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 Future Planet Ecosystem Science, Minor Science for Sustainability, year 1

Course manual 2021/2022

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 2013-2014 IPCC Assessment Report and presents this chapter, the 2018 or 2019 report or 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.

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, 2019 and 2022 (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

26

 

Presentation

4

 
Self-study

138

 
Total

168

 

Attendance

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

  1. Attendance during practical components exercises is mandatory.

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.

Assessment

Item and weight Details

Final grade

0.15 (15%)

Participation

0.15 (15%)

Presentation chapter IPCC report

0.2 (20%)

Presentation of the essay

0.5 (50%)

Written essay

Inspection of assessed work

The manner of inspection will be communicated via the digitial learning environment.

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
23 Tuesday, June 7 Kickoff meeting
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 1:Global warming and climate change
  • IPPC, 2013. The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers.
  Thursday, June 9 The Greenhouse Effect
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 2: The greenhouse effect
  • Cubash et al. 2013. Introduction (Chapter 1 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Hartman et al. 2013. Observations: Atmosphere and Surface (Chapter 2 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  Friday, June 10

Movie:

?Before the Flood?
  • Climate Change Evidence and Causes (RS), or Climate Change Evidence and Causes (NAS).

Deadline essay: The Student notifies John van Boxel about the subject.
24 Monday, June 13 Greenhouse Gases 
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 2: The 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.
 

Tuesday, June 14

 Exponential Growth & Global Warming
  • Chapters of the IPCC reports depend on the choices of students
 

Wednesday, June 15

 -

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

Thursday, June 16

 Climates of the Past
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 4: Climates of the past.
  • Masson-Delmotte et al. 2013. Information from Paleoclimate Archives (Chapter 5 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Noble et al. 2014. Adaptation needs and options.(Chapter 14 in AR5-WG2) - Executive summary.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
  Friday, June 17 Why we should be concerned
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 8: Why should we be concerned?
  • Myhre et al. 2013. Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing (Chapter 8 in IPCC 2013) - Executive summary.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
25

Monday,  June 20

 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.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
  Tuesday, June 21 Climate in the 21st Century and Beyond
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 8: Climate change for the 21st Century and Beyond.
  • Alblaster et al. 2013. Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility (Ch 12 in IPCC 2013).
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
  Thursday, June 23 Weighing the Uncertainty
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 9: Weighing the uncertainty.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
  Friday, June 24 The Impact of Climate Change
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 7: The impacts of climate change.
  • Field et al. 2014. IPCC 2014 WG2: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. - Summary for Policy Makers.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
26 Monday,  June 27 Mitigation of Climate Change
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 11: Energy and transport for the future.
  • Edenhofer et al. 2014. IPCC 2014 WG3: Mitigation of Climate Change - Summary for Policy Makers.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students
 

Tuesday, June 28

 Long Term Policy to Address Climate Change
  • Houghton (2015) Chapter 10: A strategy for action to avoid dangerous climate change.
  • Chapters  IPCC reports depending choices of students

Deadline essay: Submit abstract for symposium bundle.
 

Thursday, June 30

 -

Deadline essay: Submit the draft of the essay by email.
  Friday,  July 1 Essay presentations -
27 Week July 4 - July 9 Feedback moment Comments by John van Boxel (first in, first out).
28 Friday,   July 15 - Deadline essay: Submit final version of the essay

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Basic knowledge climatology or meteorology is required.

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