Climate Change 4030-CC

The outline of the course is as follows:

1) Climate change - why climate crisis?

2) Climate vs. weather. Climate system: components and parameters. Climate measurements and observations.

3) Energy balance of planet Earth. Solar constant, planetary albedo, greenhouse effect. Climate forcings and feedbacks.

4) Human fingerprints on climate: evidence.

5) Climate modeling: principles, verification, projections. Climate scenarios. Carbon budget.

6) IPCC assessment and special reports.

During first five meetings (1-6) I will provide a tutorial: 5 two-hour lectureas about physical backgrounds of climate science and global warming. Paralelly I wil provide a list of topics to be actively covered by the students, All participants will  be assigned   (accounting for their topical preferences) to working groups. The groups will prepare topical presentations, based on IPCC reports and scientific literature. The presentations will be given in the course of the next 6-7 meetings (depending on groups) and discussed by all of us.

In the final meetings we will collectively summarize the conclusions.

At the end of the course, every student will wtite an essay on the specific subject related to his/her interest within the topic of the course.

The final grade will be based on:

• participation in the presentation (40%)
• activity in the discussions (10%)
• the essay (50%)

According yo this year schedule the first meeting will be on Wed, Oct. 6th
You will receive invitation to Zoom meeting by e-mail before the meeting.

REFERENCES and readings:

Our course will be based directly on IPCC reports. All relevant reports are available from: https://www.ipcc.ch/reports/

We will also refer to some key scientific papers, in most cases published in renowned journals like “Nature”, “Science”, PNAS. “Nature” and Science” publish not only scientific articles, but also discussions and commentaries which are interesting and written in plain language.

Typical press materials are not recommended.