UNST 232 Global Environmental Change

last website update: 2/8/11

assignments (due dates as in syllabus)

• 1: Chapter 7 questions

• 2: Analysis of climate change poll results.
  • assignment
  • World Development Report 2010 website

• 3 and 8: research project
  • What Drives Societal Collapse?, Harvey Weiss and Raymond Bradley, Science Perspectives, 2001.
  • PSU's Millar Library
    • Research Survival Guide
    • How to evaluate a reference source
    • Write and Cite (How to cite references and avoid plagiarism.)
  • PSU Writing Center
  • Purdue Online Writing Lab
    • Annotated Bibliographies
    • Plagiarism

• 4: Chapter 5 questions

• 5: historical weather station data
  • assignment
  • Excel workbook containing time series data
  • KMMV McMinnville Municipal Airport weather station
  • KICT Wichita Mid_continent Airport weather station

• 6: Chapter 6 questions

• 7: Chapter 8 questions

additional graphics

• cartoon distribution of incoming and outgoing radiation
• cartoon of Earth's radiation balance
• animated global cloud fraction observed by MODIS on Terra
• cartoon meridional overturning of Earth's atmosphere
• cartoon general circulation of the atmosphere
• cartoon Atlantic water masses
• cartoon carbon cycle overview
• El Nino Southern Oscillation
  • El Nino and La Nina winter in North America, from NOAA
  • El Nino global conditions, from NOAA
  • La Nina global conditions, from NOAA
• global ocean thermohaline circulation, UNEP graphic
• carbon cycle graphic from NASA
• Northern Hemisphere ice from NOAA
• Southern Hemisphere ice from NOAA
• paper on atmospheric carbon "stabilization wedges" by Robert Socolow, Princeton University

Who will be most affected by climate change due to global warming?

• 6 billion Others Climate Voices. 26 minute film
• UNEP Africa vital climate graphics
• UNEP Arctic vital climate graphics
• Physicians for Social Responsibility
• Interfaith Power and Light
• Oregon, Washington, and Idaho climate data
• IPCC region reports (these are technical)

online resources

• glossary of climate change terms (US EPA)

• The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report discussion of Northern Hemisphere temperature change over the last 1000 years.
  • WG2 projected impacts by sector
  • WG2 projected impacts by region
  
  
• U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  
  • National Weather Service ENSO website
  • Russian heat wave 2010
  • Carbon Tracker
  • Climate
  • U.S. Climate Extremes Index
  • An introduction to paleoclimate research
  • A Paleo Perspective on Drought
  • A Paleo Perspective on Global Warming
  • Abrupt Climate Change: A Paleo Perspective
  
  
• United Nations Environment Program: Climate

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute: Ocean and Climate Change Institute

• U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change

• WMO Climate Variability and Extremes

• Real Climate blog

• Global Temperature Patterns in Past Centuries:An Interactive Presentation

• International Research Institute for Climate Prediction at Columbia University
  
  • homepage
  • Climate Information Digest from May 1998 to today.

• Pew Center on Global Climate Change a non-partisan organization.
  Research reports range from climate science to economic impacts. The glossary is very useful.

• US Geological Survey Strategy for Assessing Potential Future Changes in Climate, Hydrology, and Vegetation in the Western United States

• U.N. Environment Program climate change in Africa

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
  • climate change and biodiversity
  • Regional Impacts of Climate Change

• U.K. Met Office introduction to climate science

• The World's Water website from the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think-tank in Oakland, CA.