EES 2110

Course Description

Printable Syllabus

This page contains an abbreviated outline of the syllabus. The full syllabus (printed and PDF) are the definitive sources of information and policy for this course, so you should read that carefully at the beginning of the term.

Course Description

Basic Info:

Professor

Jonathan Gilligan
Office: SC 5735 (7th floor of Stevenson 5)
Email: jonathan.gilligan@vanderbilt.edu
Office Hours: Monday 10:00–11:00, Wednesday 1:30–2:30, or by appointment

Schedule

Class meetings: MWF 9:05–9:55, SC 6740

Catalog Description

EES 2110 Introduction to Climate Change Science, policy, history, and causes of climate change on Earth in the last 2 million years; evidence of human impacts on climate since 1850; future climate change and its economic, social, and ecological consequences; economic, technological, and public policy responses.

Narrative Description

This course will provide an introduction to the scientific principles of earth’s climate, the causes of climate change, and scientific knowledge about the way climate has changed throughout our planet’s history, with an emphasis on the last two million years, and especially on recent history. We will study:

  • Determinants of climate: What factors affect climate, how do we know this, and how certain are we?
  • Scientific evidence about past climates: What do we know, how do we know it, and how certain are we?
  • Natural climate change in earth’s history.
  • Effects of human activity on global climate in the last 200 years.
  • What do we know about future climate change and how will it affect the quality of people’s lives?
  • What can we do to mitigate future global climate change or adapt to life in a different climate?
  • What is happening politically, both in the U.S. and internationally, to respond to climate change?

The course will make extensive use of algebra, but does not expect calculus or advanced math.

Goals for the Course

My goals for this course are that at the end of the semester:

  • You will have a solid quantitative understanding of the basic physical and chemical principles that control the system and be able to apply that knowledge to reasoning about the climate system and its response to disturbances.
  • You will have a solid scientific understanding of what scientists know, what they don’t know, and how they know what they know about how climate works, how and why it has changed in the past, and how it may change in the future.
  • You will be able to evaluate the evidence for and against the idea that human activity is warming the planet and assess for yourself whether the evidence is persuasive.
  • You will have the tools and knowledge to make informed decisions about what climate policies you support or oppose.

When you leave this course, you will not be qualified to work as a climate scientist, but you will be able to follow and critically evaluate news reporting about climate change and climate policy, debate intelligently and knowledgeably, and be an informed voter.

I do not care whether you agree with me politically. I respect people who think for themselves. What counts is whether you can present your own position clearly and support it with solid evidence and reasoned argument.

Structure of the Course:

I divide the semester into two parts:

  1. Scientific Principles of Climate: For the first half of the semester, we will focus on the scientific principles of climate and natural climate change in earth’s past. This will be very mathematical, using basic algebra. We do not use calculus or other advanced math in this class, but you should be comfortable with simple algebraic equations. We will then look at climate change in the last two centuries and what might happen over the next several centuries. We will emphasize examining the scientific evidence to understand what it can and cannot tell us.
  2. Human Dimensions of Climate Change For the second half of the semester, we will focus on the ways that climate change is likely to affect people’s lives over the rest of this century and what technological responses are being considered to reduce harmful impacts.

Reading Material

There are three required textbooks. I will also assign supplementary reading on the Internet or in handouts during the term and I will post these on Brightspace.

Required Textbooks:

There is a companion web site to Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast at climatemodels.uchicago.edu , which includes interactive online computer models that we will use for homework exercises. You can also access that site at climatemodels.jgilligan.org .

Overview of Reading Materials

Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast is an excellent introduction to climte science, written by one of the leading climate scientists in the world for students who are not science majors, but want to understand what science knows about climate change.

Science aims to give correct answers to scientific questions, but there are not right or wrong answers to questions of what is the best way to assess the economic costs of climate change or the best policy with which to respond to climate change, so I have chosen books and other reading material that present different points of view on the political and economic aspects.

Class Web Site

In addition to the Brightspace web site, I have set up a server at ees2110.jgilligan.org , where I post detailed reading and homework assignments, slides from lectures, and other helpful material.

Assignments

Overview of reading assignments

I have posted detailed reading assignments on the course web site, which give specific pages to read for each class and notes on important things you should understand. I expect you to complete the reading before you come to class on the day for which the reading is assigned, so you can participate in discussions of the assigned material and ask questions if there are things you don’t understand.

Homework Assignments

I have posted homework assignments on the course web site. Turn in homework assignments on Brightspace. Homework assignments are due at the time specified in the Brightspace assignment, which is usually at the start of class on the day they are due.

Late homework will be penalized 5% for each day, or part of a day, it is late until I post the solutions (usually a week after it is due, but sooner if a test is coming up). After I have posted the solutions, late homework will receive up to 50% credit, if it is turned in by April 21, so no matter how late it is, it will still be worth finishing.

Tests

There will be three tests during the semester and a take-home final exam. The in-class tests will test you on the material we have studied. The first two will cover the science and the third will cover responses to climate change.

I will provide you with a list of relevant physical constants and important equations. For the most part, I do not expect you to memorize equations and numbers, but there are a few numbers, such as the equilibrium climate sensitivity and the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that I do expect you to know by heart. Reading assignments will clearly state what numbers I expect you to memorize.

The final exam will be an open-book, open-notes take-home exam. It will be cumulative over all the material covered during the term. It will not ask you to solve scientific problems, but will ask open-ended questions about the big ideas we have covered during the semester.

The in-class tests will take place on Wed., Feb 8, Wed., Mar 8, and Wed., Apr 12 and the take-home final exam will be due on Thursday May. 4 at 5:00 pm

Basis for Grading

Class participation 5%
Homework 30%
In-Class Tests 45%
Final Exam 20%

Honor Code:

This course, like all courses at Vanderbilt, is conducted under the Honor Code.

  • Studying: As you study for this class, I encourage you to to seek help from me or from other classmates or friends.

  • Homework Assignments: I encourage working together on homework with other classmates, and you are free to ask friends and acquaintances outside of class. You may discuss assignments, compare notes on how you are working a problem, and you may look at your classmates’ work on homework assignments. But you must work through the problems yourself in the work you turn in: Even if you have discussed the solution with others you must work through the steps yourself and express the answers in your own words. You may not simply copy someone else’s answer.

  • Tests and Exams: Tests are different from homework and labs: all work on tests and exams must be entirely your own. You may not work together with anyone or receive any help from anyone but me on exams and tests (this includes the take-home final exam).

If you ever have questions about how the Honor Code applies to your work in this course, please ask me . Uncertainty about the Honor Code does not excuse a violation.

Final Note:

I have made every effort to plan a busy, exciting, and instructive semester. I may find during the term that I need to revise the syllabus to give more time to some subjects or to pass more quickly over others rather than covering them in depth. Thus, while I will attempt to follow this syllabus as closely as I can, you should realize that it is subject to change during the semester.