Videos
of Week 1 LecturesClass Research Resources and Assignments
Week 1
Videos
of Week 1 Lectures
Introduction to Course
When you have completed the form, check your computer configurations to make sure that you have installed on your computer a RealPlayer to be able to hear and view streaming media files. In addition you will need to install an Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read PDF (Portable Document Files).
For more information on the technical requirements for viewing lectures, please see the Technical Requirements page
You can obtain free copies of these software programs by clicking on the following icons
and following the instructions for downloading and installation.
Note: If you have RealPlayer installed correctly, you may click on the picture of Earth from the moon below. After a moment, you should hear the "introduction" to the BBC documentary called "Climate Wars," broadcast on 13 January 2004.
If you are hearing nothing, you need to try again to install the RealPlayer program, and then click on this picture once again:
Click the Blue Marble to Hear BBC "Climate-Wars" ExcerptsTo test the Acrobat Reader, click on the following and think about going to the forthcoming lecture on "God and Global Warming" next week at the Divinity School.
The Science...
What is the current understanding of the scientific community about global climate change? What is by now generally understood? How did we arrive at these understandings? What is still contested?
massive global study on computer models
of global climate change estimates.
.... and social impact...
Around a 100 people are thought to have died in severe flooding in central Europe.
Several hundred thousand people have been moved into emergency accommodation while they wait for the waters to subside.
From Germany and Austria to Russia's Black Sea, summer storms have swollen rivers, pushed dams to breaking point and triggered landslides.
The River Danube, now an angry brown torrent along much of its long route through Europe, is causing some of the most concern.
Troops and civilians have joined forces in a massive sandbagging operation along the Danube and other rivers.
Farmers have watched helplessly as crops and land were lost, and tens of thousands of people have been moved from their homes.Two questions will be paramount in considering the social impact of climate change:
1) What will be the social impact of climate change if nothing is done to promote policies of mitigation (to lower greenhouse gas emissions - GHG emissions) or adaptation (to adjust to changes in climate)?
and
2) What kinds of social impacts can be expected and should be foreseen if we do wish collectively to reduce GHG emissions on a significant scale? What will happen to our "way of life?" What social dilemmas do we have to face to reduce GHG emissions?
Consider this discussion. for example, -- readily available to anyone on the public airwaves in other industrial countries.
Why doesn't this kind of discussion emerge here in the United States? What are the cultural barriers to our understanding of our own circumstance?
BBC - "Climate Wars" - Listen to Part 1 - 37 min.
In addition,
Because of a recent election and some of the changes we are beginning to witness after years of inactivity, we will make every attempt to keep you informed about "breaking" news a forthcoming reports of major significance on climate science and climate policy issues. Consider, for example, some of the material that has become available to the world just since we taught this course last spring:
....meanwhile on the other side of the Capitol there were other hearings...
Further,
In this course you will have the privilege of meeting and learning from one of the most brilliant and dedicated climate experts in the world whose own commitments as a citizen-scientist with a positive plan for action are now being recognized -- not just by his friends and colleagues -- but by the whole world (thanks to the Internet and its global reach) as exemplary in our effort to craft a vision for the human community in a post-carbon fueled world:
