Climate Change Curriculum:
UPM Experiences
MATERIALS PREPARED BY
Assoc. Prof. Dr Ahmad Makmom Abdullah
FACULTY OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
Course Particulars
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Program: Bachelor of Environmental Science and Technology
Course Name: Carbon Sequestration and Climate Change
Course Code: ESC4303
Credit: 3(2+1)- 2 hours lecture and SCL per week and 3 hour laboratory
(Computer Modeling)
Total Learning Hours: 120 hours
Semester offered: Second Semester (February 2015- June 2015)
Student Level: 3rd year
Number of Student Registered for the course: 18
Mode of Teaching: Lectures, assignments (3 assignment) and SCL
Assessment:
– 60% Course work ( 2 Test and 3 Assignments and 1 presentation) and 40% Final Exam
Course Synopsis
• This course covers sources, changes and impacts
of Greenhouse Gases, Principles of United
Nations Framework Convention On Climate
Change. The Focus Is on temperature changes,
sea level rises, changes in amount of rainfall,
impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity and
sustainability of life support systems. Concept Of
• Carbon Sequestration in ecosystem and carbon
trading are discussed.
Student Assignment 1: Temperature
The temperature is getting higher!!!
Each country has similar trend line, but
different mean temperature. It fluctuates
steadily, but since the 1940s, it only
fluctuates slightly at constant rate and
tends to increase gradually after the 1970s.
Sudden decrease in 1880s due to
recurring Mayon volcanic eruption
Lowest due to cold wind
from the northern countries
Global temperature and
GHG forcing are due to CO2,
CH4, & N2O from Vostok ice
core. Net climate forcing
and modern temperature
zero points are at 1850,
which is assumed that
positive GHG forcing is
largely offset by negative
human-made forcings.
Rapid urban
development
Increasing
human
population
Coriolis
effect
High emission in
greenhouse
gases
Weather-changing
pattern
Student was asked to analyze the temperature trends based on Berkeley Earth Surface
Temperature: Student determine and discuss the questions:
1. The temperature trends in your country and neighboring countries. What is similar? What
are the differences?
Students Assignment 2: Pamphlets
• Example of student pamphlets
– Sakinah
– Haifa
Student Assignment 3: Climate Change Newsletter
• Examples
– Ashton
Laboratory Works: IPCC Carbon Emission
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Laboratory Session 2.National
Greenhouse Gases Inventory using
2006 IPCC Software:
How GHG inventory be made.
Procedure
• Step 1. Students download and read
2006IPCCSoftware_ver 2.12 before
coming to the laboratory.
• Step 2.Whole class briefing by the
instructor on the download
procedure.
• Step 3.Demonstration of Running
the Software.
• Step 4.Demonstration how the work
with worksheet.
Laboratory work: Online Java Climate Model
StudentOutline
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Experiment 4: Online Java ClimateModel
DATE: 3 April 2015
TIME: 9 A.M.-12 P.M.
PLACE: MAGIS, JSAS
Introduction:
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Student will learn how to explore the
interactive model system and how they can
change it, simply by adjusting with their
mouse parameters and observing the effect
instantly on diverse plots ranging from socioeconomic drivers to climate impacts. Student will experiment with interacting
processes affecting the carbon cycle and heat balance of the earth, investigate their relative speed, importance, and
uncertainty, and discover how model predictions work.The core science calculation methods in the system are calibrated to
be consistent with results from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, implemented efficiently in the java
language, to enable anybody to access this tool via the internet and explore diverse scenarios and the sensitivity of
projections to risk/value judgements and scientific uncertainties.
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Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the laboratory work student be able to:
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Explore IPCC scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions and predictions of consequent climate change
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Compare "baseline" scenarios (SRES) with "mitigation" scenarios to stabilise concentrations.
Laboratory Work: MAGICC/SCENGEN
STUDENT OUTLINE
Experiment 6 :ClimateChangeModel: MAGICC/SCENGEN
• DATE :
15, 20 and 29May2015
• TIME :
9 A.M.-12 P.M.
• PLACE:
MAGIS
Introduction
MAGICC and SCENGEN are coupled, user-friendly interactive software suites that allow users to investigate future climate change and its uncertainties at both
the global-mean and regional levels. MAGICC consists of a suite of coupled gas-cycle, climate and ice-melt models integrated into a single software package.
MAGICC carries through calculations at the global-mean level using the same upwelling-diffusion, energy-balance climate model that has been and is employed
by IPCC. SCENGEN uses these results, together with spatially detailed results from the CMIP3/AR4 archive of AOGCMs, to produce spatially detailed information
on future changes in temperature, precipitation and MSLP, changes in their variability, and a range of other statistics.The software allows the user to determine
changes in greenhouse-gas concentrations, global-mean surface air temperature, and sea level resulting from anthropogenic emissions.SCENGEN constructs a
range of geographically explicit climate change projections for the globe using the results from MAGICC together with AOGCM climate change information from
the CMIP3/AR4 archive.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the experiment, student be able to;
• determine the effects of uncertainties in the carbon cycle, the magnitude of aerosol forcing, the overall sensitivity of the climate
system to external forcing, and ocean mixing rate.
• intervene in the design of the global or regional climate change scenario by selecting and/or specifying the greenhouse gas and
sulfur dioxide emissions scenarios.
Lectures
• Some of Lecture notes from Leaf Workshop
were used in the lectures.
Videos
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El Nino
Earth under Water in the Next 20 Years
Dangerous Norway’s Atlantic Ocean Road
Sea Level Rise