ENV-MA51 - Climate Change: Physical Science Basis
Course materials | Description | Convenor | Coursework | Schedule | Learning Objectives / Course Content | Recommended texts
The information provided here is still being updated for 2015-2016.
Check back at the start of the semester for the final schedule.
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 "Blackboard Learn" button on 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.
Description
Climate change and variability have played major roles 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 natural and 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. Practical classes will introduce the use of computer-based models of the climate system.
There are no formal pre-requisites for this module, though students are expected to have the general mathematical and scientific backgrounds needed for university-level study.
This 20-credit module takes place during all twelve weeks of Semester I.
Module Organiser
Coursework
There are two pieces of coursework. There is no exam for this module.
- 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 7 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 will be set in Week 2 and submission after the end of Semester I.
Feedback will be given for the class debate for CW#1 (the debate is formative coursework) and the written submission for CW#1 will be graded (summative assessment), accounting for 50% of the module assessment. CW#2 will also be graded (summative assessment), accounting for the remaining 50% of the module assessment.
The marking criteria for all coursework assignments are the ENV marking criteria for essay-type answers. These are available in the overall ENV Marking Guidelines. Note that these are not the same as the UEA marking criteria.
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.
All coursework, including formative coursework, is compulsory. Additional small items of formative coursework, consisting of short answer questions about the content of some lectures or reading, may be set via Blackboard.
Schedule for 2015
(subject to change; last updated 21 September 2015)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.
| Week | Date | Time | Room | Topic | Lecturer |
| 1 | Tue Sep 22 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Introduction to the module & the climate system | TO |
| Wed Sep 23 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Natural causes of climate change | TO | |
| 2 | Tue Sep 29 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Anthropogenic causes of climate change | TO |
| Wed Sep 30 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Setting & discussion of Coursework 1 | TO | |
| 3 | Tue Oct 6 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | The instrumental climate record #1 | PJ |
| Wed Oct 7 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | The instrumental climate record #2 | PJ | |
| 4 | Tue Oct 13 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Palaeoclimate reconstructions #1 | PJ |
| Wed Oct 14 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Palaeoclimate reconstructions #2 | PJ | |
| 5 | Tue Oct 20 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | The oceans in the climate system & future changes to the thermohaline circulation | TO |
| Wed Oct 21 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Applied presentation:Climate change and weather extremes: entering an age of disaster or an age of resilience? Also: Setting of Coursework 2 |
DV, TO | |
| Fri Oct 23 | 1-2 | CRU library | Lunch time discussion (MSc Climate Change students only) with MSc Climate Change course leaders | PJ, TO | |
| 6 | Tue Oct 27 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Seminars: Presentation & discussion of Coursework 1 (statements 1 & 2) |
TO, PJ, MJ |
| Wed Oct 28 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Seminars: Presentation & discussion of Coursework 1 (statements 4 & 5) |
TO, PJ, MJ | |
| 7 | Mon Nov 2 | Coursework 1 to be submitted electronically | |||
| Tue Nov 3 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Climate modelling #1 | MJ | |
| Wed Nov 4 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Climate modelling #2 | MJ | |
| 8 | Tue Nov 10 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Detection & attribution of climate change | MJ |
| Wed Nov 11 | 9-11 | ITCS 01.26 | Practical class: Climate modelling and detection/attribution | MJ, TO | |
| 9 | Tue Nov 17 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | ENSO, NAO and modes of climate variability | MJ |
| Wed Nov 18 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Research presentation: Past & future changes in weather/climate extremes | CG | |
| 10 | Tue Nov 24 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | Constructing policy-relevant projections of climate change #1 | TO |
| Wed Nov 25 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Constructing policy-relevant projections of climate change #2 | TO | |
| 11 | Tue Dec 1 | 9-11 | ARTS 1.01 | Practical class: Kaya Identity and climate scenarios | MJ, TO |
| Wed Dec 2 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Development of UK climate scenarios | PJ | |
| 12 | Tue Dec 8 | 9-11 | TEC 1.06 | The IPCC Fifth Assessment Report: the assessment process and latest findings | TO |
| Wed Dec 9 | 9-11 | ARTS 2.02 | Applied presentation: Applications of climate scenarios: the water industry | GD | |
| 13 | Mon Dec 14 | Coursework 2 to be submitted electronically (note this is the first Monday of the Christmas vacation) | |||
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Learning Objectives and Course Content
After completing this module, ENV-MA51 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.
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, the main UEA library or online. 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 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 early-year undergraduates rather than final-year undergraduates or MSc students) in certain topics that particularly interest you. For reading and learning at a higher level, with more quantitative detail, you should refer to the reading given by individual lecturers and to either the Dessler (2012) or Harvey (2000) books listed below.
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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 can be purchased from the campus bookshop or 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.
- Dessler AE (2012) Introduction to modern climate change.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 252pp, ISBN 9780521173155.
- A copy is available in the main UEA library and UEA has access to an eBook version. It can also be purchased in the campus bookshop.
- Harvey LDD (2000) Global warming: the hard science.
Pearson Education, Harlow, UK, 336pp, ISBN 0582381673.
- Some copies are available in the CRU and UEA libraries.
Many lectures will also use material from reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), particularly the Working Group I contributions to the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4, 2007) and the newly released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5, 2013). Copies of AR4 and AR5 are available for reference in the Climatic Research Unit library, the main UEA 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.