Physical Geography: Climate Change and its Impacts on the Environment

<p>The main focus on this course is understanding the causal links that can explain variations and changes in climate, in the past and in the future, with particular attention to greenhouse gases, the carbon cycle and climate feedbacks. You also learn about the impact of these variations and changes in climate on other components of the Earth system, at local, regional and global scales.</p><p>The aim of the course is to provide increased knowledge of the effects on the environment of observed and future climate change. Considerable significance is attached to the study of the causal connections that can explain climatic variation and change. Model scenarios are used to study global and regional climate change and possible effects on e.g. hydrology, water resources, ecosystems and ecosystem processes, biodiversity, bio-geography, wind power and storm damage. Methods of detecting climate change are considered. Observational data and model scenarios are used in the teaching to train students’ critical analysis in relation to e.g. representativeness of data material, models’ assumptions/premises and validation of independent information.</p>