Instructors
Ranga B. Myneni
Department of Geography
Room 449
Stone Science Building
675 Commonwealth Avenue
617-353-5742
rmyneni@crsa.bu.edu

Svetlana Kotchenova
Department of Geography
Stone Science Building
675 Commonwealth Avenue
617-353-8843
skotchen@crsa.bu.edu

Class Web Site
GG 312 Fall 2002 Class Web Site

Textbooks (Recommended)
Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis
J.T. Houghton et al.
Cambridge University Press
(ISBN 0521-01495-6 Paperback)

Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change
J.T. Houghton, L.G. Meira Filho, B.A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell
Cambridge University Press
(ISBN 0-521-56436-0)

Other Scholarly Books (Recommended)
Is The Temperature Rising?
S. George Philander
Princeton University Press
(ISBN 0-691-05775-3)

Global Warming
John Houghton
Cambridge University Press
(ISBN 0-521-62932)

Books by Journalists (Recommended)
The Heat Is On
Ross Gelbspan
Perseus Books
(ISBN 0-7382-0025-5)

The Change in the Weather: People, Weather, and the Science of Climate
William K. Stevens
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0-385-32012-4

Course Description
This course teaches concepts and current thinking on global climate change and environmental impacts, with material from IPCC 1995 and 2001 assessments, plus diverse other sources. The course emphasizes physical, biogeochemical and ecological underpinnings of climate change and environmental impacts. The course material consists of eight chapters and is taught as follows:

1. Overview of the climate system
2. Radiative forcing of climate change
3. Observed climate variability and change
4. Climate models and their evaluation
5. Projections of future climate
6. Detection and attribution of climate change
7. Biotic responses to climate change & Sea Level Change
8. Impacts, adaptations and mitigation of climate change

Prerequisities
The subject matter is quantitative and self-contained. Students are assumed to have taken GG101 (Natural Environments) or an introductory course on global climates.

Notes
Notes for this class will be made available via the web. It is essential that all students know how to use the web.

Additional Readings
Topical papers will be assigned for reading through out the semester. These usually tend to be from the current issues of scientific magazines like Natur and Science. There will be at least one handout per class meeting. You should read these handouts in a timely manner. The monthly quizzes will be on class readings only.

Assignments
Students are required to complete two assignments. One of these is a research assignment, about 10 pages, on a theme related to the course. This shall be a cogent synthesis from multiple sources on, for example, the impacts of ENSO events on US climate. The research assignment is due 1st December 2000. The second assignment is a seminar of about 10 minutes on a climate change topic of student's choice. These seminars will be in the class. The students are advised to select topics and dates early on in the semester. All seminar assignments must be done by the end of November. The midterm will be approximately half-way through the term.

Grading
Quizzes (15%)
Research Assignment (15%)
Seminar Assignment (20%)
Midterm (20%)
Final (30%)

Important Dates
First Quiz: Sep-26-2002
Second Quiz: Oct-24-2002
Third Quiz: Nov-21-2002
Midterm: Oct-31-2002
Seminar Assignment: Nov-28-2002
Research Assignment: Dec-03-2002
Final: TBD

Policies
Attendance is compulsory. Exams will not be repeated. Deadlines are firm. Policies regarding academic honesty and incomplete grades are dictated by the College. Please consult the CAS student handbook.

Aug-29-2002
rmyneni@bu.edu