ENSC 420 - Global Change

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: Sustainability
Interaction of climate and Earth’s systems. Links between past and future climate, life, oceans, and the solid earth. Topics include orbital variations, greenhouse gases, ozone, extreme weather, ocean acidification, sea level rise, climate variability, climate modeling, mitigation, adaptation, and sustainability.

Prerequisites: CHEM 112, ENSC 280 and PHYS 126.
Equivalent Quarter Course: ENSC 4200.
Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground, or Entirely Online, or Hybrid.
Grading: A-F grading only.
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: Overlay - Sustainability
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge of anthropogenic and natural contributions to global change, and the consequences for humans, ecosystems, and Earth systems.
Analyze and interpret global change data (air and/or ocean temperatures, ocean acidity, etc.) to understand past and current trends in Earth systems.
Explain important experimental and theoretical methodologies used to help quantify and predict future global change (climate modeling, measurement of gas fluxes and ocean acidity, isotopic measurements, satellite-based measurements, etc.)
Apply knowledge of the science of global change in order to critically evaluate public discourse surrounding the issues (popular press articles, blog posts, think tank white papers, etc.)
Quantify future climate scenarios using simple climate modeling exercises

Sustainability Overlay Learning Outcomes

identify the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, either in general or in relation to a specific problem;
analyze interactions between human activities and natural systems;
describe key threats to environmental sustainability; and
explain how individual and societal choices affect prospects for sustainability at the local, regional, and/or global levels.