| Climate of the present |
| 1) Describe the climate of some country or region and how
climate influences business, politics, agriculture, etc. of your
chosen country or region (* Tell us what country. Brazil) |
| 2) Describe climate trends during the 20th
century and how they have affected society, business,
agriculture, etc. |
| 3) Evaluate the Gaia hypothesis (read the book by Lovelock
and/or papers critiquing the idea). |
| 4) Describe the economic impacts of El Niņo and other modern
day climate phenomena. Are predictions serving the communities
that could benefit? |
| 5) Seasonal climate forecasting: How is it done? Who uses
it? Make recommendations for ways of improving the way forecasts
are given. |
| 6) What is the latest word on how hurricanes
might depend on global warming. Have hurricane intensity and
frequency changed in the last 50 yrs? Is the story the same for
all oceans? Why is this topic so politicized? |
| 7) What does traditional knowledge tell us about climate or
weather? Compare and contrast its use in different parts of the
world. How could this knowledge be used by others? What are the
roots of this traditional knowledge? |
| 8) How do climate scientists communicate with the public?
How could it be more effective? |
| 9) Describe the monsoon circulations in more
detail. How do they effect local and global
economies? |
| 10) How are climate data used to manage natural resources
like fishing, forests, etc.? |
| 11) Desertification: Is it due to natural or human activity
(consider the Sahel and/or Rajasthan)? |
| 2. Climate of the past |
| 1) What role did climate play in the demise
of the Anasazi, Thule, Aztec, or other
civilizations? |
| 2) How do historical accounts of climate contribute to our
knowledge of climate (e.g., Little Ice Age or Medieval Warm
Period)? |
| 3) Describe the massive extinctions that have occured in the
last 500 million years (i.e. Permian/Triassic Boundary and
Cretacous/Tertiary Boundary). |
| 4) Describe the climate dynamics of the Neoproterozoic
Snowball Earth. Investigate the problem of biology and its
survival. |
| 5) Describe evidence that argues the Little Ice Age was
global versus more localized in Europe. |
| 6) Investigate the Younger Dryas. |
| 7) In what ways has climate influenced geological
development on timescales of tens to hundreds of millions of
years? |
| 8) Describe the effect of climate on the history of human
settlement. Compare and contrast its influence on various
cultures. |
| 9) Describe the effect of the Little Ice Age on society,
agriculture, politics, etc. |
| 10) Describe theories that relate human evolution to climate
change. |
| 11) Make some simple calculations to show that it is hard
for Mars to ever have had liquid water on its surface, in spite of
the geological evidence. |
| Climate change and Climate of the
future |
| 1) What is the expected impact of global climate change on
water resources, ecosystems, coastal zones (and
marine ecosystems), human settlements,
insurance, or human health? (Each of these is covered in one
chapter of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change IPCC 2001.) |
| 2) Discuss the moral and ethical dimensions
of climate change. |
| 3) What are the prospects for renewable
energy? |
| 4) Techno-fixes: What are technological
solutions for sequestering carbon dioxide or coping with the
consequences of global warming? How realistic are they?
|
| 5) Are trends in weather-related insurance claims related to
climate change? |
| 6) How are glaciers shrinking around the globe? Compare the
cause of shrinkage in various regions. |
| 7) What are the effects of global warming on high latitude
climate (temperature, permafrost, sea ice, ice sheets,
etc.)? |
| 8) Investigate the issue of uncertainty in climate
prediction, use the IPCC as a guide. Relate this uncertainty
to climate models. How is uncertainty interpreted by the public?
|
| 9) Explain why predicting future cloud distributions and
cloud feedbacks is challenging? Use the IPCC as a starting
point. |
| 10) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC
report? How could the IPCC be better? (Focus on the books on
climate physics or climate impacts.) |
| 11) Describe the focus, goals, content, etc. of the IPCC,
US National Assessment, and US Climate Change Science
Program. |