Climate Change: The Science Behind the Crisis - Part 1

This course focuses on the scientific background of the present-day climate crisis, often also called Global Warming. The course will give you the scientific knowledge and tools needed to understand the crisis, including the many uncertainties behind the science. What do we really know with great certainty, and what is less certain? Can we still act given the uncertainty in the science behind the climate crisis?

After a short introduction to global warming, we will go back in time and put the present changes occurring today in context, by looking back in time to the ice ages that have occurred on our planet over the past million years. Are the changes happening today really that unusual? Have similar changes occurred in the past? We will then focus our weekly discussions on key aspects of the climate system to better understand the complexity of our climate. We will take a journey to our Sun, the source of all our energy in the climate system. Can the changes in our Sun explain the recent global warming? We will discuss the Energy Balance of our planet resulting from the balance between the energy we get from the Sun, and the energy lost from the Earth by cooling. We will learn about the water cycle and the important role of clouds and rain in the climate system. How do clouds impact the Earth’s temperature? We will discuss atmospheric circulation patterns, winds and storms.

1. Introduction to Global Warming
2. Paleoclimate: What can we learn from the past climate changes on Earth
3. How does our Sun influence our climate>
4. Energy Balance and the Earth's Temperature
5. The Water Cycle
6. Clouds and their role in the climate
7. Winds and motion in the atmosphere