“Our Energy Future: Technology, Economics and Climate Change”

Session 1 - Energy Introduction
Session 2 - Climate Science
Session 3 - Fossil Fuels
Session 4.- The Electricity Grid
    Electricity pricing (Brian Foulds)
Session 5. Renewable Energy - Hydro and Wind
Session 6. Renewable Energy - Solar and Storage
Session 7. Nuclear Energy - Fission and Fusion
Session 8. Wrap-up: Renewables vs Base-load Options, and Policy
    Solar Array and Thermal Plant Comparison (Michael Rudd)
    Carbon Policy Options (Gilbert Metcalf)

“Earth Science and Climate Change”

Preliminary Course Outline – Fall 2014

1) Introduction

• What is climate vs weather?
• A little data to whet the appetite
• Scientific theories and uncertainty.
• Bias vs healthy skepticism

2) The Earth – An introduction

• General features of the earth and its climate
• Size and position in the solar system, seasons
• The atmosphere, ocean, landmasses, and biosphere

3) Physics concepts:

• Energy – a conserved quantity
• Potential, kinetic and chemical energy
• Heat transfer: conduction, radiation, convection and evaporation

4) The Atmosphere and its Chemistry

• Chemistry concepts: periodic table, molecular theory and the gas law.
• Temperature of the atmosphere with height
• Winds and large-scale currents and clouds
• Synthetic chemicals and the Ozone hole

5) Radiation: what heats and cools the earth

• How much does a warm body radiate, and what frequencies?
• Spectrum of solar and terrestrial radiation
• Concept of thermal equilibrium – when radiated = absorbed
• The Greenhouse effect (how the trace gasses keep us warm)

6) Climate Forcings and Feedbacks

• Concept of feedback, positive or negative
• Discuss IPCC summary of net forcings and their uncertainties
• The carbon cycle, temperature regulation of the planet

7) The Ocean and its role in the climate

• The currents and what drives them
• The very long time scales for deep ocean currents
• The heat capacity – where might that heat be going
• Ocean CO₂ uptake

8) Paleoclimate – what can we learn from the past?

• The geologic thermostat regulating atmospheric CO₂ and temperature
• Proxy measurements: how are they made
• Data from different time spans in the past
• The Milancovic cycles and ice ages

9) Climate modeling – how to predict the future development of the climate

• Climate modeling – how it works
• Results of climate models
• How well can we trust what comes out of the models

10) What the future will bring?

• How much does it matter what we emit?
• Time scales for recovery
• Solutions for getting back on track

Lecture Notes:

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 1

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 2

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 3

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 4

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 5

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 6

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 7

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 8

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 9

Earth Science and Climate Change – session 10