January
 

• 26   Introduction to CO₂: Roles of CO₂ in climate, life, weathering. Planetary comparison-why is Venus so hot and CO₂-rich, what happened at Mars, and what about the earth?   Readings: article by Kasting
• 31 How does CO2 occur on earth - carbonate chemistry - handouts

• 2  Limestone - Animal House revisited - book excerpt+handout
• 7  Ocean carbon cycle
• 8  The short carbon cycle - exchanges between biosphere and atmosphere (articles on reserve)
• 14 The short carbon cycle - the seasonal oscillation and global distribution of biomass
• 16 Photosynthesis: how do plants work.  Handout, several articles
• 21 The long carbon cycle - readings on webpage
• 23 The long carbon cycle - volcanic CO₂ degassing
• 28 Isotopes of carbon and how they are used by scientists - Articles + handouts

• 8  Discussion / class presentations

• 27   Climate - Introduction  (Readings for 4 climate lectures: 2 handouts, web readings)
• 29  Radiation models for the earth climate

• 3  Greenhouse principles
• 5  Greenhouse principles; convective heat transport
• 10 Ellen Thomas: clathrates (web reading)
• 12  SIMEARTH - a simple climate model
• 17   The CO₂ - climate connection on earth - geologic records - long time scales CO₂ on earth (handout)
• 19  Combined global cycles of N, P and C - the Gaia feedback (MacKenzie handout)
• 24  The Kyoto treaty - what is involved / The political angle - cutbacks in CO₂ emissions (articles)
• 26  CO₂ disposal technologies (Sc. Amer. article)

May

• 1  Alternative energy resources - technical, political and economic aspects (Book chapter)
• 3 Review of our data, plotting, precision, manipulations, project class presentations
• 8  'Shuman discussion panel'