GEOL-412 - Climate Change: past, present & future is an interdisciplinary examination of past and present climate change and of how predicted future climate change will affect us and our environment.  The course will include a review of the earth’s climate system, how the climate changes on various time scales - from years to billions of years - how we’ve learned about past climates and how we model climate changes through time.  We will look at the current and projected impacts of anthropogenic climate change, both globally and in our region.   

Resources:

Textbook: Earth’s Climate: Past and future (2^nd ed.) by Wlliam Ruddiman (Freeman and Co.)

My web site (http://records.viu.ca/~earles/) has many resources that are relevant to this course.  Specific information on this course will be posted in the GEOL-412 part of the website.  In addition, the section called Recent Earth Science Research includes brief summaries of recently published earth science papers, many of which are related to climate change.   

You will also find a lot of useful information in the IPCC assessment reports from 2007 and earlier editions, available at: http://www.ipcc.ch/ and also in the library.

Evaluation

Three assignments : 10% each

Research project paper and presentation (see below): 20% for paper, 10% for presentation.

Final exam : 40%

Academic integrity

The standards of academic integrity at Vancouver Island University are listed in the Student Academic Code of Conduct, which can be found on the VIU website at: https://isweb.viu.ca/policy_procedure/docshow.asp?doc_id=22685. All students should read the entire policy document.

STANDARDS OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Students are expected to meet the standards of academic integrity as indicated in the policy referred to above.  Standards of academic integrity include, but are not limited to:

• independently producing work submitted under one’s own name;
• properly and appropriately referencing all work;
• identifying all collaborators in work;
• completing examinations without giving or receiving assistance, excepting those students requiring assistance due to a documented disability;
• respecting the integrity of examination materials and/or the examination process.