Could we control our climate?

Humanity is facing the global challenge of our time – climate crisis – and we need radical creative thinking to tackle it. Giant mirrors in space and artificial volcanic eruptions are just two ideas being proposed.What action would you take to limit future warming and save the planet? And what would be the consequences for society? In this free course you will imagine a future in which humanity has taken radical action to tackle the climate crisis: by engineering the climate, using technology to ‘set the thermostat dial’ of the planet. This will help you understand many issues around humanity’s response to the climate crisis.You will learn a basic grounding in the maths of climate science, so you can understand the nature of the problem, then move on to think about potential engineering solutions. In doing so, you will consider five broad questions: What is ‘engineering the climate’? Why engineer the climate? How could we engineer the climate? Should we engineer the climate? Will we engineer the climate?This course will develop your confidence and skills for online study, whether this is to explore environmental topics or as part of your preparation for other study. This OpenLearn science course was produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education, the educational arm of The Exilarch's Foundation. This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation. Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they’re a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development.Once you are signed in, you can manage your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition, you can download and print your OpenLearn statement of participation – which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

• Introduction and guidance
• Introduction and guidance
• What is a badged course?
• How to get a badge
• Acknowledgements
• Session1Session 1: What is ‘engineering the climate’?
• Introduction
• 1 An engineered world
• 1.1 What do we really mean by climate engineering?
• 1.2 Modifying the Earth’s energy budget
• 2 What is climate?
• 2.1 Frequency of different types of weather
• 2.2 Probability of different types of weather
• Climate is a distribution of different types of weather
• 2.2 Climate is more than just weather
• 3 How certain can we be?
• 3.1 Climate dice
• 4 What are the challenges?
• 4.1 Identifying change
• 4.2 The complexity of climate
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 1 summary
• References
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements
• Session2Session 2: The planet is changing
• Introduction
• 1 Trusting sources of information
• 2 Taking Earth’s temperature
• 2.1 Global warming through time
• 2.2 Changes in local and extreme temperatures
• 3 Changes in Earth’s water
• 3.1 Rain
• 3.2 Ice sheets
• 3.3 Sea ice and snow
• 3.4 Sea level rise
• 4 Effects on life
• 4.1 Natural systems
• 4.2 Ocean acidification
• 4.3 Humans – extreme weather
• 4.4 Humans – climate shifts
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 2 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session3Session 3: We are causing change
• Introduction
• 1 Deducing the causes of climate change
• 1.1 The global whodunnit
• 1.2 Forcing the global thermostat
• 2 Radiative forcings – increasing temperature
• 2.1 The Sun
• 2.2 Greenhouse gases
• 3 Radiative forcings – cooling temperatures
• 3.1 Industrial sulfates
• 3.2 Volcanic sulfates
• 4 Internal variability
• 5 Putting it all together
• 5.1 Climate models
• 5.2 Deducing the culprits
• 6 End-of-session quiz
• 7 Session 3 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session4Session 4: Future of the planet
• Introduction
• 1 The climate forecast
• 2 Different possible futures
• 2.1 Representative Concentration Pathways
• 2.2 The world’s climate models
• 3 Predictions for the planet
• 3.1 Global warming
• 3.2 Rain, ice and snow
• 3.3 Sea level rise
• 4 Predictions for life: Natural systems
• 4.1 Ocean acidification
• 5 Predictions for humans
• 6 End-of-session quiz
• 7 Session 4 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session5Session 5: Ways to engineer the climate
• Introduction
• 1 Tipping the energy balance scales
• 2 Energy from the Sun
• Energy reaching the Earth
• 3 Reducing energy in
• 3.1 A solar shield
• 3.2 Earth’s albedo
• 3.3 Bright cities
• 3.4 Fake volcanoes
• 3.5 Ocean spray
• 3.6 Other possibilities
• 4 Increasing energy out
• 4.2 Ocean fertilisation
• 4.3 Other possibilities
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 5 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session6Session 6: Design and implementation
• Introduction
• 1 Climate models
• 2 Geoengineering scenarios
• 2.1 Change in surface air temperature
• 2.2 Rainfall
• 3 Field experiments
• 3.1 Field experiments in SRM
• 3.2 Field experiments in CDR
• 4 Geoengineering in the real world
• 4.1 Real world trials in SRM
• 4.2 Real world trials in CDR
• 4.3 Governance and law
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 6 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session7Session 7: Should we engineer the climate?
• Introduction
• 1 Choose wisely
• 1.1 Most effective
• 1.2 Fastest
• 1.3 Local effects
• 1.4 Other aspects of climate change
• 1.5 Monitoring and control
• 2 Uncertainties
• 2.1 Uncertainty in predictions
• 2.2 Science is not like sausage-making
• 3 What are the risks?
• 3.1 Dialling down the sun
• 3.2 Ozone loss
• 3.3 Air pollution
• 3.4 Harmful algal blooms
• 3.5 Social risks
• 4 Climate predictions and the media
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 7 summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Session8Session 8: Will we engineer the climate?
• Introduction
• 1 Are climate models wrong?
• 2 Public opinion
• 2.1 Culture and risk
• 2.2 Lukewarmers
• 2.3 Chemtrailers
• 3 Climate targets
• 3.1 Paris Agreement
• 3.2 Our current path
• 4 Decision time
• 4.1 Climate design tool
• 4.2 Actions
• 4.3 Consequences
• 4.4 Your designs
• 4.5 Your values
• 5 End-of-session quiz
• 6 Session 8 summary
• Where next?
• Tell us what you think
• References
• Acknowledgements