This is the assignment and the resources I gave to the students in my Marine Ecology class last week for today’s lecture. Enjoy!
Let’s focus on first learning what climate change is and how it effects the physical and chemical properties of the ocean:
What is the greenhouse effect?
What are greenhouse gases? Which are the biggest cause of climate change?
How have they been increasing in concentration?
Why is the concentration of greenhouse gases increasing?
What are the sources of greenhouse gas emissions? Which human activities? Which countries? Which sources of fossil fuel?
How fast is the earth warming?
How does the greenhouse effect and warming of the land and air warm the oceans?
What are some of the patterns of ocean warming? Is it only in shallow water? How fast is it warming? How does warming vary geographically?
What are climate change feedbacks?
What is ocean acidification?
Why, how fast and where is sea level rising?
Primary reading PDF
And related blog posts:
Why we know the earth is warming and that human activities are responsible
Empirical evidence that humans are causing global warming
10 Indicators of a Human Fingerprint on Climate Change
The human fingerprint on ocean warming
Cape Hatteras, NC marks the southern edge of a just revealed sea level rise hot spot
The NC sea level rise saga: the lowdown
Where to learn about climate change
Introduction to Ocean Acidification
And videos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPVyrSWfQE&[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IuVzcp39rs&[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JX-ioSmNW8&[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlu21CNd34Q&feature=share&[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVvzVs1AKGY&feature=share&[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cqCvcX7buo&[/youtube]
And much more background reading here and here.
Leave a Reply