Responding to Climate Change

Discussion section for APS111 - Engineering Strategies and Practices, 2012

Seminar leader:
Jim Prall
Systems Programmer,
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Toronto
Email me via UTORmail jim dot prall at utoronto dot ca
Office: GB254-D
campus x65760 (416) 946-5760

Meeting times: 12:10 - 2pm, Nov. 12, 19, and 26
Location: Galbraith Bldg. room GB404

Below are the required readings for the Engineering Strategies and Practices 2012 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 Blackboard - and your browser should then have access to the other links as well for the rest of that session.

Please read over my page on Principles to live by before the first seminar.

A note on using Google Scholar.

You might also want to estimate your own "carbon footprint" via one of many web-based calculators. Here's an interesting one that looks at your overall quality of life, as well as your ecological footprint. It has statistics on responses from people all over the world, and makes for interesting comparisons. (I am about as happy as the average for Panama, evidently.) Happy Planet Index

Week 1 - Scope of the problem

How fast is climate change happening, and expected to happen?
How serious is this problem?
What solutions are being proposed? Are they adequate?
What if we fail to cut CO2 emissions, and climate change picks up speed?

keywords: greenhouse gases (GHGs), carbon cycle, carbon footprint, per-capita emissions, IPCC, Kyoto protocol, climate change impacts, mitigation, adaptation, geoengineering, albedo, aerosols, solar radiation management

Here's a great 16 minute TED Talk video by David Keith of Harvard U. on geo-engineering and the need for more reflection over how this might work, and how to decide. Please view this before our first meeting:

Please read these four brief articles for session 1:

At the end of the first session, students will select from a list of options the topic for their in-class oral presentation (no PowerPoint - just talking.) The theme will be "geo-engineering" - measures to alter the earth system to reduce global warming processes and impacts.

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.