The Climate System
Students will be able to explain the nature and role of the different components of the Earth’s climate system, including the physics and sources of greenhouse gases, Milankovitch cycles, insolation variations, atmosphere-ocean heat transfer and storage, cloud cover, albedo, the roles of plate tectonics and volcanism, and atmospheric circulation.
Students will be able to explain and assess the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of data used by climate scientists to asses current and past climates, including global air and sea surface temperature measurements, atmospheric gas concentrations, global wind and precipitation patterns, tree ring, sediment and ice core, and pollen evidence, carbon and oxygen isotope data, global tide gauge data.
Students will gain a general understanding of what we know of the present, measurable and observable impacts of climate change.
Students will be able to explain how the current nature and rate of climate change compares to climatic upheavals the Earth experienced throughout earth history, including their impacts on biodiversity.
Anthropogenic Climate Change
Students will be able to use their new understanding of the climate system to deconstruct how scientists have concluded that present-day climate change is primarily caused by and driven by human actions.
Students will know the major sources and development of fossil fuel resources, and how they have contributed to greenhouse gas concentrations since the industrial revolution.
Students will learn the history, development, and current applications of climate models, the nature and source of model data and variables, and become familiar with standard emission and industry scenarios used to project climate change rates and magnitudes into the future.
Students will assess the “culture of denialism” that has evolved around climate change, particularly in the United States. They will gain an understanding of and critically assess the social, religious, and political concerns that motivate and sustain climate change skepticism.
