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Spring 2009, 2:00-3:20p Monday & Wednesday, 206 Condon Hall |
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Instructor |
Pat Bartlein, 154 Condon Hall, 6-4967; email: bartlein@uoregon.edu, office hours 4-5p W, 2-3:30 Thurs |
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Overview: This course will examine the physical and human geographical aspects of global environmental change, focusing on natural variations of the environment over time, the impact of human action on the Earth and its environmental systems, and the projection of future environmental changes. |
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Expanded
course description: The course will
introduce some of the major themes in global environmental change, a
relatively new interdisciplinary field that focuses on both long-term and
recent changes in the Earth system, including brought about by both human and
natural causes. The major components of the Earth system will be
described, along with the ways they are linked and vary over time. The
lectures and readings will cover the basic concepts and records of environmental
change (both natural and human-induced), the tools used to develop those
records, and the ways in which our understanding of those concepts have
developed. An
important reason for studying past environmental change is to learn how to
project future environmental changes, and this task is motivating the
development of both stand-alone models of individual components of the Earth
system as well as integrated models that explicitly examine the linkages
between human activities and the environment.
The way in which such models are developed, tested, and used will be a
key component of the lectures and discussion. The
study of global environmental change also provides the context for
understanding how humans have interacted with the environment over time to
create the one we are currently living in and rapidly modifying. A full understanding of environmental
change therefore requires the synthesis of information from a variety of
sources that describe both physical environment and human activity, and in
ways that encourage and exploit new techniques for viewing the Earth system. The
online exercises will be focused mainly on "making sense" of the
kinds of data and information that arise in studying global environmental
change. Although ultimately based on numerical data from satellites or
from simulation models, most of the information that is actually analyzed in
studying global appears in the form of maps or other graphical summaries, and
interpretation of such summary information, is critical for understanding how
the physical environment varies over time and space. |
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Syllabus, supplemental materials: http://geography.uoregon.edu/bartlein/courses/geog361/ Lecture outlines, reading assignments, lecture images, grades, etc.: http://blackboard.uoregon.edu Prerequisites:
GEOG 321 Climatology, GEOG 322 Geomorphology, or GEOG 323 Biogeography |
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Goal of the course: The course will introduce some of the major themes in global environmental change, a relatively new interdisciplinary field. In particular the major components of the Earth system will be described, along with the ways they are linked and vary over time. In addition to the basic concepts of environmental change, both natural and human-induced, the ways in which our understanding of those concepts have developed will also be discussed, as will the tools that are used for projecting future environmental changes. |
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Workload expectations: Attendance at two lectures per week. There will be 8 exercises that will be completed on line using materials from the course web page and other sources, these will take 2-3 hours each week. Also, participation in an online discussion board in Blackboard will be required. Each student will be required to initiate five threads discussing a web page that offers information on global change, and comment on 10 threads. This should require on average about 2 hours per week. In addition, about 6 hours per week will be required to complete the readings. Additional time could be profitably spent on browsing on-line resources such as links on the Current Weather & Climate web page (http://geography.uoregon.edu/weather/), climate and environmental change blogs, the NYTimes science section, and the news portions of Science and Nature. |
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Exercises: The weekly exercises will be focused on "making sense" of the kinds of data and information that arise in studying global environmental change. Although ultimately based on numerical data from satellites or from simulation models, most of the information that is actually analyzed exists in the form of maps or other graphical summaries. Consequently, the exercises will focus on the interpretation of such summary information. Exercises will be posted on Wednesdays and will be due at 5pm on the Wednesday of the following week. One point will be deducted for each day the exercise is late. All exercises must be completed in order to receive a passing grade for the course, even if the lateness of submission would result in a score of 0. |
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Grading/assessment: Two in-class exams (20% each; weeks of May 3 and June 7 ); plus 4 short quizzes (4% each), completion of all eight exercises (32%), and participation in the class discussion board (12%). No make-up exams or quizzes. Do not miss class on the days quizzes are given. With adequate documentation of the medical or other issue that created an unavoidable absence, scores from another exam or quiz may be substituted for a single missed exam or quiz. The exams and quiz questions will consist of a essay and short-answer questions, will emphasize concepts (as opposed to factoids), and will also include questions aimed at your ability to synthesize material presented in the lectures, readings, and related web pages. |
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Texts: All readings will be available as .pdfs online, and will mainly consist of chapters from the following books or report series: |
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Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis http://www.ipcc.ch Synthesis and Assessment Products from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program http://climatescience.gov One Planet Many People, Atlas of Our Changing Environment http://na.unep.net/OnePlanetManyPeople/ Weart, S.R (2008) The Discovery of Global Warming, http://www.aip.org/history/climate/ Additional .pdfs will be made available through the Blackboard course page |
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How to deal with the readings: All of the readings will be available as Adobe Acrobat .pdfs. There are two reasons for this, both related to the pace and nature of research in global environmental change: 1) there is no single up-to-date textbook (and if one existed, it would cost a fortune owing to the density of color images in would require), and 2) most of research publications and assessments (e.g. from the IPCC) are available first (or only) as .pdfs. Printing every single page in the .pdfs will not be feasible, and so it will be necessary to develop a personalized routine for reading the material online. |
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Collaboration:
Working together on exercises is a good thing, but you must submit your own
work. Similarly, using somebody else's distillation of notes to use as
a study guide may be convenient, but it won't provide the same insight as
organizing the material yourself. UO's policy
on academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced: Please take a look
at |
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Other things: The visual inspection and interpretation of the maps and images will be important, but accommodation for alternative methods of course-material access may be possible--please see me as soon as possible. Also, the support provided by the following may by useful: UO Campus Life
Resources http://www.uoregon.edu/~stacaf/UGCampus.htm
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The Internet and Global Change: Anybody can set up a web site now, make it look like it's an authoritative source of information on global change (and in particular, climate change), and make that site appear as though it were relatively "green" as opposed to, say, skeptical about human-induced climate change. It would be a good thing learn how to deconstruct web pages by figuring out who the "owners" are, and whether they have a particular orientation that may be based on a political perspective as opposed to a scientific one. |
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Schedule See the Blackboard course page for specific lecture outlines, readings and study questions
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