Debates in Climate Science

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. Describe Earth’s climate, and how it has been reconstructed and may be projected into the future.
2. Recognise the key drivers of climate change at different timescales, including recent human influences.
3. Synthesize scientific methods, including the critical roles of uncertainty and impartiality.
4. Evaluate arguments raised that challenge the role of anthropogenic climate change.
5. Recognise and evaluate the challenges faced in presenting scientific findings in the face of scepticism provoked by unscrupulous argument.

The module will address the evidence base relating to reconstructing Earth’s climate change at all timescales, including into the future, as well as the drivers and consequences of that climate change. It will outline the scientific method and the role of scientific evidence in presenting this information. Juxtaposed with this will be a thorough evaluation of the most common arguments raised that challenge the role of anthropogenic climate change. The module will be provided through a mixture of traditional lectures and open discussion. It will be assessed through a group podcast and an individual pamphlet, each aimed at an interested but non-expert readership. The group podcast will summarise the difficulties encountered in communicating findings with integrity in the face of scepticism supported by unscrupulous argument. The individual pamphlet will use evidence and logic to debunk an item of ‘fake news’.

The course will be broadly divided into two parts: Part 1 (~50%) provided through lectures and Part 2 (~50%) through workshop sessions.

Part 1 (lectures)
The module will begin by outlining Earth’s climate system and examining the physical processes responsible for driving changes in it. The module will move on to outlining recent climate change and its consequences, focusing on ice mass loss and sea-level rise, including evaluation of various tipping points as well as potential means of remediation. The module will then address the role of science in reconstructing and predicting Earth’s climate change, as well as people’s acceptance or rejection of those scientific findings. Here, it will address specifically arguments advanced to refute the role of anthropogenic climate change.

Part 2 (workshops)
The remaining sessions will take the form of a series of open discussion workshops that will be used to consider issues raised in, and building on, the lectures. These will include consideration of: the depth and breadth of the impacts that climate change has on the natural and human world; potential ways of mitigating climate change and/or its effects; the scientific method and the role of peer review in publishing; broad categories of arguments raised in challenging anthropogenic climate change (to include an exercise on how to identify the difference between evidence-led information and misleading or ‘fake’ information); communicating ‘inconvenient’ science and the challenges of maintaining scientific integrity while presenting evidence honestly in the face of vociferous denial; and support for the module’s coursework assignments.

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 6