Instructor: Prof. Ning Zeng
Course website: http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~zeng/AOSC360
Spring 2024, TTh 4:45-6:00
Course Objective
Climate change is the greatest challenge humanity faces in the 21 st century. Global mean
surface temperature has increased by 1.2C since the beginning of industrialization, driven by fossil fuel burning and land use change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has proposed to limit global warming to within 1.5-2C, beyond which many tipping points in the Earth system would be reached and cause irreversible damages. This course will examine potential solutions to mitigate climate change.
Students will learn the basics of climate change, energy science, and carbon cycle. Students will be engaged in evaluating the scientific, technological, and socioeconomic constraints of
possible solutions.
1) Reduce fossil fuel emissions
2) Energy efficiency
3) Renewable energy
4) Carbon removal and sequestration
5) Geoengineering
6) Socioeconomics of climate change
7) Adaptation
Course Content
The basic science behind the greenhouse effect. Climate change in Earth’s history and global warming. Causes of human induced climate change: fossil fuel burning and land use change. Impacts and vulnerability of climate change: tipping points. The natural carbon cycle. Anthropogenic disturbance to the global carbon cycle. Conventional energy sources: coal, oil, gas, nuclear. Renewable energy sources: biomass, hydro, geothermal, solar, wind. Carbon removal and sequestration and management of the carbon cycle in the land, ocean and geological reservoirs and fluxes. Economics of climate change. Geoengineering by solar
radiation management. Mitigation vs. adaptation.