Responding to Climate Change

Discussion section for APS111 - Engineering Strategies and Practices, 2009

Seminar leader:
Jim Prall
Systems Programmer,
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Toronto
Office: GB254-D
Note: I was interviewed for CBC Radio's The Current for an upcoming show about James Hoggan's book Climate Cover-Up. Listen to The Current on CBC Radio 1 (99.1 FM in Toronto) this Thursday, Nov. 19 between 8:30 and 9 am, and see if you catch a clip of me (it will be short, but hey.) You can also catch the show after it airs by visiting their website: The Current where they post an audio podcast of each show.

Below are the required readings for the Engineering Strategies and Practices 2009 seminar series "Responding to Climate Change," along with links to additional resources for further reading. I've listed some keywords for each session. You should be familiar with the definition and use of these terms. try to get familiar with them before that week's seminar; any you can't get at first, try to come to grips with during our discussion.

Articles are all links to online media - please read online without printing if possible to save trees. Where needed, I've linked articles via the "my.access" service of the UofT libraries. You just need to log in once with your UTORid and password - the same one you use for UTORmail - and your browser should then have access to the other links as well for the rest of that session.

Climate scientists speak on campus: UofT's physics department Centre for Global Change Studies hosts a speakers series through the school year. Upcoming events:
Nov. 24, 2009 3:30pm BA1170 Jorge Sarmiento, Princeton U.: 'An update on the global carbon cycle'

A note on using Google Scholar.

Week 1 - Scope of the problem (completed)

Week 2 - List of 10 geoengineering proposals (completed)

Week 3: Can we "engineer" planet earth? Should we try?

This session addresses some of the many potential pitfalls or drawbacks of even trying to engineer the climate of an entire planet. We will discuss the article by Alan Robock "Twenty reasons why geoengineering might be a bad idea." Everyone please read the full article to prepare for group discussions next week: Robock Article PDF
Students who are to present in week 3 each selected two of these 20 reasons to cover in their short talk (3 to 5 minutes.) Here is a list of the selections:

You'll need to outline your key points and be brief, with only about two minutes on each of the two reasons you chose. Some of these were mentioned in the presentations this week. This is a chance to expand on what we've heard mentioned briefly so far.

We'll finish off with a more open group discussion of all the points in Robock's paper.

Questions to consider:

  • [web report of 2004 climate engineering conference] web intro. Some suggested schemes:
  • [1 page - overview] Time magazine website "What's Next 2008: Geoengineering" article
  • [3 pages - good overview] Mileham, R. "Biting the Bullet: is geoengineering capable of saving our planet from global warming?" Engineering & Technology, vol.2, no.8, pp.28-31, Aug. 2007
    Mileham, R. full text & PDF on ieeexplore site Mileham introduces several ideas for geo-engineering to counter the enhanced greenhouse effect:

    Advanced readings

    These papers are longer and more technical treatments of some approach to geoengineering. NOBODY IS REQUIRED TO READ ANY OF THESE! You have plenty of homework already as engineering frosh. So don't knock yourself out. If you see something that really grabs your interest, you might select one article or idea from these or from "further resources" below, as the basis for your class presentation:

    Further resources

    If you have time to read more, and are suitably curious, alarmed, skeptical, or energized to action by the required readings, here are several of my favourite sources for background, news, discussion and debate on climate science and policy. You may pick out a topic related to our discussion from any of these sites to propose as your presentation topic. Bring a brief note of the topic of interest with you to the first seminar.