ESC-10032 - Module Specification
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment
Faculty of Natural Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2023/24

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

esc-00005 (these modules share lectures)

Description for 2023/24

This module aims to provide non-specialists with a scientific context for contemporary debates about climate change. There are many myths and misunderstandings surrounding the topic of climate change and this module seeks to provide students with a scientific perspective on some of these issues. The module will provide students with basic information about topics such as climate change, global warming, and the impacts of both past and future climate change on sea level, glaciers, the oceans and terrestrial regions of the world. We will also address the ways in which styles of scientific communication, and the reporting of science in popular media, affect public understanding and peoples' perceptions of climate change.

To provide non-specialists with a scientific context for contemporary debates about environmental change. The module will address the question of whether future climate change is likely to involve global warming, a new ice age, or both. The module will provide students with basic information about global environmental change, about global warming, and about the possible consequences of global warming for future climate and sea level.

Intended Learning Outcomes

recognise and accurately describe the key features of the history and causes of past global environmental change, and the main controls on future environmental change, with particular reference to climate change and sea-level change at a range of time scales;
will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
provide detailed examples of the dynamic and contested nature of the science of global environmental change, and set those into the context of recent scientific research literature;
will be achieved by assessments: 2
describe how the understanding of environmental issues by non-scientists depends on the ways in which science is communicated and reported in different media, and illustrate that description with reference to the peer-reviewed scientific literature;
will be achieved by assessments: 1, 2
drite an extended essay, based at least partly on research sources at the forefront of the discipline, that communicates ideas effectively using evidence, argument and references to literature in a conventional style (following the Geography House Style rules and the Harvard system for references).
will be achieved by assessments: 2

Study hours

10 hours of lectures
30 hours of independent study
40 hours directed study with online support
10 hours preparing for in-class test
10 hours guided study preparatory for extended essay
50 hours researching and completing coursework essay

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment