Minnesota climate class

Class 1

Covers the three main controls of global average temperature: the sun, Earth's reflectivity (albedo), and greenhouse gases. Details how human activity can influence albedo and the greenhouse effect.

Download class 1 slides with presentation notes

Class materials:

• NASA modeled aerosols video. I used Animation 2, the second video on the page.

Suggested reading for after class 2:

• Black carbon and climate
• Brief explainer on tropospheric ozone, the "bad" ozone

Class 2

Detailed step-by-step walk through of what has determined the global temperature during the instrument record (back to 1850), with evidence showing that only human causes can explain our current warming. In-depth discussion of natural processes that remove carbon from the atmosphere, and why carbon we put into the air today will be around for tens of thousands of years.

Download class 2 slides with presentation notes

Class materials:

• Met Office El Nino dynamics video
• NASA "A year in the life of Earth's CO2" video
• CO2 annual cycle animation

Suggested reading for after class 2:

• An unfrozen North
• Will Deforestation and Warming Push the Amazon to a Tipping Point?

Class 3

An overview of paleoclimate, the study of past climates. A discussion of paleoclimate proxies, or the ways that geologists, chemists, and biologists can infer information about old climates from things like lake mud, old ice, or cave formations. Discussion of what caused warm and cool climates in the past, and how current human-caused climate change compares. A discussion of climate models.

Download class 3 slides with presentation notes

Class materials:

• Continental drift video

Suggested reading for after class 3:

• The Cloud Conundrum
• World Without Ice

Class 4

Part 1: How will climate change impact Minnesota? A discussion of likely changes and uncertainty for seasonal temperature and precipitation changes.

Download class 4 slides with presentation notes

Class materials:

• Carbon Cycle Video

Class 5

Part 2: How will climate change impact Minnesota? A discussion of likely changes and uncertainty of drought/aridity changes and ecological impacts to Minnesota.

Download class 5 slides with presentation notes

Class materials:

• Intermittent lake ice video.

Class 6

How will climate change impact the rest of the world? A discussion of the changes that will make many parts of the world uninhabitable in this century. A critical look at climate 'moonshots' that have been proposed as a quick fix to solve climate change. A discussion of how fast we need to act centered around the "carbon budget," or the amount of carbon that can be emitted before we commit to dangerous global warming.

Download class 6 slides with presentation notes

Suggested reading for after class 6:

• Why is climate change’s 2 degrees Celsius of warming limit so important?
• A case against climate engineering
• The Dirty Secret of the World's Plan to Avert Climate Disaster
• The Race to Understand Antarctica's Most Terrifying Glacier
• Revealing the naked emperor - Paris, 2°C and carbon budgets [Video]

Class 7

What will large scale action on climate change look like for Minnesota and the United States? A critical discussion of the "electrify everything" strategy to move off of fossil fuels for transportation, buildings, and electricity generation. A lot of my own thoughts on what challenges might crop up, and how a person might start to find a place to contribute.

Download class 7 slides with presentation notes

Suggested reading for after class 7:

• Angry Optimism in a Drowned World: A Conversation with Kim Stanley Robinson
• Discount rates: A boring thing you should know about (with otters!)
• Heaven or High Water