After completion of the course, the student will be able to:
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understand global biogeochemical cycles and energy exchange (radiation balance) between land, atmosphere & ocean with respect to global climate change
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discuss the major drivers for global climate change
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understand the scientific issues concerning global climate change
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apply models concerning global climate change
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understand the policy implications of climate change science
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The title of the book ‘Global warming, the hard science’ is a good indication of the content of this course, and can be explained in two ways:
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Global climate change is an extremely complicated system to study, and one of the major challenges facing the intellectual and scientific community. Therefore it requires in depth knowledge from many disciplines and their interaction.
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This course will focus on the ‘hard science’ of climate change, dealing with the physical and biological sciences rather than the social science components related to global climate change. Examples of such components include the radiation balance of the atmosphere, atmospheric chemistry, ocean acidification, sea level rise and global biogeochemical cycles. We also focus on how anthropogenic action affects the processes of the Earth system, with special focus to those actions that affect the climate directly or indirectly.
The subjects discussed can be grouped into the following bullet points:
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Comprehensive introduction to global climate change
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Relationship between weather, climate and environmental change
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Description of the major Earth system components, both natural and anthropogenic, driving environmental change;
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Development of models and assessment of their predictions for current and future change
Discuss how global change is affected by and affects human activity
This course contains an Honours component.
This course is an entry requirement for: Bachelor’s thesis MNW (GEO3-2138)
Early exit course:
This course has been identified as an “early exit course” for exchange students from abroad that need to return to their home university before Christmas. In consultation with the lecturer it may be possible to finish this course early, for fewer credits.
Academic skills: Knowledge of the physical and natural sciences associated with climate and its change. Knowledge and development of system dynamics models , including altering existing models and building models using basic building blocks, paper writing, poster preparation and presentation, peer review.
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