EASC2702 Global Climate Change

This topic covers the definition of climate, climate variability and climate change within geological, historical, and future time frames. It introduces students to climatic classifications, the composition and structure of the atmosphere, radiation balances and the Greenhouse effect, surface heat fluxes, the general circulation of the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, carbon cycles, the role of the ocean in the climate system, inter-annual climate variability (e.g. El Nino events), extreme events, sea level rise, climate feedback mechanisms, climate proxies and dating, climate models and climate projections for the future.

This topic aims to develop:

• An understanding of processes that establish climate globally, regionally, and locally
• An appreciation of the factors that modify climate, including extreme events triggered by geological processes and by climate itself
• An understanding of the context of modern climates in relation to past ones
• A capacity to understand the contemporary debate about anthropogenic effects in climate change in the context of scientific evidence

1. Demonstrate a solid scientific understanding of all issues relating to past and contemporary climate and climate change
2. Evaluate arguments about climate change through reference to earlier climate events in the history of the earth and comment in an informed and scientific way of the effects of human activity on climate
3. Use models of global and regional climate for assessing the effects of changes to principal driving factors