Climate Change

6 EC

Semester 2, period 6

5264CLCH6Y

Owner Master Earth Sciences
Coordinator dr. ir. J.H. van Boxel
Part of Master Earth Sciences, track Environmental Management, Master Earth Sciences, track Geo-Ecological Dynamics, Master Earth Sciences, track Geo-Ecological Dynamics, Master Earth Sciences, track Future Planet Ecosystem Science, Minor Science for Sustainability, year 1

Course manual 2020/2021

Course content

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.

If the student has little prior knowledge of meteorology and climatology the student has the option to replace the essay by discussions on the basic principles of meteorology using a standard text book, followed by an examination.

The lectures will cover most chapters from Houghton (2015). Each student selects a chapter from the latest IPCC Report and presents this chapter. All students read the 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.

Study materials

Literature

  • Houghton (2015) Climate change, the complete briefing (5th ed.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 396 pp. ISBN 978-1-107-46379-0.

Other

  • Scientific publications from peer reviewed journals.

  • IPCC Reports 2013/2014, 2018 and 2019 (Available at www.ipcc.ch).

Objectives

  • The student can describe the important processes forming the Earth's climate
  • The student can explain the basic physics of climate change
  • The student can describe the function of models in climate change research
  • The student can discuss scientific research
  • The student can find scientific literature on a climate change related subject
  • The student can orally present findings from scientific literature
  • The student can write a literature review (essay) on a climate change related subject

Teaching methods

  • Lecture
  • Presentation/symposium
  • Writing an essay
  • Self-study

Lectures, discussions, presentations by students.

Learning activities

Activity

Number of hours

 

Lectures & discussion

28

 

Presentation

4

 
Self-study

136

 
Total

168

 

Attendance

Requirements of the programme concerning attendance (OER-B):

  1. Attendance during practical components exercises is mandatory.

Assessment

Item and weight Details

Final grade

15%

Partcip.

15%

Pres. chapter

20%

Pres. Essay

50%

Essay Grade

Assignments

Essay

  • The student writes an essay of about 5000 (+/- 1000) words on a subject related to climate change. For the essay the student uses 15-20 articles (or more), of which at least 12 are peer reviewed scientific papers. 

Fraud and plagiarism

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

Course structure

Week nr. Day Subject Study materials
22 Monday, May 31 Kickoff meeting
  • IPPC, 2013. The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 1: Global warming and climate change
  Tuesday, June 1 The Greenhouse Effect
  • Cubash et al. 2013. Introduction (Chapter 1 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Hartman et al. 2013. Observations: Atmosphere and Surface (Greenhouse gases Chapter 2 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 2: The greenhouse effect
  Thursday, June 3 IPCC (2018) Global Warming of 1.5°C
  • IPCC, 2018. Global Warming of 1.5°C, Summary for Policymakers.
  • Climate Change Evidence and Causes (RS), or Climate Change Evidence and Causes (NAS).

Deadline essay: The Student notifies John van Boxel about the subject.
23 Monday, June 7 Greenhouse Gases 
  • Ciais et al. 2013. Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles (Chapter 6 in IPCC 2013) - Executive Summary.
  • Boucher et al. 2013. Clouds and Aerosols (Chapter 7 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 3: The greenhouse gases.
 

Tuesday, June 8

 Exponential Growth & Global Warming
  • Rhein et al. 2013. Observations: Ocean (Chapter 3 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Vaughan et al. 2013. Observations: Cryosphere (Chapter 4 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
 

Wednesday, June 9

 -

Deadline essay: Student sends a list of at least 10 papers to John van Boxel.
 

Thursday, June 10

 Climates of the Past
  • Masson-Delmotte et al. 2013. Information from Paleoclimate Archives (Chapter 5 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 4: Climates of the past.
  Friday, June 11 Why we should be concerned
  • Myhre et al. 2013. Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing (Chapter 8 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 8: Why should we be concerned?
24

Monday,  June 14

 Modelling the Climate
  • Flato et al. 2013. Evaluation of Climate Models (Ch 9 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • ArchutRao et al. 2013. Detection and Attribution of Climate Change: from Global to Regional (Ch 10 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 5: Modelling the climate.
  Tuesday, June 15 Climate in the 21st Century and Beyond
  • Kirtman et al., 2013.Near-term Climate Change: Projections and Predictability (Ch 11 in IPCC 2013).
  • Alblaster et al. 2013. Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility (Ch 12 in IPCC 2013).
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 6: Climate change for the 21st Century and Beyond.
  Thursday, June 17 Weighing the Uncertainty
  • Church et et al. 2013. Sea Level Change (Chapter 13 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 9: Weighing the uncertainty.
  Friday, June 18 The Impacts of Climate Change
  • Field et al. 2014. IPCC 2014 WG2: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. - Summary for Policy Makers.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 7: The impacts of climate change.
25 Monday,  June 21 Mitigation of Climate Change
  • Edenhofer et al. 2014. IPCC 2014 WG3: Mitigation of Climate Change - Summary for Policy Makers.
  • Sims et al. 2014. Transport. (Chapter 8 in AR5-WG1) - Executive summary.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 11: Energy and transport for the future.
 

Tuesday, June 22

 Long Term Policy to Address Climate Change
  • IPCC, 2018. Global Warming of 1.5°C, Summary for Policymakers.
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 10: A strategy for action to avoid dangerous climate change.

Deadline essay: Submit abstract for symposium bundle.
 

Thursday, June 24

 -

Deadline essay: Submit the draft of the essay by email.
  Friday,  June 25 Essay presentations -
26 Week 28 June - 2 July Feedback moment Comments by John van Boxel (first in, first out).
27 Friday,   July 9 - Deadline essay: Submit final version of the essay
The chapters that are in italic can (will) change, depending on which chapters are chosen by the students.

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Basic knowledge climatology or meteorology is recommended.

A Canvas page is available. Here all the PowerPoints and presentation schemes etc. will be published. Also, the Canvas page contains information on recent scientific publications and news items related to climate change.

Contact information

Coordinator

  • dr. ir. J.H. van Boxel