Global Climate Change

This elective course, to be taught during Spring semesters of even years, will provide a comprehensive treatment of global climate change processes and issues and take the place of Climate Change and Ecosystem Response in Polar Regions (MEES 608Q: Grebmeier, Cooper, Lapham) and Climate Change and the Biosphere (MEES 608B: Kilbourne).

:  The specific objectives of the course are to provide the student with:

  1. Basic understanding of the underlying physics behind global and regional climate.
  2. Knowledge of proxy data approaches and resources that can be used for assessing past climates, with particular focus on climate variations.
  3. Integrated and up to date knowledge of the scientific basis for understanding major drivers and components of the Earth’s climate system.
  4. Information on how natural events/phenomena and anthropogenic activities can influence regional and global climate.
  5. A synthetic view of climate change predictions for the coming century with particular focus on the assumptions and uncertainties inherent in climate modeling and future emissions scenarios as developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Since there are no prerequisites for this course, it may be appropriate for advances undergraduates as well.