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ENV-MA49 - Climate Change: Physical Science Basis

Course materials | Description | Convenor | Coursework and Exam | Schedule | Learning Objectives and Course Content | Recommended texts

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Course Materials

Items such as lecture slides, lecture notes and copies of published scientific papers that some lecturers may make available are placed on the UEA Blackboard website for access restricted to current students only. The UEA Blackboard website is accessible through the UEA Portal using your UEA username and password. If you are enrolled on this module, you will automatically have access to it under the "Academic" tab of the Portal.

You are expected to regularly check this webpage and your UEA email for information, including notification of changes in room location, lecture times, etc.

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Description

Climate change and variability has played a major role in shaping human history and the prospect of a warming world as a result of human activities (global warming) presents society with an increasing challenge over the coming decades.

This module covers the science of climate change and our current understanding of anthropogenic effects on climate. It provides details about the approaches, methods and techniques for understanding the history of climate change and for developing climate projections for the next 100 years, supporting further study of the scientific or policy aspects of the subject in either an academic or applied context.

The module consists mostly of lectures, together with some seminars presented by staff and students. It is co-taught with ENV-3A49, which can only be taken by 3rd-year students of the Integrated Masters in Climate Science.

There are no prerequisites for this module.

This 20-credit module takes place during all twelve weeks of Semester I.

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Convenors

Tim Osborn and Keith Briffa

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Coursework and Examination

There are two pieces of coursework and one examination.

For ENV-MA49, both pieces of coursework will be graded, each accounting for 25% of the module assessment. The remaining 50% of the module assessment is via an examination.

For ENV-3A49, the first piece of coursework (CW#1) will not be graded but feedback will be provided. The second piece of coursework (CW#2) will be graded, accounting for 33% of the module assessment. The remaining 67% of the module assessment is via an examination.

• CW#1: The first piece of coursework, a critical assessment of scientific knowledge in a contested area (e.g., critiques of papers giving opposing views on the same issue), will be set in Week 2 and is due for submission in Week 6 of Semester I. There will be an opportunity to debate opposing issues during class.
  
  
• CW#2: The second piece of coursework, a detailed report including reference to relevant literature on a selected topic (which may also be your dissertation topic), will be set in Week 2 and submission is due in Week 12 of Semester I.

Further details of the coursework will available as the work is set, so you must attend those classes when it is set, or contact the person setting it (see schedule below) if you are unable to attend those classes.

• An examination accounts for the remaining 50% (ENV-MA49) or 67% (ENV-3A49) of the overall module assessment. The 2-hour examination will be held later in the year, either during early January (possibly during the week before Semester II begins) or during the May/June main examination period. Revision guidance will be provided in class towards the end of Semester I.

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Schedule for 2011

(subject to change; last updated 5 October 2011)

This module is in timetable slots CL and DL throughout Semester I (Autumn), Weeks 1-12.

A small amount of preparatory reading will be set each week and should be read prior to the lectures for that week. This reading material will be given to you electronically via the UEA Portal/Blackboard site for this module.

Week	Date	Time	Room	Topic	Lecturer
1	Tue Sep 27	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Introduction to the module & the climate system	TO
	Wed Sep 28	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Natural causes of climate change	TO
2	Tue Oct 4	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Anthropogenic causes of climate change	TO
	Wed Oct 5	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Setting & discussion of Coursework 1 and 2	KB, TO
3	Tue Oct 11	9-11	TPSC 1.7	The instrumental climate record #1	PJ
	Wed Oct 12	9-11	TPSC 1.7	The instrumental climate record #2	PJ
4	Tue Oct 18	9-11	TPSC 1.4 (not 1.7!)	Palaeoclimate reconstructions #1	KB
	Wed Oct 19	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Palaeoclimate reconstructions #2	KB
5	Tue Oct 25	9-11	ARTS 01.03	Palaeoclimate reconstructions: isotopic archives	PD
	Wed Oct 26	9-11	TPSC 1.7	The oceans in the climate system & future changes to the thermohaline circulation	TO
6	Tue Nov 1	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Presentation & discussion of Coursework 1 (statements 1 & 2)	TO, KB
	Wed Nov 2	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Presentation & discussion of Coursework 1 (statements 5 & 6)	TO, KB, PJ
	Thu Nov 3	Coursework 1 to be handed in
7	Tue Nov 8	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Climate modelling #1	TO
	Wed Nov 9	9-11	ARTS 3.07	Climate modelling #2	TO
8	Tue Nov 15	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Recap, questions, discussion & dissertation	TO, KB, PJ
	Wed Nov 16	9-11	TPSC 1.7	The El Nino Southern Oscillation & the North Atlantic Oscillation	TO
9	Tue Nov 22	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Simple climate models & sea-level rise	SR
	Wed Nov 23	9-11	C.HALL 01.20	Scenarios & stabilisation	SR
10	Tue Nov 29	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Detection & attribution of climate change #1	PJ
	Wed Nov 30	9-11	TPSC 1.4 (not 1.7!)	Detection & attribution of climate change #2	PJ
11	Tue Dec 6	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Past & future changes in weather/climate extremes	CG
	Wed Dec 7	9-11	C.HALL 01.20	Development of UK climate scenarios	PJ
12	Tue Dec 13	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Applications of scenarios: the water industry	GD
	Wed Dec 14	9-11	TPSC 1.7	Exam & revision preparation	KB
	Thu Dec 15	Coursework 2 to be handed in

Lecturers	Rooms
TO: Tim Osborn KB: Keith Briffa PJ: Phil Jones PD: Paul Dennis CG: Clare Goodess SR: Sarah Raper GD: Geoff Darch	TPSC = Thomas Paine Study Centre C.HALL = Congregation Hall ARTS = Arts Building

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Learning Objectives and Course Content

After completing this module, ENV-MA49 students should be able to:

• Identify and distinguish natural and anthropogenic causes of climate change, and understand the mechanisms through which they operate.
• Evaluate the knowledge that can be gained from observations and models of the climate system, and their inherent limitations and errors.
• Critically assess published scientific research that is relevant to the anthropogenic climate change issue, including contested topics within this field.

Starting with an introduction to the changing climate, techniques and approaches, and the main themes in current climate research, the module is structured around three topics:

• fundamentals of the changing climate: techniques and approaches, including the Earth's energy balance, causes of climate change and the greenhouse effect;
• research methods, consisting of empirical approaches to climate reconstruction (such as tree-ring analysis), assembly of observational data (focusing on the global temperature record) and data analysis (causes of recent climate change) and theoretical or model-based approaches (including an introduction to energy balance models and general circulation models);
• the history of climate change and potential causal mechanisms, concentrating on the period from 1000 AD to the present and climate projections out to 2100 AD.

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Recommended texts

There is no single book that covers all aspects of the module and you will be directed to specific sources for further reading by lecturers for each major topic. Most recommended reading is available in the Climatic Research Unit library or the main UEA library. Guidance will also be given by the module convenor at the start of the module. In addition, a small amount of preparatory reading will be set (and provided to you electronically) each week and should be read prior to the lectures for that week.

The Open University / Warr (2006) book listed below is the best single purchase if students wish to buy a text book for this course. It is up-to-date and clearly written. It is an excellent introduction to almost all of the topics covered in this module, though you will undoubtedly want to go beyond the level of this book (which was developed primarily for undergraduates rather than MSc students) in certain topics that particularly interest you. For reading and learning at a higher level (e.g., with more quantitative detail than given by the OU / Warr (2006) book) you should refer to the reading given by individual lecturers, or to the Harvey (2000) book also listed below.

• Open University Course Team (2006) Climate change: topic 5. Open University Worldwide, 240pp, ISBN 0749214376.
  • Note that the author may be listed as either "Open University Course Team", "OU Course Team", or "Warr K" (because Warr led the course team for this book).
  • Copies of this book have been ordered into Waterstones on the UEA campus. Alternatively, you can buy a copy direct from the Open University Website. There are also two copies in the Climatic Research Unit library (they must NOT be taken out of the library, they are for reference use in the library only) and further copies in the main UEA library.
• Harvey LDD (2000) Global warming: the hard science. Pearson Education, Harlow, UK, 336pp, ISBN 0582381673.

Many lectures will also use material from reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4, 2007). Copies are available for reference in the Climatic Research Unit library and can be freely downloaded from http://www.ipcc.ch.

Other good text books include:

• World Meteorological Organisation (2003) Climate into the 21st Century. Cambridge University Press.
• Burroughs WJ (2001) Climate change: a multidisciplinary approach. Cambridge University Press.
• Kemp D (2002) Global environmental issues. Routledge.
• Houghton J (2004) Global warming. Cambridge University Press.