Anacortes Senior College

The primary purpose of this course is to provide a scientific understanding of today’s changing climate, its consequences and the need to mitigate and adapt to the Earth’s rapidly warming climate. To put the current climate change into context I will begin by covering the history of Earth’s climate changes, which has been influenced by a variety of factors, including the Sun’s radiation, the geographic position of continents, mountain ranges, atmospheric and ocean chemistry and flow, the biosphere, and the Earth’s variable orbital parameters.

This 6-lecture course will contain the following lectures:

• L1 will cover the big picture of the history of Earth’s climate change, since the formation of the Earth four and a half billion years ago. During this history, Earth has experienced periods of fluctuating climates alternating between “ice” ages and “hot” periods.
• L2 will cover climate change during the current ice age: from 3 million years ago until the present. During this ice age, there have been periods of enhanced glaciations separated by shorter, milder interglacial periods, which is our current climate.
• L3 will provide an understanding of the Earth’s climate today and the causes of its natural fluctuations.
• L4 will cover the current on-going, global warming climate caused principally by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases.
• L5 will cover the range of climate change anticipated during the 21st century and Its consequences for humans and the biosphere.
• The final lecture will include the recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for mitigating and adapting to global warming, and our moral imperative to ensure that future generations inherit from us a sustainable and peaceful planet.

Instructor: Barrie Hughlock PhD

I love science, and have studied science throughout my life, and continue to do so. I have taken many courses in science outside of my major, which is physics. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley and received my doctorate at Brown University. Regarding my education relevant to this course, I have been following the issue of climate change for decades and have read countless articles and books on the subject, most importantly the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports. I have also taken a course at UW, entitled “Climate and Climate Change”. I believe that I have acquired the knowledge necessary to provide a good introductory course, representing the current state of knowledge.