HONR 229L: Climate Change: Science, Economics, and Governance Climate Models: Perspective of a Physical Scientist Your name here 4 October 2017

Ask students about their prior understanding of El Niño & how it was for them to read through some fairly heavy duty material Explain: a) what is meant by an El Niño event (i.e., physically what happens in the ocean & where in the ocean does this happen?) b) the weather related consequences associated with an El Niño event Also, do your best to explain how we had recently been in the middle of huge El Niño event! Feel free to draw upon material in the reading and to supplement with material off the web Here is a potentially useful link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/science/nasa-global-temperatures-2016.html

The reading states "climate can not be described in terms of the atmosphere alone". Consider devote a fair amount of slides to explain the components needed to predict future climate. Also, note which of these components was the last to be added to the computer models that predict future climate

The reading provides more detail, both in terms of quantitative importance of the feedbacks and the physical processes that govern how the feedbacks work. First, address the Admission Ticket questions: a) if the abundance of CO2 were to double and no feedbacks were to occur, how would global surface temperature respond? b) if the abundance of CO2 were to double and feedbacks were to occur, according to our present understanding of how they actually operate, how would global surface temperature respond? Then state on a scale of "not important", "moderately important", or "very important", how important the proper understanding of feedbacks is, if we would like to achieve accurate projections of climate change

Then walk the class through the various feedbacks: water clouds ocean-circulation ice-albedo Can cover in any order and can provide as much (or as little) detail as you feel comfortable using Again, please engage the other students in the discussion: ask them if they understood the reading, was this new to them, do they trust climate models either more or less having read this material, etc

Challenge to you … see if you can work this table of numbers into the presentation I’d be delighted to speak with you about the table, should you so desire

Consider devoting the rest of your of the reading to a description of how climate models are validated; again, do your best to include students in the discussion, perhaps by asking them to name the ways, then being able to describe each after it is named (or, asking them to describe!)

If you decide to use this figure, be sure to let folks know what tritium is and also point out the irony that a residue of atmospheric atomic bomb tests has led to some important science

using this figure in your summary I suggest using this figure in your summary

Consider concluding by summarizing the various IPCC statements regarding human influence on climate, and asking students to discuss and possibly critique these statements