Block 5 Featured Course / Department: Environmental Studies & Science / Professor: Dr.
Allison Lawman
Welcome to EV128 Introduction to Global Climate Change! This course considers the science of Earth’s climate system and the drivers of change within it. We will examine climate from a whole-earth point of view that considers interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and oceans. We will explore climate change from multiple perspectives, including climate change in the past, recent historical changes, as well as future climate projections. We will also explore the impacts of climate change for present day society and ecosystems and examine climate solutions through the lens of environmental justice.
The goal of this course is to provide you a solid scientific understanding of how the climate system works and how and why climate change occurs. This course seeks to improve your climate science literacy, which is the understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society, and help you feel empowered to go out into the world and be an engaged climate citizen.
Reading List
Required texts:
- Dessler, Andrew (2021). Introduction to Modern Climate Change. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press.
Other reading:
- IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- IPCC, 2021: Technical Summary. In Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- Ocean and atmospheric circulation readings (open-access textbook): Andreas Schmittner Introduction to Climate Science. Chapter 6 “Processes”
- Tierney et al. (2020) Past Climates inform our future. Science.
- Brovkin et al. (2018), Past Abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system, Nature Geoscience
- Explainer: How ‘Shared Socioeconomic Pathways’ explore future climate change. (Carbon Brief article)