6 EC
Semester 2, period 5
5264CLCH6Y
Climate is an important boundary condition for natural ecosystems and human societies. Climate change causes stress on natural ecosystems and provides challenges (and sometimes opportunities) for human society. In the past climate has changed due to several natural factors. Nowadays human activities are also interfering with climate and causing extra climate change. This course seeks to deepen your knowledge about climatology, meteorology and climate change by studying the relevant literature and writing an essay.
Each student selects a chapter from the 2022 IPCC Assessment Report. All students read the executive summary of this chapter and the chapter is discussed in class. The student writes an essay on a climate change related subject and presents this essay at the final presentations.
Emanuel, Kerry. Climate Science and Climate Risk. MIT, 2019.
Scientific publications from peer reviewed journals.
IPCC Reports 2013/2014, 2018, 2019 and 2022 (Available at www.ipcc.ch).
Lectures, discussions/debate, presentations by students.
|
Activity |
Number of hours |
|
|
Lectures & discussion |
26 |
|
|
Presentation |
12 |
|
| Self-study |
130 |
|
| Total |
168 |
|
Requirements of the programme concerning attendance (OER-B):
Additional requirements for this course:
Because discussions and presentations are important to meet the objectives, and because these are part of the grading, attendance is mandatory and active participation is required.
| Item and weight | Details |
|
Final grade |
In class Canvas Quiz (15%)
Presentation IPCC chapter (20%)
Debates (15%)
Presentation Literature Review (20%)
Literature Review (30%)
The manner of inspection will be communicated via the digitial learning environment.
The student writes an essay or literature review of about 2500 (+/- 500) words on a subject related to climate change. For the essay the student uses 15 articles (or more), of which at least 10 are peer reviewed scientific papers.
Presenting a chapter from one of the IPCC reports
The group is divided into teams representing different global stakeholders at a climate summit who can influence climate solutions. The stakeholder groups are given a directive to work together to create a plan to limit global warming to well below 2°C and aim for 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. They use debates and arguments to convince, listen and cooperate
Canvas test/quiz in Class, with discussion in groups.
Presenting the main findings of the literature review
The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl
|
Week nr. |
Day |
Subject |
Study materials |
|
May 6th |
1 |
Kickoff meeting, History of climate, Scenario's |
|
|
May 8th |
2 |
Atmosphere, the Greenhouse Effect, Greenhouse gasses, Milankovic |
|
|
May 9th |
3 |
Models, the Climate System and Climate Science |
|
|
May 13th |
4 |
The general circulation and climate models
|
|
|
May 15th |
5 |
Climate in the 21st Century and Beyond Why we should be concerned? |
|
|
May 16th |
6 |
|
|
|
May 20th |
|
||
|
May 27th
|
|
Basic knowledge climatology or meteorology is required.
A Canvas page is available. Here all the PowerPoints and presentation schemes etc. will be published.