Global Change

Meteorology/Agronomy/Env. Science/Env. Studies 404/504


Spring 2012, MWF 11:00-11:50 p.m.
Room 1022 Agronomy

Instructor
William J. Gutowski, Jr.
3021 Agronomy
gutowski@iastate.edu

Teaching Assistant
Michael Kochasic
3019 Agronomy
mkochasic@gmail.com

(Image courtesy of http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Course Description

Current understanding of how climate evolves under natural and human influences. Global energy balance, structure and circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, role of land and snow/ice processes, climate variability, climate modeling, implications of climate change for natural and human systems, policy and ethical issues of climate change.

Course Objectives

To understand

Structure of Course

The class meets 3 times a week. Lectures will introduce topics for the majority of the semester.

Some meetings during the semester may be devoted to a seminar-style format where we will critique current journal articles in various relevant topics or do other types of class exercises. In some cases, a laptop or other internet-ready device may be useful.

This course is administered through Blackboard Learn. You will need to use it for a variety of course ativities (lectures, some discussions, some computations, quizzes, etc.)

Readings

  • Parts of chapters relating to each week's topic will be assigned from the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. You can download relevant chapters from this link. Some chapters are rather long; the lectures will highlight the key points you need to learn.
  • Journal articles to be discussed in class will be linked to the Blackboad Learn page in either the Media Library or the Current News links.
  • Readings from the book Climate Change: Picturing the Science by Schmidt and Wolfe will be assigned to provide additional understanding of the material. You should order this book from Amazon.com (Go to a direct link here) or other preferred book seller. (It's possible that the Union bookstore might have a few copies on hand.) I do provide scans of early readings in the course, since you most likely will not have the book already. They will appear in the Media Library.
  • Other relevant materials will be linked as appropriate.

    Quizzes

    Quizzes are administered through Blackboard Learn. Sample quizzes are available for download ahead of time. Watch for notices from me.

    You may find it useful to look at the quiz first before attempting to take it online.

    Seminar

    The in-class seminar meetings will require participation a written report and participation in discussion by break-out groups and, on occasion, a written report. You should read the further details for seminar reports. Attendance is required for seminar meetings and other in-class exercises.

    Major, overriding concepts (not specific details) from each assigned seminar paper are fair game for exam questions.

    Discussion Groups

    Online discussion and classroom exercises will use assigned discussion groups. You can download the discussion group list. I will notify you. Groups are designed to provide a mix of the backgrounds of students in the class, but also be small enough that everyone should feel they have opportunity to contribute.

    Class Exercises

    1. EPA CO2 emissions inventories

    2. Global Energy Balance: Background and tasks

    3. Wind power controversies

    Online Dialogue

    The discussion will use Blackboard's tools to organize it. The online discussion focuses on a particular topics of interest in climate change. Further information on how to contribute to the dialogue and grading criteria appear here.

    For 504 (graduate-level) students: some of the online dialogue will require a written report in addition to participation in online discussion by break-out groups. You should read the further details for online dialogue reports. The online discussion and other online activities contribute to your grade.

    Major, overriding concepts (not specific details) from each assigned seminar paper are fair game for exam questions.

    Exams

    Exams will be administered to on campus (or nearby students) through the Iowa State College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Online Testing Center.

    If you are too far from campus to use the LAS Online Testing Center, you must make provisions to have a qualified proctor administer your exam! Please do this early in the semester to avoid problems with trying to rush approvals. You should read the information on Proctor Validation Services under all the categories on that page. Note that the proctor must fill out an On-Line Proctor Agreement Form.

    Term Papers

    Students enrolled in the graduate-level version course (Mteor/Agron/EnSci/EnvS 504) will be required to write a 10-12 page term paper and submit an outline for topic approval. Students in the 504 course are required to pick their topics and to present their findings orally during the last week of classes. Relevant milestones for term papers appear in the course schedule below. Please read the further details for term papers.

    Note the first deadline: January 30, for paper topics.

    Grading

    404 (Undergraduate level)

    Quizzes 20 %
    Seminar Participation and Reports 20 %
    Mid-term Exam 25 %
    Final 35 %

    504 (Graduate level)

    Quizzes 10 %
    Seminar Participation & Critiques 15 %
    Mid-Term Exam 20 %
    Final 35 %
    Term Paper & Oral Presentation 20 %

    Email

    I communicate frequently with the class by email.

    The email address I have for all students is their @iastate.edu address. Students who prefer to use some other email address should follow these instructions to automatically forward your iastate.edu email to another system.

    When sending email to me, please start the SUBJECT line with the words "Global Change". This will help me greatly in finding your emails to me.

    Pre-recorded Lectures

    I use pre-recorded lectures for the core of the course material. To view and listen to them, you simply need to click on the link for the lecture identified as pre-recorded lectures in the course schedule, so long as you have an appropriate browser with the Macromedia Flash Player extension included. Typically, this extension is already in your browser, but if it is not, you will be asked if you want it downloaded and installed on your machine. Basically, Windows and Macintosh OS X machines are ok. Linux machines should work, but success is not guaranteed.

    I would like to know about whatever problems you encounter, so please send me an email on those, even if you fix the problem yourself.

    For best visual clarity, you should make your browser window as large as possible. If you are listening to the lectures with others around you, out of courtesy, please use headphones.

    Students Needing Disability Accommodation

    Iowa State University complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Please address any special needs or special accommodations with me at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you become aware of your needs. Those seeking accommodations based on disabilities should obtain a Student Academic Accommodations Request (SAAR) form from the Disabilities Resources (DR) office (515-294-6624), located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076.

    Acknowledgment

    This offering of Mteor/Agron/EnvSci/EnvSt 404/505 is a major revision of the version taught for several years by Prof. Gene Takle. Despite these changes, the overall goals and inspiration for the course stems from the earlier developments by Prof. Takle, whose efforts are much appreciated.

    W. Gutowski's Away Schedule

    I will have to be out of town at times during the semester for various program and project meetings. In all cases, I should have access to email during at least part of the time I am away. Please keep in mind that I may not be in the same time zone, so replies may be slow. Since nearly all of the course is available and followed on line, through Blackboard and the class web page, I hope my travel will not be much of a disruption.

    My travel schedule:

  • 26-29 March 2012 (Sun-Wed) : NCAR climate system model's working group meetings (Boulder)
  • 3-8 March (Sat-Thurs): CMIP5 meeting (Honolulu)
  • 10-17 March (Sat-Sat): Spring Break - Visiting in-laws (Florida)
  • 18-22 March (Sun-Thurs): Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) Arctic meeting (Norrköping, Sweden)
  • 8-11 April (Sun-Wed): North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) meeting (Boulder)
  • 13-21 April (Fri-Sat): IPCC Working Group 1 meeting (Marrakech, Morocco)

    Course Schedule

    This is the intended schedule for lectures and other assignments. Note that I may add other assignments.

    Module

    Date

    Topic

    Source

    Other Materials

    1

    9 January 2012

    Introductions

    -

    		Assigned reading:Schmidt & Wolfe - Preface, p. xi-xii; Introduction, p. 1-3

    1

    11-13 January 2012

    Overview of Climate Change Science

  • Summary for Policy Makers (ppt)
  • Uncertainty Guidance (ppt)
    Pre-recorded lecture: Summary for Policy Makers
    Pre-recorded lecture: Uncertainty Guidance

    • IPCC Working Group-I

  • Summary for Policy Makers
  • Uncertainty Guidance
    		• Background (from earlier GC courses)

    Assigned reading: S&W - Introduction, p. 7-9

     

    16 January

    ML King Day

     

     

    1

    18 January 2012

    		 Historical Overview

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 1

    		 Historical overview from the American Institute of Physics

    1

    20 January 2012

    Atmospheric Composition and Radiative Forcing

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 2

    Assigned reading: S&W - Commonly Used Terms, p. 10-15

    Evolution of atmospheric carbon dioxide

    2

    23-27 January 2012

    Observed Climate: Surface & Atmosphere

    Animations in the lecture:

  • Surface air temperature annual cycle
  • Precipitation annual cycle

    • IPCC WG-I Chapter 3

    		 Assigned reading: S&W - 19-27.

    Animations of climatic fields (courtesy of Geography Dept., Univ. Oregon)

     

    30 January 2012

    30 January

    504 term paper topic due

    		 

    		 

    2

    30 January 2012

    Observed Climate: Snow, ice, permafrost

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 4

    		 Assigned reading: S&W - 27-34

    Assigned reading: Box 4.1 in IPCC AR4 WG-I - Chapter 4 (page 367)

    2

    1 February 2012

    Observed Climate: Oceans & Sea Level

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 5

    Assigned reading: Box 5.1 in Chapter 5 (page 397)

    2

    3 February 2012

    Paleoclimate

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 6

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.135-148

    Assigned reading: Box 6.3 in Chapter 6 (page 461)

    2

    6 February 2012

    Readings for online discussion:

  • Essay: Stewart Brand in Nature (2007)
  • News & Views: Philip W. Boyd in Nature Climate Change (2007)
  • Kolbert in the New Yorker (2009).[WARNING: Language in this article may be offensive to some. Please contact Prof. Gutowski if you have problems with language used.]

    •  

    Letter co-signed by W. Gutowski to governor, legislature & presidential candidates (November 2011):

  • Article about letter with link to letter.
  • A critical blog
  • A more humorous commentary

    • 3

    8-10 February 2012

    		 Biogeochemistry & Climate

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 7

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.148-155

    Assigned reading:Box 7.4 in Chapter 7 (page 540)

    3

    13-15 February 2012

    Climate Models

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 8

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.73-80

    Assigned reading:Box 8.1 in Chapter 8 (page 632)

    3

    17 February 2012

    Climate Models (continued)

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 8

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.195-199

     

    20-24 February 2012

    MID-TERM EXAM
    Administered at LAS Online Testing Center or via external proctor.
    If using external proctor, you need to have received approval by this time.

    IPCC WG-I Chapters 1-8

    		Mid-term questions and answers available after the exam period.

    3

    22-27 February 2012

    Attribution of Changes

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 9

    Assigned reading: FAQ 9.1 (page 696) and FAQ 9.2 (pages 703-703) in Chapter 9 (page 632)

    4

    29 February -
    5 March 2012

    Projected Future Changes

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 10

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.199-209

    Assigned reading: SRES Emissions Scenarios and FAQs 10.1 (page 783), 10.2 (page 818) and 10.3 (pages 824-825)

     

    5 March

    504 term paper outline due

    		 

    		 

    4

    7-9 March 2012

    Regional Changes

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 11

    Assigned reading: S&W - p.95-111

     

    12-16 March

    Spring Break

     

     

    4

    19 March 2012

    Regional Changes (cont'd.)

    IPCC WG-I Chapter 11

    -

    5

    21-26 March 2012

    Impacts: Water Resources

    IPCC WG-II Chapter 3

    Assigned reading: Box 3.1 (page 195) and Box 3.2 (page 197) in WG-II, Chapter 3

    5

    28-30 March 2012

    Impacts: Ecosystems

    IPCC WG-II Chapter 4

    -

    5

    30 March 2012

    Readings for online discussion:

  • Hassol in EOS (2008)
  • Akasofu in EOS (2008)
  • Boykoff and Boykoff in Global Environmental Change (2004)

    •  

    		-

    5

    2 April 2012

    Impacts: Human Health

    IPCC WG-II Chapter 8

    Assigned reading: Box 8.4 (page 403) and Box 8.5 (page 413) in WG-II, Chapter 8

     

    2 April

    504 term paper due for peer review

    		 

    		 

    5

    4-6 April 2012

    		Impacts: Agriculture

     

    -

    5

    9 April 2012

    Impacts: Coastal Systems

    IPCC WG-II Chapter 6

    -

    6

    9 April 2012

    Readings for online discussion:

  • Harte in Population and Environment (2007)
  • Potts in Population and Enviroment (2007)

    •  

    Kalnay slides on population issues.

     

    9 April

    504 term paper peer reviews due

    		 

    		 

    6

    11-16 April 2012

    Skeptics

    -

    -

    7

    18 April 2012

    Development of a Climate Change Assessment: An Example - old version
    Development of a Climate Change Assessment: An Example - new version

    U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) Synthesis and Assessment Report 3-3

    Supplementary Documents NOAA news release and companion brochure

    7

    20 April 2012

    Future Directions

    -

    -

     

    23 April

    504 term paper: Final versions due

    		 

    		 

     

    23-27 April 2012

    Term paper presentations by Global Change 504 students.
    (Schedule TBD).

    		 

     

     

    30 April -
    4 May 2012

    Final Exam
    Administered at LAS Online Testing Center or via external proctor.
    If using external proctor, you need to have received approval by this time.

    		   

    Additional Sources of Information:

     

    (Images courtesy of USGS EROS Data Center: Himalayas, Deforestation in Bolivia, Namibian Desert)