METR/ENVS 205
The Atmospheric Environment
Fall, 2013
Office Hours and Exam Schedule for Finals Week
Summary
of due dates for
research papers:
Drought: September 23
Flooding: Oct 4
| Positions to cover for flooding: |
1.
Flooding is a serious environmental issue which requires that we take
significant actions (and discuss those actions). |
2. Flooding is natural and the actions proposed are likely to cost more than doing nothing. |
Acid
Rain: Oct 15
| Positions to cover for Acid Rain: |
1. Acid Rain continues to be a very serious environmental problem in 2013 |
2. Acid Rain was never a serious problem. It is natural and we have wasted enough resources on it. |
Ozone Depletion: Nov 1
| Assignment for Ozone paper: | First, briefly describe how this problem came about. |
Drought solution: use technology to find more water (for example, by irrigation) Flooding solution: build infrastructure (for example, levees, flood walls, and canals) Acid rain solution: implement cap-and-trade in the 1990 Clean Air Act
b. Why would none of the first three solutions be effective for the stratospheric ozone depletion problem |
Air Pollution: Nov 15
| Three
concepts which we have
encountered in this course are: 1. Environmentalism being treated as a religion 2. Earth as the GAIA system 3. Negative externalities of production |
Explain how each of these concepts applies to how people handle the issue of air pollution in the free atmosphere |
Climate Change Project written reports are due Dec 13. Presentations Dec 19 2-4:30 p.m.
Click here for the rubric to be used in grading the projects
Here's the order in which oral presentations will be made:
| 1. Temperature changes (+ or -) | Katusha/Garofalo |
| 2. Changes in Greenhouse gases | Gamils/Williams |
| 3. Changes in heavy or extreme precipitation | Wachtel/Ascher |
| 4. Changes in sea level | Mills/Muehlbauer |
| 5. Changes in ocean currents | Bornhoft/Hastings |
| 6. Changes in Hurricanes | Shinohara/Dutre |
| 7. New types of storms | Rose/Ferolito |
| 8. Changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice | Rushlow/Kehrley |
| 9. Effects on animals like polar bears | Fagan/O'Neill |
| 10. Effects on indigenous people in the Arctic | Woods/Bergstrom |
| 11. Effects on vegetation | Gilheany/Frisenda |
| 12. Drought and desertification | Dibble/O'Connor |
Following is the list of topics that were approved:
| Topic | Approved team |
| Temperature changes (+ or -) | Katusha/Garofalo |
| Drought and desertification | Dibble/O'Connor |
| Changes in Winter Storms | |
| Effects on animals like polar bears | Fagan/O'Neill |
| Changes in Hurricanes | Shinohara/Dutre |
| New diseases or changes in existing weather-related health patterns | |
| Changes in Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere | Gamils/Williams |
| Changes in Arctic and Antarctic ice | Rushlow/Kehrley |
| Changes in heavy or extreme precipitation events | Wachtel/Ascher |
| Changes in sea level | Mills/Muehlbauer |
| New types of storms | Rose/Ferolito |
| Effects on vegetation | Gilheany/Frisenda |
| Changes in average Jet Stream locations | |
| Changes in ocean currents | Bornhoft/Hastings |
| Effects on indigenous people in the Arctic | Woods/Bergstrom |
Class
discussions
Remember
your contributions to the discussions are part of your grade. Read
these to
prepare for some of the class discussions:
Simon editorial on science and politics
Michael
Crichton's essay on environmentalism
Richard Dawkins' essay on science and religion
Downey guest commentary in the Daily Star
Kuzminski
guest
commentary in the Daily Star
The EPA vs Ed Krug (acid rain)
The Ozone-CFC debacle
(alternate view from a scientist)
Self-driving_cars_coming_soon_to_a_highway_near_you
Thomas Friedman editorial on a gas tax (energy conservation)
PBS Interview with a global warming skeptic
National Climatic Data Center: State of the Climate
US drought: how it could impact food, water needs around the world
US seasonal drought outlook from the Climate Prediction Center
NASA: Satellites see Unprecedented Greenland Ice-Sheet Surface Melt
(2013 update)
Greenland ice sheet melting: Be careful what you read
The Nor’easter Sparks a Berm Boom
Climate change and Sandy: Why We Need to prepare for a Warmer World
Red Smog alert chokes northern China
Was Typhoon Haiyan the Most Intense Storm in Modern History?
Links to some material for Drought
The first video, "Stinging Dust and Forgotten Lives" can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzo9wtXfHGk. A short version is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGUyJe5rlcw
The second video was from the NOVA series "The Desert Doesn't Bloom Here Anymore" (first aired 1987)
Graphics shown in class in a short Powerpoint format
Palmer Drought Index 1934 vs 2012
Flood links
Discussion questions after viewing Flood (of '93)
The videos were from:
NOVA (Flood, produced in 1996, on the Mississippi flood of 1993)
Raging Planet (also named Flood, produced in 2009, with segments on the flash floods in Boscastle and Las Vegas)
The video shown was from the Nova series, entitled "Acid Rain. New Bad News", first aired in 1984.
Introduction PowerPoint
2010 Sulfate ion concentrations (pdf)
2010 Nitrate ion concentrations (pdf)
2010 Hydrogen (pH) ion concentrations (pdf)
Powerpoint shown in class
The video was Ozone: The Hole Story, produced in 1992 by the independent company Kurtis Productions (http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/472927/Ozone-The-Hole-Story/).
Air Pollution links
The deadly London smog of 1952
American Lung Association most polluted U.S. cities 2012
EPA: National Ambient Air Quality Standards
EPA: Clean Air Act of 1990 (full)
EPA: Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act
Clean Air Act in half a page (what we saw in class)
NHTSA: Fuel economy (CAFE standards)
Trends (EPA: click on spreadsheets or PDFs)
Useful (?)
Links
Notice:
Most of these have their own agenda, the private sites and even the
government
sites (politics, you know). Don't expect them to be
impartial, complete,
or fair and don't look for me to tell you what side each website is
on.
It's up to you to form your own opinions. Investigate both
sides of each
issue.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation
A summary of Clean Air legislation (American Meteorological Society)
Department of Energy Clean Cities Program
U.S. Global Change Research Program
The Cato Institute energy and environment page
Plain English Guide to the Clean Air Act
National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center (Stratospheric Ozone)
NASA Measurements of Atmospheric Composition
National Center for Environmental and Regulatory Affairs
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The League of Conservation Voters
Science and Environmental Policy Project
D'Aleo on the Ozone Hole (from "Watt's up with that" website)
Whatever happened to the Ozone Hole?
Background generated at http://www.grsites.com