Global Warming Science: A quantitative introduction to the science of climate change and its consequences, meant to assist students to process issues that often appear in the news and public debates. Topics include the greenhouse effect and consequences of the rise of greenhouse gasses, including sea level rise, ocean acidification, heat waves, droughts and floods, glacier melting, forest fires, expected changes to hurricanes and more. The scientific basis for each subject will be covered, and every class will involve a hands-on analysis of observations, climate models, and climate feedbacks, using Python Jupyter notebooks. Throughout, an ability to critically evaluate observations, predictions, and risk will be developed.
Course modules
Slides, code for the workshops and video lectures for each module are provided at the links below (videos also available under youtube). A pdf copy of all class workshops is available here. For instructors: A solutions manual for the course workshops may be requested from the publisher
here.
Observed retreat over past 150 years, acceleration in recent decades, equilibrium line, ice cores and glacier length records, little ice age vs anthropogenic climate change.
Precipitation, evaporation and soil moisture, forcing of drought events by remote SST, El NiƱo, past droughts from tree rings, future projections case studies: Sahel & South-West US.
Fuel aridity & fire weather indices, non-climate human influences, climate variability vs climate change, test cases: west US and Australia, global perspective.