Vår 2018

MNF-1100 Climathematics - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for matematikk og statistikk

Type of course

The course is suitable for any university student with a dedicated interest for the issue of global climate change. It is also available as a singular or elective course independent of study program, also to exchange students and free-movers.

Course contents

The course will give the student the necessary background to follow and engage in the on-going debates on the following topics: What is the global mean temperature and how has it changed? Why does climate change? What does it take to build a model of the climate system? How trustworthy are climate models? What is the purpose of regional downscaling? What is the "cascade of uncertainty" and why does it matter? What shapes climate vulnerability? When are climate forecasts good enough to take action? Who or what is most at risk from climate change? How can urbanities avoid becoming climate victims or villains? What is dangerous climate change? Why and how are carbon footprints measured? How to decarbonise economies? How is it possible to adapt to an uncertain climate? Could or should Humankind geo-engineer the Earth? How is climate change communicated? Who are the climate experts? How connected is climate change to other global challenges?

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the autumn semester and 1 December for the spring semester. Applicants from outside the Nordic countries: 1 October for the spring semester and 15 April for the autumn semester.

Admission requirements

Higher Education Entrance Qualification.

A certain academic maturity is desirable; hence, the course is most suitable for second-year students and beyond.

Application code: 9199

Objective of the course

Knowledge - The student acquires sufficient knowledge to:

read and fully understand the summaries for policymakers of the IPCC and similar reports,
grasp the most important aspects of the scientific chapters of these reports,
read and understand the essential content of central scientific papers on climate change,
and form a critical and knowledge-based opinion on assertions made in reports, books and blogs on climate and energy policy.

Skills - The student will be able to convey in a non-technical manner:

existing knowledge, and lack of knowledge, pertaining to technical, socio-economic and ethical questions surrounding the deployment of climate science.

General expertise - The student will be able to discuss:

how to build and test a climate model,
who or what is most at risk from climate change,
how to decarbonize economies,
how to adapt to climate change,
whether we should geoengineer the climate system,
how to communicate climate science to policy makers and the general public.

Language of instruction

The language of instruction is English, and all of the syllabus material is in English. Examination questions will be given in English, but may be answered either in English or a Scandinavian language.

Teaching methods

Teaching: 60 hours.

The teaching is organized in 20 sessions, each lasting 3 hours. There will be 2 sessions per week during 10 weeks. Each session will consist of a lecture followed by group work and discussions. The group work will use work sheets that are filled in by each student. After these sessions are over the students will work for 3-4 weeks on individual projects which will result in 20 minutes presentations + 10 minutes discussions for the full class in the final two weeks of the course.

Assessment

A written exam, 4 hours counting 100%. Topics for the exam will be issues dealt with in the group discussions and the project presentations.

Assessment scale: Letter grades A-F.

Coursework requirements:
For permission to take the exam a passing grade is required on the oral presentation of an individual projecet.

Date for examination

Written examination 07.05.2018

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.

Recommended reading/syllabus

Robert L. Wilby: Climate Change in Practice, Topics for Discussion with Group Exercises, Cambridge University Press, 2017, ISBN 978-1-316-50777-3.

Cliff Hastings and Kelvin Mischo: Hands-on start to Wolfram Mathematica: And Programming with the Wolfram Language, Wolfram Media, 2016, ISBN 978-1-57955-012-7.

Additional information and teaching plan spring 2018

The teaching schedule will mostly follow the structure of Wilby¿s book, with each session (except the first two) covering one of the 18 topics in the book. The style of the book is to present relatively condensed summaries of each topic, pointing to research articles for further study. The lectures will make accessible to the students material from some of these articles and other relevant material that sometimes will deviate from the book. Hence the teaching sessions and the book are complementary, and neither can substitute the other.

For simple computation and simulations, curve plotting, animations etc., the course will apply Mathematica, for which UiT has a site licence. Associated with Mathematica is Wolfram Alpha, which is a web-based resource, from which one can download data, videos, etc. The students should bring their laptops to the sessions, and be connected to the internet vi wi-fi. Use of Mathematica outside the university requires that one connects to the UiT network via a VPN client. No previous knowledge of Mathematica is assumed.

Week 2, Jan 8-12:

Topic 0A. Overview of the course, creation of work groups.
Topic: 0B. Introduction to Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha.

Week 3, Jan 15-19:

Topic 1. What is the global mean temperature and how has it changed?
Topic 2. Why does climate change?

Week 4, Jan 22-26:

Topic 3. What does it take to build a model of the climate system?
Topic 4. How trustworthy are climate models?

Week 5, Jan 29-Feb 2:

Topic 5. What is the purpose of regional downscaling?
Topic 6. What is the ¿cascade of uncertainty¿ and why does it matter?

Week 6, Feb 5-9:

Topic 10. How can urbanities avoid becoming climate victims or villains?

Week 8, Feb 19-23:

Topic 11. What is dangerous climate change?
Topic 12. Why and how are carbon footprints measured?

Week 9, Feb 26-March 2: Winter break

Week 10, March 5-9:

Topic 13. How to decarbonise economies?
Topic 14. How is it possible to adapt to an uncertain climate?

Week 11, March 12-16:

Topic 15. Could or should Humankind geo-engineer the Earth?
Topic 16. How is climate change communicated?

Week 12, March 19-23:

Topic 17. Who are the climate experts?
Topic 18. How connected is climate change to other global challenges?

Week 13, March 26- April 2: Easter break

Weeks 14-16, April 3-20: Work on individual projects

Weeks 17-18, April 23-May 4: Presentation of projects

Week 19, May 7-11: Written exam.