Learning objectives
The course provides the students with basic knowledge of the scientific issues related to global climate change and its social and economic implications. The course also provides scientific and methodologic knowledges on the cause, modality and timing of natural climate changes and their impact on ecosystems through the study of natural archives records
Prerequisites
basic geology
Course unit content
- the global climate system (atmosphere chemistry and dynamics, ocean-atmosphere interactions)
- greenhouse definition
- greenhouse gases and their global cycles
- atmosphere pollutants
- short term climate change (decadal, centennial) from natural and historical archives
- natural and anthropogenic climate forcings
- climate change and human kind history
- scenarios of future climate changes
- climate risk
- policy and action for climate risk mitigation
- the Kyoto protocol
- time scales of environmental changes
- palaeoclimatic research: methodologies and natural archives (ice cores, sedimentary successions, O and C isotope curves, dendrochronology, forums, calcareous nannoplancton, pollen)
- factors controlling global climate change at different time scale
- global tectonics and climate
- Milankovitch cycles
- sub-Milankovitch climate variability
- Quaternary climate history
Full programme
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Bibliography
Ruddiman W.F. Earth's climate, Past and Future (second edition) - W.H. Freeman and Company, New York
Williams M., Dunkerley D., De Deckker P., Kershaw P. & Chappell J. – Quaternary Environments (second edition) – Arnold, London
G. De Leo, G. Fiorese, G. Guariso - Energia e salute della Terra - Fondazione Achille e Giulia Boroli
A. Navarra e A. Pinchera – Il Clima – Laterza, Bari
Ryan W. & Pitman W. - Noah’s Flood – Simon & Schuster, London
Roberts N. – The Holocene – Blackwell Publishers
Lovelock J. - La rivolta di Gaia - Rizzoli
Ruddiman W. - L'aratro, la peste, il petrolio - Università Bocconi Editore
Teaching methods
frontal lessons, seminars
Assessment methods and criteria
seminars, oral examination
Other information
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