Module Identifier EA12110  
Module Title PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE  
Academic Year 2005/2006  
Co-ordinator Professor Geoff Duller  
Semester Semester 1  
Other staff Dr Ronald Fuge  
Course delivery Lecture   1 HOUR LECTURES  
  Other   Video Lecture.  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Exam2 Hours short answer and multiple choice examination  100%
Supplementary Assessment 2 hour short answer and multiple choice examination100%

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:


Aims

This module will provide students with a knowledge of the nature and magnitude of change that has occurred in the physical environment over a range of temporal and spatial scales. Specifically the course will contrast natural and anthropogenic processes of environmental change. These considerations will then be used as a basis for a discussion of the potential for future environmental change.

Objectives
Students taking this course will be able to describe the nature of environmental change over a wide range of timescales. They will be capable of relating this information to current concerns about global environmental change. It will make them aware of the need to consider past records of change when planning future developments, or when assessing current environmental concerns.

Content

1) Introduction to global environmental change

Section 1 - Environmental Change on a Geological Time Scale

2) Origin of Earth and early formation processes

3) The geological time scale

4) Climate change/ice ages/mass extinctions over geological time

Section 2 - Environmental Change from the Pleistocene to Recent

5) Climate change through the Pleistocene to the Holocene

6) Historical records of change

Section 3 - Anthropogenically influenced environmental change

7) Geochemical cycling

8) Resource exploitation and exhaustion

9) Predicting future environmental change

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
van Andel, T. (1994) New views on an old planet: A history of global change 2nd. Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521442435

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 4