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University of Chicago

Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast

This course presents the science behind the forecast of global warming to enable the student to evaluate the likelihood and potential severity of anthropogenic climate change in the coming centuries. It includes an overview of the physics of the greenhouse effect, including comparisons with Venus and Mars; an overview of the carbon cycle in its role as a global thermostat; predictions and reliability of climate model forecasts of the greenhouse world.

Instructor

Professor David Archer,

Earth environment

2010

Lecture 01 - Scope of the Class

Lecture 02 - Heat and Light

Lecture 03 - Blackbody Radiation & Quantum Mechanics

Lecture 04 - Our First Climate Model

Lecture 05 - The Greenhouse Effect

Lecture 06 - What Makes a Greenhouse Gas?

Lecture 07 - Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere

Lecture 08 - What Holds the Atmosphere Up?

Lecture 09 - Why It's Colder Aloft

Lecture 10 - Winds, Currents, and Heat

Lecture 11 - Six Degrees

Lecture 12 - Ice and Water Vapor Feedbacks

Lecture 13 - Clouds

Lecture 14 - The Weathering CO2 Thermostat

Lecture 15 - The Lungs of the Carbon Cycle

Lecture 16 - The Battery of the Biosphere

Lecture 17 - Coal and Oil

Lecture 18 - Oil and Gas

Lecture 19 - The Carbon Cycle Today

Lecture 20 - The Long Thaw

Lecture 21 - The Smoking Gun

Lecture 22 - The Present in the Bosom of the Past

Lecture 23 - Hot, Flat, and Crowded