Undergraduate Course: Introduction to Climate Change (EASC08036)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The aim of this course is for students to understand and critically discuss climate change, its causes and consequences. The course introduces the causes and mechanisms of climate change (physical science), as well as shorter segments on impacts of climate change on ecosystems and society, and options for mitigation of climate change. |
| Course description |
The course is largely based on the textbook by Dessler (Introduction to modern climate change; organized very similarly to this course and each chapter provides a broad background for a week). The relatively light material will be supplemented by additional material from the literature that can be parts of other text books, short accessible research papers, other public sources, or material written by the course team, partly dealt with in non-computer labs.
An example syllabus is below, this may vary.
Week 1: The Climate of Planet Earth
Lecture 1: What is climate. Climate of the UK. Diurnal & seasonal cycles
Lecture 2: Earth's modern climate: monsoons, seasonal cycle, winds, pressure, climate features and zones, extra-tropical storms & tropical cyclones.
Student independent work exercise - find out hottest/ coldest/ windiest record of the UK
Week 2: Evolution of Earth's Climate
Lecture 1: Climates of the past from deep time to Ice Ages. Transition into the Holocene period. Orbital forcing & CO2 as pace maker of natural climate change.
Lecture 2: Climate since Roman times/the first Han empire to the 21st Century, from archives of past climate to modern instrument, and how climate changed since industrialization.
2 hour lab: Analysis of proxy data: reconstructing past temperatures from tree rings. Submit 2-page report for formative feedback 1 day after lab; feedback in week 4.
Week 3: Radiation and Energy Balance
Lecture 1: Solar radiation and Black body radiation; Kirchhoffs law; Dependence of Absorption on frequency.
Lecture 2: Energy budget of the planet - how can the average temperature of Earth be explained based on incoming solar radiation, outgoing radiation and feedbacks, and what does this mean for rainfall.
Lab: Measuring infrared temperatures. IR from space.
Week 4: A Simple Climate Model
Lecture 1: Greenhouse effect
Lecture 2: Radiation convection model. Role of the oceans in climate change. How, in a simplified way, do general circulation models work?
3 hr lab: Simple climate model on simulation of last 2K years.
Week 5: Carbon Cycle
Lecture 1: Natural carbon cycle; and its evolution of over earth history including ice ages; preindustrial CO2 levels. Other greenhouse gases.
Lecture 2: Human impacts on the Carbon Cycle. A simple carbon/climate model. Carbon cycle in Earth system models, carbon budgets.
2 hour Lab: carbon accounting and green washing.
Week 6: Radiative forcing and Feedbacks
Lecture 1: Radiative forcing and different drivers
Lecture 2: Aerosols and how they hide climate change
3 hour lab: Assessment: Using an Earth System Model 2 page report; 1 page of text.
Week 7: Attribution of Climate Change
Lecture 1: Natural and human-caused drivers of climate change; evaluating causes of observed change.
Lecture 2: Determining the causes of extreme events and human influences on them.
2 hour lab: How to cast doubt on climate science? [Supp reading part of the Merchants of Doubt.]
Week 8: Future Climate Change
Lecture 1: Scenarios - how might the world develop over the 21st Century; projections and risks incl. tipping points
Lecture 2: Climate targets, carbon budgets and net-Zero 2 hour lab: use the IPCC atlas. How might your climate change?
Week 9: Impacts of Climate Change
Lecture 1: Examples for impacts of climate change from palaeoclimate to recent changes.
Lecture 2: Impacts of future climate change and risk of climate change
2 hour lab: extreme precipitation and insurance
Week 10: Climate Policy
Lecture 1: Adaptation and Mitigation as necessary steps; mitigation options to achieve climate targets
Lecture 2: Mitigation options with and without negative emissions/carbon drawdown. Solar Geo engineering.
No Lab
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 80 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 18,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
158 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
70 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
70% exam«br /»
30% coursework«br /»
«br /»
Formative exercise: report on deriving past temperatures from proxy data, submitted in week 2.«br /»
30% of marks for course work on the use and interpretation of a Simple Earth System Model. [Partially covers Learning Outcomes 1,2, 3 & 4]. «br /»
70% for exam covering material in lectures and labs [Covers all Learning Outcomes]«br /»
Students should pass the exam and the course, as a whole, to pass the course. |
| Feedback |
Feedback from formative class assessment, submitted in week 2, returned in week 4, and feedback from summative class assessment submitted in week 6; further feedback in Lab discussions. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe what climate is, its physical controls, and assess how these controls drive the observed climate of planet Earth.
- Use a simple approaches to analyse the role of CO2 and other drivers in past and future climate change.
- Explain the carbon cycle, its large turnover and critically evaluate how emissions of greenhouse gases, and land use affect the carbon cycle.
- Evaluate adaptation measures that may be needed for possible future climates. Asses uncertainties in future climate change and understand the causes of uncertainty; and explain the impacts on society and ecosystems.
- Summarize, and be able to discuss, Climate change policy and the rationale for Net Zero. Explore how climate change could be stopped and reversed, and identify relevant climate policy including Geoengineering measures.
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Reading List
| Dessler text book (Introduction to modern climate, 3rd edition). + supplementary reading. 1-2 pieces per week |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- creative problem solvers and researchers
- critical and reflective thinkers
- skilled communicators |
| Keywords | climate change,impact,society,ecosystems,Climate change policy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Gabriele Hegerl
Tel: (0131 6)51 9092
Email: Gabi.Hegerl@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Rebecca Steele
Tel:
Email: Rebecca.Steele@ed.ac.uk |
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