Climate change is a difficult, contentious, and important issue. It will perhaps be the defining environmental issue of the 21st Century. This course aims to address the whole complexity of climate change as an issue, by bringing together the science, impacts, economics, abatement technologies, and policy solutions into one course. Through this course, we will address several important questions. What is the scientific basis for our understanding of climate change, and in what ways is that scientific basis uncertain? What changes in climate might we expect over the coming centuries? What would be the impacts of these changes in climate for human well-being and the natural world? What are the sources of emissions of greenhouse gases? What technologies exist or might be developed to allow us to slow climate change, and what international policy solutions might be necessary or preferred? Students will be expected to show mastery of relevant concepts drawn from the Earth sciences, chemistry, physics, engineering, economics, and political science, and be able to explain the relevance of these concepts for our present understanding of human -caused climate change and for the viability of different proposed solutions.
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Year Taken: AY 19/20, Sem 2
Grade: SAh yes Climate Change, the “infamous” course in EESS. This course is coordinated by Dr Adam Switzer, Academic Chair of ASE and PI for the Earth Observatory (Note that I said coordinated because he only taught the last few lectures as he was generally occupied due to his responsibilities). Well, there were guest lecturers that were very insightful in their respective fields, but the lectures were often too technical for Year 1s and the lesson objectives were all over the place. Honestly, I’m not sure what is the takeaway of this course other than the anguish from writing papers. Not sure whether to thank god for the S/U option that came at the expense of a pandemic.
Quiz 1 (10%) | 31/40
Was told that it was a quiz assessing statistics/data analysis skills so the majority of the class didn’t study for content at all. Turns out, technical content such as the concept of hadley cells and monsoons were tested. If not for the internet (online quiz remember?), we would have been thoroughly screwed.On the way to St John’s Islands! Credits: Delia
Video Presentation 20% | 19/20
This was supposed to be an actual presentation on any climate change topic like our seniors did, but I guessed the CC team got bored watching a bunch of year 1s babbling in a lecture theatre so they changed the format.
I initially thought we were screwed after being placed in a team of 4 with an exchange student (no offense), but turns out the team dynamics were super fun and we did pretty well. We did a 5 min video on the loss of coral reefs and even ended up on a day trip to St John islands.Research Paper 1: Personal Reflection (25%) | ~70%
This is a 2000 word essay linking your personal experience with climate change. Reflective essay (they said), so I wrote about something familiar- How Climate Change Affects the Dive Tourism Industry. PLOT TWIST! Turns out we were suppose to write a scientific essay with some reflective elements in it, they didn’t even write it in the rubrics! Needless to say, majority of the class did badly due to the miscommunication, I sincerely hope that our feedback did reach the management, but if things don’t change, at least now YOU know. Lucky you.Quiz 2 (15%) | 43.5/60
Another online quiz based off the second half of the semester. Manageable, if you studied. At least that’s how I felt… because the score meant otherwise LOL.Research Paper 2: Climate change mitigation and adaptation (30%) | Estimated: B to A-
This was horrible. We were expected to write a 4000 words (yes, double damage) essay on the measures to tackle climate change despite the limited knowledge that we have. I wrote about C02 Direct Air Capture which was surprisingly interesting but a headache to write about. You’re gonna spend 4000 words with your topic, so choose wisely.This review was published with the kind permission of Roy. Originally published at https://djtangent.wordpress.com/2020/05/15/eess-y1s2-2020/
June 30, 2021
