 to complete the above assignments priory to Tuesday's class. Thursday, 17 October: The 20th Century Climate Please read these sections of the IPCC Working Group I Report
After you have read the excerpts from the IPCC AR5 WG (see web page), create a list of conclusions in each of the following categories that are deemed to be "very likely", "virtually certain" and "high confidence":
For example, under the first category, you could list "the global troposphere has warmed since the mid-20th century (virtually certain)" and "the number of cold days and nights has decreased and the number of warm days and nights has increased on the global scale (very likely)." Please post your lists here by 7am tomorrow morning. |