Lecture
for Week 1Slides for Week 1 Lecture
Class Research Resources and Assignments
Week 1
Lecture
for Week 1
Slides for
Week 1 Lecture
Introduction to Course
If you are enrolled to take this course, please fill out the Student Information Form for the course.
When you have completed the form, check your computer configurations to make sure that you have installed on your computer a RealPlayer to be able to hear and view streaming media files. In addition you will need to install an Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read PDF (Portable Document Files).
For more information on the technical requirements for viewing lectures, please see the Technical Requirements page
You can obtain free copies of these software programs by clicking on the following icons
and following the instructions for downloading and installation.
Note: If you have RealPlayer installed correctly, you may click on the picture of Earth from the moon below. After a moment, you should hear the "introduction" to the BBC documentary called "Climate Wars," broadcast on 13 January 2004.
If you are hearing nothing, you need to try again to install the RealPlayer program, and then click on this picture once again:
Click the Blue Marble to Hear BBC "Climate-Wars" ExcerptsTo test the Acrobat Reader, click on the following Executive Summary of an important recent report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme: "Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure" International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, Springer Verlag, (21 January 2004).
The Science...
What is the current understanding of the scientific community about global climate change? What is by now generally understood? How did we arrive at these understandings? What is still contested?
massive global study on computer models
of global climate change estimates.
.... Social Impact...
Around a 100 people are thought to have died in severe flooding in central Europe.
Several hundred thousand people have been moved into emergency accommodation while they wait for the waters to subside.
From Germany and Austria to Russia's Black Sea, summer storms have swollen rivers, pushed dams to breaking point and triggered landslides.
The River Danube, now an angry brown torrent along much of its long route through Europe, is causing some of the most concern.
Troops and civilians have joined forces in a massive sandbagging operation along the Danube and other rivers.
Farmers have watched helplessly as crops and land were lost, and tens of thousands of people have been moved from their homes.Two questions will be paramount in considering the social impact of climate change:
1) What will be the social impact of climate change if nothing is done to promote policies of mitigation (to lower greenhouse gas emissions - GHG emissions) or adaptation (to adjust to changes in climate)?
and
2) What kinds of social impacts can be expected and should be foreseen if we do wish collectively to reduce GHG emissions on a significant scale? What will happen to our "way of life?" What social dilemmas do we have to face to reduce GHG emissions?
And Diplomacy....
What kind of diplomatic initiatives have been taken and can now be taken to address the issues of GHG emissions on a global scale?
...
...of A World Environmental Crisis:
Consider this discussion. for example, -- readily available to anyone on the public airwaves in other industrial countries.
Why doesn't this kind of discussion emerge here in the United States? What are the cultural barriers to our understanding of our own circumstance?
BBC - "Climate Wars" - Listen to Part 1 - 37 min.
Supplementary Material
Week 1 "Update"
"NASA and Global Warming," NPR - WBUR - On Point, (3 Febrary 2006).
"Gagged Climate Expert," NPR - Living on Earth, (3 February 2006).
