Welcome to the web site for the

RiverMead Climate Science Course

The Science Behind the Headlines:

An Introduction to Climate Science

Fall, 2013

To view these lectures, click on the appropriate link below. Then move your mouse over the browser window until you see left- and right-facing arrows below the slide display. Click on the right-facing arrow below the lecture window to move to the next line of text or the next slide. You can also simply click anywhere in your browser window to advance to the next text line or slide.

Please note that you may not be able to activate some of the apparent links within the lecture presentations by clicking. In those cases, to see what's on the indicated web pages, you'll need to copy the links and enter them separately into your browser's link entry window.

First Lecture (September 30, 4 pm; History of Climate Science, Part 1)

Second Lecture (October 7, 4 pm; History of Climate Science, Part 2)

Third Lecture (October 14, 4 pm; Science of the Greenhouse Effect, Part 1)

Links to reference materials for the third lecture (textbook, lectures, and models of David Archer at the University of Chicago)
1. Textbook: Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast (2nd Edition, Wiley, 2012)
2. Lectures at University of Chicago
3. Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) starting October 21, 2013
4. Interesting online computer models for better study of a variety of aspects of climate

Fourth Lecture (October 21, 4 pm; Science of the Greenhouse Effect, Part 2, and the Oceans as Heat Reservoir)

If the movie, which is embedded in the fourth lecture (describing how the oceans absorb most of the heat caused by Earth's energy imbalance), doesn't work for you, try watching the movie on YouTube by clicking here.

Fifth Lecture (October 28, 4 pm; The Oceans as Heat Reservoir, Part 2, and Climate Departure Dates)

Sixth Lecture (November 4, 4 pm; How We Know Human Beings Are Responsible for Global Warming)

Seventh Lecture (November 11, 4 pm; Climate changes over geologic time, and what we can learn from them)

Eighth Lecture (November 18, 4 pm; Some of the Consequences of Global Warming)

Ninth Lecture (November 25, 4 pm; What Can We Do to Prevent the Worst Consequences of Global Warming?)

Special Lecture On "The Carbon Conundrum" for the Current Issues lecture series, presented Monday, December 2, at 10 am.
Click here for the slide show in the usual HTML format.
Click here for the text of the lecture, in PDF format.
Click here for a PDF version of the lecture, which combines both pictures and text and is viewable as a slide show in any PDF viewer such as Adobe Reader or Preview.

Tenth Lecture (December 9, 4 pm; How to distinguish climate science from climate obfuscation)