Climate Change Debate

Is the relatively rapid climate change of the last 200 years a natural trend of the climate system, or is it driven by human actions?

This is the topic for a debate on climate change that we will have for the last lab of the class (the week of Dec. 3). You may choose a side to learn more about what you think is going on or you may choose a side contrary to what you think is going on--it is up to you.

At the bottom of this page are a set of references to help you get started with your research to prepare for the debate. You should also search out additional sources (please avoid references that are obviously slanted one way or the other), especially if there is an area that you have knowledge or or interest in. If you feel like you need some help understanding some of the papers, ask one of the TAs for some help or come to office hours.

Debate Format: The atmosphere will be relaxed, but it should be a serious presentation. Each group will give a 15-20 minute presentation (which may include multiple people presenting), followed by a 3-5 minute period in which to redress the evidence presented by the other group.

The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary at Gubbio, Italy. This boundary represents a rapid climatic change that resulted in the extinction of a significant part of the biota on Earth, including the dinosaurs.

Sign-ups: You will sign up before Thanksgiving for a side of the debate. For larger lab sections, there will be two debates at separate times during the lab period, each lasting approximately one hour.

Grading: The grading will focus on three items:
1) your contribution to the group effort and the
2) the quality of your evidence (you must present
evidence, not merely rhetoric)
3) The ability of your group to respond to the arguments
of the opposing group

Topics we encourage you to research to be well-prepared for the debate
(some of these are hyperlinked to articles on the Internet)

General climate change
Alley, Richard B., 1999, The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future: Princeton University Press, 240p.
Alley, Richard B., 2000, Ice-core evidence of abrupt climate changes: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 97, n. 4, p.1331-1334.
Broecker, Wally S., 1985, How to Build a Habitable Planet: Columbia University Press, 291p.
Lomborg, Bjorn, 2001, The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World: Cambridge University Press, 540p.
Montgomery, David M., 2007, Is agriculture eroding civilization's foundation?: GSA Today, v. 17, n. 10, pp. 4-9.
Pielke, R., Prins, G., Raynar, S., and Sarewitz, D., 2007, Commentary: Lifting the taboo on adaptation: Nature, v. 445, pp. 597-598.
Taylor, Kendrick, 1999, Rapid climate change: American Scientist, v. 87, n. 4, pp. 320-329.
"Hockey stick controversy", online article, accessed on 27 Nov 2007.
**NOTE: while Wikipedia articles cannot be used as evidence due to the nature of its construction, this article offers a decent summary of disagreements over recent temperature reconstructions and provides references--in short, it is a starting point.

CO2 and the changing atmosphere
Allen, M.R. & Frame, D.J., 2007, Call off the quest: Science, v. 318, pp. 582-583.
Alley, Richard B., 2007, "C"ing arctic climate with black ice: Science, v. 317, pp.1333-1334.
Berner, Robert A., 1999, A new look at the long-term carbon cycle: GSA Today, v. 9, pp. 2-6.
Berner, Robert A., 2007, VandenBrooks, John M., and Ward, Peter D., 2007, Oxygen and evolution: Science v. 316, pp. 557-558.

Milankovitch cycles
Berger, A. & Loutre, M.F., 2002, An exceptionally long interglacial ahead?: Science, v. 297, pp. 1287-1288.

Thermohaline circulation and its implications for climate change (D-O events, IRD, etc)
Broecker, Wally S. & Hemming, Sidney, 2001, Climate swings come into focus: Science, v. 294, pp. 2308-2309.

Sea level change
Alley, Richard B., Clark, Peter U., Huybrechts, Philippe, and Joughin, Ian, 2005, Ice-sheet and sea-level changes: Science, v. 310, pp. 456-460.
Church, John A., 2001, How fast are sea levels rising?: Science, v. 294, pp. 802-803.
Etkins, Robert & Epstein, Edward S., 1982, The rise of global mean sea level as an indication of climate change: Science, v. 215, pp. 287-289.
Miller, K.G., Kominz, M.A., Browning, J.V., Wright, J.D., Mountain, G.S., Katz, M.E., Sugarman, P.J., Cramer, B.S., Christie-Blick, N., Pekar, S.F., 2005, The Phanerozoic record of global sea level change: Science, v. 310, pp. 1293-1298.
Tarduno, J.A., Brinkman, D.B., Renne, P.R., Cottrell, R.D., Scher, H., and Castillo, P., 1998, Evidence for extreme climatic warmth from Late Cretaceous Arctic vertebrates: Science, v. 282, pp. 2241-2244.
Vaughan, David G., 2005, "How does the Antarctic ice sheet affect sea level rise?": Science, v. 308, pp. 1877-1878.

Severe weather patterns/El Nino
McPhaden, M.J., Zebiak, S.E., and Glantz, M.H., 2006, ENSO as an integrating concept in Earth science: Science, v. 314, pp. 1740-1745.

Ancient climate change (PETM, KT, PT, Snowball Earth)
Alvarez, Walter, 1998, T. Rex and the Crater of Doom: Vintage Books, 208p.
Benton, Michael J. & Twitchett, Richard, 2003, How to kill (almost) all life: The end-Permian extinction event: Trends in Evolution and Ecology, v. 18, n. 7, pp. 358-365.
Pagani, Mark, Caldeira, Ken, Archer, David, and Zachos, James C., 2006, Atmosphere: an ancient carbon mystery: Science, v. 314, pp. 1556-1557.
"Snowball Earth", website, accessed 29 Nov 2007
**Well-designed and very informational but slightly dogmatic website.
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