Environmental Sciences: Climate Change I

Explores how and when climate has changed over time and its impact on people and ecosystems; how humans have altered Earth's climate historically; how climate will change in the future; and implications for people and planet. Learn to communicate about climate change and take action. Credit not awarded for both ENSC 1490 and ENSC 2490.

Asynchronous online

Climate change is already affecting people, economies, and ecosystems around the world and the impacts are expected to grow in the future. In this class you will learn about the causes of modern climate change and the solutions that have been proposed to mitigate and adapt to future impacts. We will explore the global climate system, unraveling the complex connections between our atmosphere, land surface, oceans, ecosystems, and frozen ice that result in the climate regimes on Earth today. We will dive into geologic archives to learn about the causes and characteristics of natural climate changes in Earth's past. We will look at the evidence demonstrating how anthropogenic burning of fossil fuels and clearing of land have changed the climate system, raising the global average temperature and increasing the risk of natural hazards. Using computer models, we will project possible climate futures, the trajectory of which are dependent on the rate of greenhouse gas emission reductions. We will dedicate a substantial part of the class to discussing climate solutions and debating their merits. By the end of this class, you will understand the natural and human influences on global climate, what is happening today, what might happen in the future, and what we can do about it.

This class will run asynchronously. This means that recorded lectures will be posted for students to watch on their own time. Comprehension quizzes associated with each lecture will have deadlines by which they must be taken, but can be taken any time leading up to the deadlines. Tests can be taken any time in a 24-hour window on the day they are administered, allowing for students to work around other time commitments. I will host regular weekly "office" hours via videochat, and other needed meeting times can be arranged. This class is designed for maximum time flexibility to accommodate the variety of schedules that remote summer students often have.

You will be assessed in three ways. Short (10-minute) comprehension quizzes are associated with each lecture and will make up approximately 50% of your grade. Acing these is simple, read the assigned chapters and watch the lectures, highlighting what you believe to be the key points. We will have 2-3 longer (1-hour) tests that will make up approximately 30% of your grade. These will be open note, but are designed to be a challenge requiring you to think critically about connections between individual topics. You will also submit one written assignment at the end of the class that will make up approximately 20% of your grade. This assignment will be broken up into smaller sub-assignments, and you will get feedback on early drafts before submitting your final draft.