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Course
Overview
Over billions of
years, life on earth has evolved as part of a complex web of
environmental
systems. While humans are
relatively
new on the scene, we are capable of exerting a tremendous influence on these
systems through our activities. This course focuses on perhaps the most
momentous of these impacts, our ability to profoundly transform our climate,
with potentially disastrous implications for natural ecosystems, as well as
human welfare.
This course will
seek to provide an overview of the science of climate change, the potential
impacts on human and natural systems, institutional responses at the
international and national level, and a discussion of measures that might help
society avoid some of the more dire potential ramifications of climate
change.
Grading/Assignments
- Mid-term examination
(20%)
An in-class, one-hour essay
examination will be administered on March 18, focusing on readings and
lectures to date.
The
class will be divided into groups of
4-5 students who will formulate and implement projects to address climate
change issues at Colby College, in Waterville, or in the State of Maine.
It is
my hope that several of the groups will build on the project efforts of
students that launched the Colby Climate Coalition (C3) in the fall semester.
Members of the class that worked on C3 projects last semester will
share
their experiences during the first class session and discuss possible ways to
extend on these projects during this semester.
Policy project grades will be given to the group as a whole, with only 5%
of your overall grade for the project reserved for an assessment of your
individual contribution to the project.
Project Guidelines:
Group proposals are due on Tuesday, February 25. The proposal should not
exceed two pages and should include the following elements:
- A description of the project's
focus and how it help to effectuate the goal of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions;
- A description of
the
group’s goals and objectives: a "goal" is a broad statement of
the project’s purpose, e.g. "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at Colby;"
"objectives" are steps that must be accomplished to meet ("operationalize")
the program’s goal(s), such as "establish an inventory of greenhouse gas
emissions sources at
Colby;"
- An outline of the measures
that the group proposes to take to
meet its goals;
- A description of how the
group will evaluate the effectiveness of its approach
- Each student will
prepare
a 15-20 paper on a climate change topic. If you would like to discuss
possible paper topics, please stop by during office hours or any other time
my office door is open. I also have prepared a list of suggested topics
that I can e-mail you upon
request;
- Deadlines for this
assignment are as follows:
- March 4: paper topics and one
paragraph abstract due. Please send this via email. I will respond
with brief comments and suggestions.
- May 13: papers due. Please submit a
paper version of the paper and also send it to me via
email.
- Attribution of
materials/plagiarism:
- In general you will not want to
be quoting material directly from your sources, but anything you do
'borrow' must be referenced. This is occasionally appropriate if you need
to cite 'expert' opinion directly. Otherwise, extract relevant information
from your sources, but develop the theme or the arguments in your own
words. Studies from which you use specific results must be referenced, but
general information or explanations of a concept or phenomena are not - as
long as you use your own words. If you are uncertain as to whether
something needs to be referenced, ask
me;
- Colby's policy
on plagiarism and reso
urces
for students to avoid plagiarism can be found on the Colby
website.
- Citation format: You may use any
recognized system for reference citation that you wish; however, it is
important that you maintain consistency throughout your paper. Here are
some online guides to the most widely recognized systems of citation:
- Class Participation
(10%)
A seminar class cannot be
conducted successfully without the active participation of everyone in the
course. Thus, it is critical that everyone attend all class meetings, come
to class fully prepared to discuss the assigned readings, and actively
participate in class discussion. Students should anticipate being called
upon regularly to express their opinions on the readings and to respond to
the views of other members of the class.
Readings
Readings are designated in
this syllabus as:
- [T]
Textbooks
- [R]
Materials placed on reserve
- [O]
Online resources
There
are two required textbooks [T]
for this
course:
-
Climate
Change Policy: A Survey (Schneider, Rosencranz & Niles, eds.
2002);
-
U.S. Policy on Climate Change: What Next? (Riggs, ed.
2002)
Additional
Online Research Resources
There are a vast number of
climate change sites on the Internet. Here are a couple of sites that are a
good
starting point for online research in this context:
Class
Schedule
|
| February
11 |
Climate
Change Science
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| February
18 |
Guest
Speaker: Dr. Paul A. Mayewski, University of Maine
(venue
to be announced)
The
International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition
(ITASE)
- Director
of the Institute for Quaternary and Climate Studies at the University
of Maine; Chief Scientist, Greenland Ice Sheet Project
Two
On January 2,
2003 ITASE completed a 4 season long oversnow traverse
exploring
over 5000km of
Antarctica. Dr. Mayewski,
ITASE Expedition Leader and Chief Scientist, will discuss the expedition
with particular emphasis on the primary goals of ITASE -
understanding the
last several hundred years of change in climate and chemistry of the
atmosphere over Antarctica and understanding the role of Antarctica
in the
global climate system.
|
| February
25 |
Impacts
of Climate Change
Readings
[O]
Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, Climate
Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation &
Vulnerability(2001) [O]
National
Academy of Sciences, Abrupt
Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises (National Academies
Press, 2002), pp. 10-17 (note; you can only view and print one
page at a time) [R]
Terry L. Root,
Fingerprints
of Global Warming on Wild Animals and Plants, 421 Science
57-60 (2003) [O]
William C.G. Burns, Pacific
Island Developing Country Water Resources and Climate
Change,
in The
World's Water (3rd Edition, Peter Gleick, ed.
2002)
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|
February
25 |
Group
project topics due
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March
4
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International
Responses to Climate Change: The
United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate
Change (UNFCCC)
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March
4 |
Research
paper topics due
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| March
11 |
International
Responses to Climate Change:
Overview of the Kyoto Protocol
-
Readings
-
[O]
Text
of the Kyoto Protocol (1995)
[T]
Climate Change Policy: A Survey,
Approaches
to Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Chapter
4 [T]
Climate Change Policy, Designing
Global Climate Regulation, Chapter 5 [R]
Missfeldt & Haites, The
Potential Contribution of Sinks to Meeting Kyoto Protocol
Commitments, 4 Environmental Science & Policy 269-292
(2001)
|
| March
18 |
Guest
Speaker: Ross Gelbspan
Lovejoy 100
History
at Risk: The Challenge of Climate Change
-
Author
of The Heat is On: The Crisis, The Cover-Up, the Prescription;
31-year
career as an editor and reporter at the Philadelphia Bulletin, the
Washington Post, and the Boston Globe; editor of a series
that won
the Pulitzer Prize.
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| March
18 |
Mid-Term
Examination
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| March
25 |
(No Class - Spring break) |
| April
1 |
International
Responses to Climate Change:
The
Evolution
of the Kyoto Protocol
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| April
8 |
U.S.
Responses to Climate Change: Executive &
Legislative Branch
Initiatives
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| April
15 |
U.S.
Responses to Climate Change: State, Local
&
Corporate
Initiatives
-
Readings
-
[O]
Center for Clean Air
Policy, State
and Local Climate Change Policy Actions
(2002)
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[T]
U.S. Policy on Climate
Change: What Next?, Global Warming from the Perspective of a
Coal Burning Utility, pp. 133-142
-
[T]
U.S. Policy on Climate
Change: What Next?, Climate Change and Technology: An
Auto Perspective, pp. 143-155
-
[R]
Mukerjee, Greenhouse
Suits. Litigation Becomes a Tool Against Global Warming,
Scientific
American, February 2003, pp. 14-15.
-
[O]
Gree
nhouse
Gases Rise to Exchange-Traded Status, Forbes.com,
Jan. 16, 2003
-
[O]
Ball, New
Market Shows Industry Moving on Global Warming, NJ.com,
Jan. 16, 2003
|
| April
22 |
Long-Term
Responses to Climate Change: Toward
Stabilization of Atmospheric
Concentrations of
Greenhouse Gases
-
Readings
-
[R]
Berk
& den Elzen, Options for Differentiation of Future
Commitments in Climate
Policy: How to Realise Timely Participation to Meet Stringent
Climate Goals?,
1
Climate Policy 465-480 (2001)
-
[R]
Winkler,
Spalding-Fecher & Tyani, Comparing Developing Countries
Under Potential Carbon Allocation Schemes, 2 Climate Policy
303-318 (2002)
-
[O]
Global Commons Institute, Contraction
and Convergence
-
[R]
Meyer & Cooper, Contraction, Convergence, Allocation
&
Trade, Global Commons Institute (2001)
-
[R]
Groenenberg, Phylipsen
& Blok, Differentiating Commitments World Wide: Global
Differentiation of GHG Emissions Reductions Based on the Triptych
Approach - A Preliminary Assessment, 29 Energy Policy
1007-1030 (2001)
-
[R]
Azar &
Schneider, Are
the Economic Costs of Stabilising the Atmosphere
Prohibitive?, Ecological
Economics (in press 2002)
|
| April
29 |
Solutions:
Conservation, Renewable Energy &
Geoengineering
-
Readings
[T]
Climate Change Policy: A
Survey, Chapter 16,
Renewable Energy Sources as a Response to Global Climate
Concerns [R]
Hoffert, et al.,
Advanced
Technology Paths to Global Climate Stability: Energy for a
Greenhouse Planet, 298 Science 981-987
(2002)
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| May
6 |
Group
Presentations
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| May
13 |
Research
papers due
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