19-626 Climate Science and Policy

12 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course will survey both scientific and policy issues associated with climate change. We will begin by surveying important factors governing the Earths climate including solar and terrestrial radiative equilibrium and ocean heat storage and transport. Next, we will discuss the several perturbations or forcings that industrial society has imposed on Earths climate changes in greenhouse gas concentrations, ozone, and aerosols. The course will examine how complex climate feedbacks lead to significant uncertainty regarding the response of the Earth to these forcings. Decisionmaking strategies that policy makers can use to deal with these uncertainties will be discussed. We will outline major impacts of climate change on society as well as natural systems and strategies for mitigating climate change.

Prerequisites: none listed

Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.