Download Global Climate Change and Fossil Fuels

Global Climate Change and Fossil Fuels
At the end of this course you will be able to:
 Critically evaluate media coverage of global climate change
 Apply information on the origin, and production rates of fossil fuels in order
to evaluate predictions of future fossil fuel supplies
MWF 1:55: 2:45 in Delehanty room 219
Prof. Charlotte Mehrtens
207 Delehanty Bldg
[email protected]
Office Hours: Wednesday 3-4; Tuesday 10-11or by appointment
Email for appointments
Text:
Pdf files will be available on Blackboard throughout the semester. You will need
regular access to a computer that will allow you to view pdf’s.
Deffeyes, Ken, 2005, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubert’s Peak, Hill and Wang Pubs,
ISBN – 13:978-0-8090-2597-0
Supplemental Materials from which the pdfs originate:
Alley, R. 2000, The Two Mile Time Machine, Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ.
229 pp
Campbell, C. and J. Laherrere, 1998, The End of Cheap Oil, Scientific American.
pp78-83.
Deffeyes, K., 2008, Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, Princeton
Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 232pp.
Downey, M. 2009, Oil 101 Wooden Table Press, 440pp
Huddart, D. and T. Stott, 2010, Earth Environments, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford. 896pp
Kolbert, E. 2007, Unconventional Crude, The New Yorker Magazine, November 12,
2007, p46-51.
Lemley, B. 2002 The New Ice Age, Discover Magazine, September, 2002, pp.34-41.
Ruddimanm W.F. 2007 Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum, Princeton Univ. Press,
Princeton NJ 226pp
Trefil, J. and R. Hazen, 2007, The Sciences, 6th ed, Wiley and Sons, NY. 113pp
Assessment: your grade will be based on several forms of evaluation:
 Attendance- I expect you to be in class. Poor attendance will result in
borderline final grades moving downwards at least one half letter grade
 Homework assignments: throughout the semester there will be a variety of
homework assignments, some will be calculations and some will be reading
and writing responses (15%)
 There will be two writing assignments (10 pts each; 20%)
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Classroom discussion/participation. I keep track of who participates in class.
Regular participation will result in borderline final grades moving upwards
at least one half letter grade
mid-term and final exams (15 pts each; 30%)
Final term paper and presentation. Due before the last week of the class
(around Dec 1) will be an approx 20 page paper on a topic of your choice
related to the class topic as well as a presentation to the class of your
findings. On time submission of material prior to final paper will be part of
the final grade (35%)
Writing assignments: Early in the semester you will be asked to write two articles,
written in a journalism format (we will use the campus newspaper, The Cynic, as the
intended outlet). The purpose of these assignments is for you to demonstrate your
understanding of the scientific basis to climate change and fossil fuel consumption.
The first assignment will ask you to explain and demonstrate a student’s typical
daily electrical usage and what this means in terms of fossil fuel consumption. The
second assignment will ask you to explain the science behind global climate change
and how it is related to the topic of the first essay.
Term Paper: This course covers a variety of topics related to the consumption of
fossil fuels and its impact on global climate. There are many related topics that can
be explored by you in your term paper, including economic, environmental and
social issues. The audience for your term paper is the American public (i.e. a
confused or poorly informed but opinionated person). Your term paper should take
the format of a “briefing paper” produced by a non-profit organization who aims to
explain your particular issue to the public.
Term Paper Deadlines: No later than Oct 8th you need to provide me with the topic
of your term paper. No later than Oct 20th you need to provide me with an
annotated bibliography of at least five resources that you’ve examined and decided
will be useful, and why they will be of use (in other words, you need to have
examined them). During the class periods on Nov 3 and 5 you will meet with me to
discuss progress on your paper. The first draft is due on Nov. 15th and it will be
returned to you for revision on Nov. 19th. The final paper, along with your draft, is
due on Dec 1st. You will distribute an abstract of your paper to your classmates on
Dec 1st and make a presentation to the class between Dec 3 and 8th. I will describe
what an “abstract” consists of as this deadline approaches. Your final grade for the
term paper will include successfully meeting the above deadlines.
The UVM Academic Honesty Policy
This course adheres to the Code of Academic Integrity set out in the Cats Tale. You
will be asked to read and sign the academic honesty statement, acknowledging that
you are aware of the University policy, including but not limited to cheating on
quizzes/exams, ownership of one’s work, and plagiarism. If found guilty of a
violation of the University’s academic honesty policy, a grade of XF will appear on
your transcript, indicating that you received a failing grade due to an honesty
violation.
Course Topics
Part I Controls on earth’s climate
Heat and energy flow
Electromagnetic radiation and the greenhouse effect
Components of a climate model
Distributing heat on earth
Part II The Carbon cycle
The complex cycling of carbon on earth
The relationship of carbon to climate
Part III Fossil Fuels
What are they and how they form
Finding , recovering, and marketing
Part IV Future Predictions
SCHEDULE: FOLLOWING PAGE (subject to change…syllabus will be modified and
uploaded on Blackboard regularly…it is your responsibility to keep track of
revisions and changes to schedules and assignments) ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE
POSTED ON BLACKBOARD IN THE “ANNOUNCEMENTS” ON THE HOME PAGE
DATE
TOPIC
ASSIGNMENT DUE
30-Aug
class introduction
knowledge survey
1-Sep
work and power
3-Sep
energy…what is heat?
Trefil & Hazen pdf
Problem set
Trefil & Hazen pdf
Problem set
6-Sep
no class labor day
8-Sep
waves & electromagnetic radiation
Trefil & Hazen pdf
10-Sep
absorption spectra
Trefil and Hazen chapters
On electromag. spectrum
13-Sep
building our first climate model
15-Sep
17-Sep
computer model of earth's IR
spectrum
distributing heat on earth
First writing assignment due
20-Sep
distribution, continued
2nd Huddart & Stott pdf
23-Sep
thermohaline circulation
Lemley article
27-Sep
THC continued
second writing assignment due
29-Sep
monsoons and El Nino
1-Oct
carbon cycle
4-Oct
carbon cycle
6-Oct
exam 1
8-Oct
the record of CO2
11-Oct
Library activity
13-Oct
Geologic record of CO2
Alley article
15-Oct
Milankovitch cycles
Ruddiman chapts 3,4,5
18-Oct
Milankovitch cycles & CO2
20-Oct
human influence on climate
Energy audit due
Stanley pdf
term paper topic due
22-Oct
Pulling it all together: what
controls climate?
24-Oct
Hydrocarbons: what they are
27-Oct
how hydrocarbons form
29-Oct
the geology of oil and gas
1-Nov
O & G geology, continued
3-Nov
term paper discussions
5-Nov
term paper discussions
8-Nov
Hubbert's Peak
Deffeyes, chap 1-3
10-Nov
Hubbert's, continued
Campbell and Laharrere 1998
12-Nov
tar sands
Kolbert article; Deffeyes chapt
15-Nov
methane
first draft due
Deffeyes, chapt
Huddart and Stott pdf
annotated bibliography due
"Oil 101" chapters
19-Nov
11/2211/26
THANKSGIVING BREAK
19-Nov
coal resources
Deffeyes chapt
1-Dec
the IPCC report
term paper due
3-Dec
presentations of
reading all term paper
abstracts
6-Dec
term paper
8-Dec
research
8/2010
8/2010