Administrative Info (schedule, grades, textbook, etc.)
Syllabus
Assignments
Lecture Notes and Library Reserves
Classes meet Tuesday and Thursday from 10:00 to 11:50 AM in the Science Center building (SC 3W13). Prof. Abrajano will have office hours from 1-2 PM on Tuesday and Thursday in MRC-314. At other times, he is likely to be found in his lab, MRC-327. He can be reached by phone at x6036 (voice mail) or x 2354 (lab) and by email at abrajt@rpi.edu.
No TA for the course.
Grades will be assigned on the basis of two exams (worth 25% each of the final grade), 3 written assignments (worth 5% each of the final grade), and a short paper (manuscript is worth 25% of the final grade) and oral presentation (to be presented in the final quarter of the semester and worth 10% of the final grade). An extra grade of up to 5 % will be awarded to all students that regularly participate in class discussions.
Exams are tentatively scheduled for September 30 and November 4.
Books and References
Each student is expected to purchase Global Environmental Change by K.K. Turekian (available at the bookstore). Additional handouts and notes and readings will be put on reserve in the Main Library or on this site. Click here to check reserves.
Three books have been used extensively in course material preparation:
Holland, H.D, The Chemical Evolution of the Atmosphere and Oceans, Princeton University Press, 1984.
Schlesinger, W.H., Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change, Academic Press, 1991.
World Resources 1998-99
Finally, individual reference lists will be prepared as appropriate for each topic and case study.
Part I: EARTH PROCESSES
Part II: HUMAN DIMENSION OF GLOBAL CHANGE
Partt III: CLASS PRESENTATIONS
ASSIGNMENT 1 (Due September 14) Write and submit a typed one page (double-spaced) essay on "The Role of Bias and Perception in Understanding and Dealing with Global Environmental Change" (posted 09/22/99)
NOTICE: The First Exam on September 30 will cover Parts I, II, and III of the Syllabus. For your exams, a calculator would be helpful, but not required.
ASSIGNMENT 2 (Due October 14) What to do with the population?
The Program "Six Million and Beyond" was not shown as originally scheduled. Please proceed with the assignment using only the remaining references.
ASSIGNMENT 3 (Due November 2) ENSO-Impacts
EL NINO OSCILLATION SEMINAR !!!
214 Amos Eaton, 4-5 PM, Monday, Nov 22.
*(DISCLAIMER: The materials included in these web lecture notes are not presented as my authored original work, and may contain phrases, figures, tables, worked out examples or even entire sections from books, papers, and public web sources. My web-published lecture notes are intended solely to assist current students augment their class notes or follow lectures they may have missed.)
Can't find what you want in this list? Check the Folsom Library class reserves.
Lecture 1 Introduction, Scope of Global Environmental Change
Lecture 2 Linkages, Population-Environment-Economy Model
Lecture/Assignment1 Bias and Perception in Environmental Issues
Lecture 3 Introducing the Earth, Solid Earth
Lecture 4 Earth's Shallow Spheres I
Lecture 5 Earth's Shallow Spheres II
Lecture 6 Evolution of the Atmosphere/Climate Change Through Time
Lecture 7 Population Page
Lecture 8 Population Discussion
Lecture 9 Ecological Footprint
Lecture 10 Global Warming 1
Lecture 11 Global Warming 2
Visual Used in Class - (Causes, Response, Connecting the Causes to the Response)
Lecture 12 El Nino-Southern Oscillation (Also visit http://rainbow.ldgo.columbia.edu/)
Links to Associated Diagrams (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Lecture 13 Stratospheric Ozone (Also visit: http://jwocky.gsfc.nasa.gov and http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/).
Lecture 14 Global Air and Water Quality
