Class Research Resources and Assignments

Week 2
Videos of Class Lectures
Since we last met...Supplementary Material for Week 1

The History of Climate Science & The Science of Climate History - William Moomaw
 

The Early Years and Beyond...

Readings:

Spencer Weart
The Discovery of Global Warming (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2003), Capters 1-3, pp. 1-65.

In addition to the text in the book itself, please connect to and explore the relevant online support material located at the American Institute of Physic's website. Note that you may download the full support material in HTML format or in PDF format, or you may oder the material on a CD.

In addition, please read:

William R. Moomaw
 1989 "In Search of the Greenhouse Fingerprint," Orion: Nature Quarterly, (Winter, 1989), pp. 4-11.
 


The extended and somewhat convoluted history of the "greenhouse fingerprint" illustrates a great deal about the way science is undertaken in our society.

and

Timothy C. Weiskel
 1983 "Rubbish and Racism: The Problem of Boundary in an Ecosystem," The Yale Review, (Winter, 1983), pp. 225-244.
 


While reading this article, consider the cultural context of the development of climate science in the United States. Ask yourself:

What were the dominant cultural metaphors available to most Americans that served to "filter" their perception of new scientific information?

In what ways is the development of "Science" -- and perhaps in particular, climate science -- constrained or conditioned by the larger cultural context in which it is situated?

Update: Since we last met. The scientists's warnings are published, and
reacted to within the last week.
 
Jeff Jacoby, "Chicken Little and global warming," The Boston Globe, (7 February 2007).
Elisabeth Rosenthal, "Resistance builds to fight on greenhouse gases," International Herald Tribune, (7 February 2007).
"U.S. Rejects New UN Environmental Body," Democracy Now, (5 February 2007).
Angela Charlton, "46 nations, minus U.S., sign on to call for new world body to protect warming planet," Associate Press, (3 February 2007).
H.J. Hebert, "New Climate Findings Shift Debate," The Guardian, (2 February 2007).
IPCC-Working Group 1
2007
 2007 Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers
"Climate change warning," CNN News Online, (2 February 2007).
"Humans 'cause' climate change," BBC News Online, (2 February 2007).
"The IPCC news conference on the report," BBC News Online, (2 February 2007).
"Panel: Earth Heating Up," NPR - WBUR - Here and Now, (2 February 2007).
"[Backstory on] IPCC Fourth Assessment Report," The New York Times, (2 February 2007).
U.N. Panel Says Humans 'Very Likely' Causing Global Warming," PBS - NewsHour, (2 February 2007).
"U.N. Report: Humans Behind Climate Change," NPR - All Things Considered, (2 February 2007).
"Bush Views Shift on Climate Change," NPR - Day to Day, (1 February 2007).
"U.N. Prepares to Release Report on Climate Change," NPR - All Things Considered, (1 February 2007).
Supplementary Material on "bias" for next week - 15 February session.
[The what-the-professor-said-and-what-the-professor-meant Department...]
 

 

We are made aware in the daily news of instances of bias involving people in powerful positions and issues of conflict of interest....

"Commentary: Scalia's Cheney Ties,"
NPR - All Things Considered, (9 February 2004).
    Senior News Analyst NPR's Daniel Schorr reflects on a duck-hunting trip that Vice President Dick Cheney took with Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. On the Supreme Court, justices decide on their own whether to recuse themselves from cases. There's pressure for Scalia to recuse himself from a case involving records of Cheney's energy task force meetings.

These kinds of biases are easy to recognize -- although not always easy to correct. Similarly, the biases that stem from our ethnocentrism can be identified, named and to some extent "neutralized" or corrected.
 

 

Terrocentric bias, however, is far a far more subtle kind of bias than disciplinary biases, or power biases or even cultural biases. Our terrocentric bias operates on the normal rule of thumb of "out of sight, out of mind..." Since most of us [except George Buckley's students in ENVR E-110 Ocean Environments (Spring)] don't "see" what is happening beneith the surface of the ocean, many of us operate on a daily basis with a terrocentric bias. This can prove to be a major blindspot in studying climate science. Consider, for example:

Mangrove Forests and Coral Reefs
 

 

We seem to be capable of ignoring terresterial species as well. After all, "why does it matter?"

International Union for the Conservation of Nature -- [current meetings on biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.]

 
 

Not all species are suffering from human presence. In addition to our cultigens and domesticates, inclinines are doing quite well. Inclinines are species that are not parasites on us directly but live "in our wake" and "invade" new territories as we proceed to "disturb" environments. As we disturb more and more environments and as climate change alters the temperature of air, water and land, many of these species seem to be thriving. In some respectes, we are only beginning to discover our role as a "vector" species in a complex ecosystem.

What about those "intersticial species" -- the "inclinines"?

 
 

Beyond questions of other species how many of us pay serious attention to a-biotic systems like the thermal current system in the deep oceans? These may well turn out to be one of the "drivers" of climate change.

Ocean Currents and Weather

In short, the serious study of climate science requires us to give attention to an enormous amount of information over timescales and species ranges that are well beyond our habitual frames of reference. In this respect, climate science is the most integrative of all environmental sciences. It is absolutely essential for anyone seeking to learn how to move human society toward the goal of sustainability in the complex ecosystem we have come to inhabit.

Return to Syllabus