Introduction to Environmental Geoscience
Lecture Schedule for Fall 2007

This is a general outline of the material that will be discussed each day, and we will probably deviate from it as the course progresses. It is meant to be an overview of the topics to be discussed in roughly the order they will be discussed. Some topics may take more or less time than listed.

August 28, 2007 Overview, Environmental Problems

1. Syllabus
2. Course Goals
3. Welcome to Environmental Studies and Environmental Geosciencs and Course Overview
4. Discussion:
   1. What do you consider to be the the most important environmental issue?
   2. Have we left anything off the schedule?
   3. What tools do you need to pursue your interests in the environment?
   4. Finding useful material on the web

Global Climate Change and the Ocean

August 30, 2007 Population, the Anthropocene, and Global Change

There are many important environmental problems. But we don't have time to discuss all. Let's begin with perhaps the greatest environmental problem facing civilization today, the possibility of abrupt change in climate due to increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is one aspect of a much larger problem, that of global change due to increasing population. Other aspects of the problem, air and water pollution, over fishing, and land degradation will be discussed later in the course.

Before we can begin, we need to understand how people can influence the global environment. After all, the atmosphere is huge, so how can we be doing anything to change climate? And, why does an increasing population lead to important environmental problems? Isn't there a technological solution? To find out more:

Read: The Anthropocene and The Tragedy of the Commons and the original paper.

September 4, 2007 Climate Change, Earth's Radiation Balance, and Greenhouse Gases

The Climate Change Problem
What is the problem? What causes the problem? What do we know about the problem? What are greenhouse gases? Where do they come from? Why does Wally Broecker state "... it is clear that Earth's climate system has proven itself to be an angry beast. When nudged, it is capable of a violent response."

To begin, let's find out if climate is really changing, where climate is defined to be the average of the weather over a period of time, usually 40 years.

Read: Observed Climate Trends written by the United Nations Environmental Program's UNEP Global Resources Information Database (GRID) office in Arendal.How much has earth's temperature, rainfall, and sea level changed? Then read Emissions Continue to Increase. See also US average temperature from the Earth Observatory article on temperature trends and temperature trends at selected places around the world.

Read: Earth's Radiation Balance to learn more about the greenhouse effect.

Homework Assignment 1 Due

September 6, 2007 Earth's Carbon Balance

Read: The Carbon Cycle, the Ocean, and the Iron Hypothesis and the paper on on Sinks for Anthropogenic Carbon in the August 2002 issue of Physics Today to learn more about what happens to carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Notice the many different systems influencing the carbon cycle.

If you have difficulty downloading the paper, yYou will need to go through the library portal for e-resources, Click on E-Journal radio button, then type in the name of the journal: Physics Today in this case.

September 11, 2007 The Role of the Ocean: Abrupt Climate Change

Read: Abrupt Climate Change and articles linked to that page. NOAA has a very useful web page on Abrupt Climate Change.

Homework Assignment 2 Due

September 13, 2007 Global Warming: The Future of Earth's Climate

This much we know: Greenhouse gas concentration is increasing. Greenhouse gases keep earth warm. But, what about the future. If greenhouse gas concentrations keep increasing, what will happen to our climate? Can we predict what will happen?

Read:

1. The Executive Summary of Chapter 8 of the IPCC Third Report on Accuracy of Models of Climate Change
2. The Executive Summary of Chapter 9 of the IPCC Third Report on Projections For Future Climate Change
   Both summaries are relatively short. The most recent reports are available in pdf format from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
3. Modeling the Climate System
   
   Faced with uncertain predictions, what ought we to do based on our understanding of climate change? The top down approach of forcing reduction of greenhouse gases through the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty, seems to have stalled. Bottom up approaches using market-driven, technological solutions to global warming, an approach advocated by Al Gore and many economists, may be more effective.
   
   
4. Wired Magazine's article on The Resurrection of Al Gore that explains his goal of using economic incentives to achieve environmental goals and their Grading the Old Guard on the effectiveness of environmental groups.

Supplemental reading if you want to read more:

1. The UNESCO Climate Change web site has a good, official summary of the issues.
2. Global Change: Policy Issues
3. The US Congressional Research Service Report on Global Change Treaty: The Kyoto Protocol (a 92 kByte PDF file) starting at Policy Context.
4. The the Energy Information Administration's Analysis and Report and the implications for the US economy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
5. Resources for the Future has a good analysis of the problem, a paper on What to Do About Climate Change by Ruth Greenspan Bell in Foreign Affairs (May/June 2006), and links to their report Can an Effective Global Climate Treaty Be Based on Sound Science, Rational Economics, and Pragmatic Politics? a 284 KByte PDF file.
6. The American Petroleum Institute has their own views on the subject.
7. The Pew Center on Global Climate Change has published many documents. You might start with the speech CONNECTING THE DOTS: ELEMENTS OF AN INTERNATIONAL APPROACH TO CLIMATE CHANGE by Eileen Claussen, the president of the group.
8. The New Scientist provides a European Perspective.

Water Resources Issues

By the end of the next decade almost half the world's population will live in countries that are water stressed, meaning they will not have enough water to meet the demands of their populations.
Serena Parker

September 18, 2007 Water Cycle and Water Use

Read: The Hydrological Cycle.

Watch: Moisture stream from the tropics into mid-latitudes where it falls as rain in this visualization for January and for August from the Visualization Group at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The animation is from a numerical weather model. Notice that the rain that falls on land (red tones in the animation), even in Alaska, comes from water vapor (white areas in the animation) carried by winds streaming out of the tropics.

Additional Reading If You Are Interested:

1. Sanger, M., and Reed, C., 2000, Texas Environmental Almanac, 2nd edition, University of Texas Press, Austin. Chapter 1 on Water Quality. Pages 1-5 and page 6: (South Central Texas, Southeast Texas and Upper Gulf Coast, South Texas and Lower Gulf Coast) (Note that each "page" on the web site is equivalent to several pages in the book)

September 20, 2007 Groundwater and Natural Chemistry of Groundwater

Read: Groundwater: The Sea Beneath Our Feet.

Additional Reading If You Are Interested:

1. Hydrogeology, a third tutorial written for the US Environmental Protection Agency.
2. National Primary Drinking Water Standards (a pdf file).
3. Sanger, M., and Reed, C., 2000. Texas Environmental Almanac, 2nd edition, University of Texas Press, Austin.  Ch. 2, p. 8-9 (Note that each "page" on the web site is equivalent to several pages in the book.)

Homework Assignment 3 Due

September 25, 2007 Groundwater Contamination

Read: Groundwater Contamination

Additional Reading If You Are Interested:

1. Tutorial on Ground Water Quality written by Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department, Purdue University for the US Environmental Protection Agency.
2. Overview of Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's 2004 Overview of Texas Water Quality Inventory and List (284 KBytes). The report is submitted every two years to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
3. LNAPL: Liquid Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids.
4. DNAPL: Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liguids.

Homework assignment #3 has been posted. Because many of the water districts do not have environmental quality information on the web, you may use the following web sites to discuss the overall "health" of the aquifer or water reservoir that provides water for your home town if you can't find the information posted with the assignment.

September 27, 2007 Groundwater Remediation

Read: Groundwater Remediation

October 2, 2007 Exam 1

Coastal Problems

Many people live close to or on the coast. As population increases, people have an ever greater influence on coastal regions. And events in the coastal region, such as hurricanes, influence more and more people. In the next three class meetings we will discuss some of the big environmental issues of the coastal zone.

October 4, 2007 Coastal Pollution

Today, we begin with coastal pollution. What happens to all the contaminants introduced into water as it flows on or under the ground? Does it pollute the coastal zone?

Read: Introduction to Coastal Pollution, including links from this page and the following pages,
Read: Sources of Marine Pollution, and
Read: Alien Species.

Additional Reading If You Are Interested:

1. Ocean Channel web page on Mercury in Fish.
2. Science Daily report Mercury In Ocean Fish May Come From Natural Sources, Not Pollution
3. For a very intertesting, well-argued study of mercury in the ocean, its occurance in tuna, and the regulation of mercury exposure for pregnant women, read the Mercury Science Findings in People of the State of California vs. Tri-Union Seafoods. Superior Court Judge finds MeHg levels in ocean fish “virtually natural in origin,” and mercury alarm scientists have “credibility problems.” Finds study underlying EPA’s mercury RfD confounded, unreliable and without “statistically significant relationship.”-Center for Science and Public Policy web page on Mercury.

October 9, 2007 Overfishing

Fish are mostly gone. Overfishing has reduced the populations of fish, turtles, sharks, and whales to 10-40 percent of their values fifty or more years ago. Some popular fish, such as the blue-fin tuna, are less than 0.1% of their original numbers.

Read: Fisheries Issues,
Read: Fishery Policy Issues.

Supplemental reading if you want to read more:

1. Overfishing has depleted stocks of large fish according to a National Geographic Society article.
2. The Executive Summary (a 300 KByte PDF file) to the June 2003 Pew Commission's report on on American's Living Ocean.

Homework Assignment 4 Due

October 16, 2007 Coastal Erosion

Coastal erosion is a problem for those who live near coasts and for marine organisms living along the coast. What is the nature of the problem? Are we making it better or worse? What causes erosion? Can it be prevented? Or do we want to allow erosion as a natural process?

Read: Storm Surges
Read: Coastal Erosion
Read: Coastal Issues

Supplemental reading if you want to read more:

1. Pamela Gore has a good set of web pages describing Shoreline and Coastal Processes.
2. Seafriends publishes a tutorial on Dunes and beaches. The sections on engineering solutions and new observations, in the Disappearing Beaches section provide a useful overview of how to maintain beaches.

Additional Source of Information

Dean, C. (1999). Against the Tide: The Battle for America's Beaches. New York, Columbia University Press.

This is a very useful book that documents beach processes and the difficulties facing those who want to use technical solutions to save beaches.

Due Today: List of team members and topic for Presentation.

Energy and Environmental Issues

October 18, 2007 Energy and Fossil Fuels: How Much Do We Use? Are there Alternative Energy Sources?

Read: Energy then Hoffert et al (2002) and Pacala and Socolow (2004).

Supplemental reading if you want to read more:

Introduction and Total Energy from Energy in the US: 1635-2000 produced by the US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

Air Pollution and Ozone Depletion

October 23, 2007 Structure and Composition of the Atmosphere, Pollution Sources

During the next four lectures, we will first briefly examine the composition, temperature, pressure and function of the Earth’s modern atmosphere and then proceed to discuss the spatial aspects of human induced inputs that affect it, such as air pollution, especially urban air pollution, stratospheric ozone depletion, and the blight of acid rain deposition. PowerPoint files on Atmospheric Properties and Chemistry (1.3 MByte), Urban Air Quality (3.2 MBytes), and Acid Rain and Stratospheric Ozone Depletion (1.7 MBytes) may be used for these lectures.

Read: Atmospheric Structure and Pollution Sources.

A very nice interactive web site that has information and graphs on atmospheric composition, temperature and function can be found at the University Center for Atmospheric Research's web pages on Earth's Atmosphere. While there is not much oxygen at 29,000 feet, it is possible for some people to survive at this altitude. Reinhold Messner did it twice when he climbed Mount Everest, first with Peter Habeler in 1978, then solo in 1980. The November 2006 issue of National Geographic has a long article on his accomplishments.

October 25, 2007 Atmosphereric Pollutants in the Troposphere

Read: Atmospheric Pollutants.

October 30, 2007 Case Study: Air Pollution in Houston

Read: A Case Study: Texas Air Quality

Useful web sites:

1. Proposed changes in Texas aimed at reducing air pollutant concentrations
2. Current wind directions
3. Texas emission inventories
4. Visibility trends at Big Bend National Park
5. Details of the Carbon I and II power plants
6. Location of particulate matter sampling sites
7. Real time PM2.5 data
8. Current visibility map.

November 1, 2007 Acid Rain and Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

Acid Rain

1. Read Acid Rain.
2. Download and read this 700KB PDF review article article on acid rain in North America.
3. For information on acid rain deposition check the acid rain web pages at the EPA. More information is at the National Atmospheric Deposition Program web pages.
4. Read Clearing The Air: The Truth About Capping and Trading Emissions to understand how emissions trading works and how it has led to a reduction of acid rain in the US.
5. The USGS has a site on acid rain with examples from Washington DC, especially the effects of acid precipitation on buildings. There is an active monitoring program in the US called the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) and they have a brief summary on their web site. Environment Canada has also a very informative web page on acid rain (as well as other environmental issues including ozone hole over the Arctic Ocean).
6. The EPA publishes Preliminary Summary Emission Reports listing the amounts of pollutants emitted by individual power plants.
7. The EPA also publishes maps of acid rain deposition at their map gallery.
8. A European perspective with many good links can be found at the Swedish NGO Secretariat on Acid Rain.

Read: Stratospheric Ozone.

Outline of Final Presentation Due. Work with your partners to determine what environmental topic will be the basis for your report and class presentation.

November 6, 2007 Exam 2

Land Use and Degradation

November 8, 2007 Land Degradation: A Global Overview

Read: Land Degradation.

November 13, 2007 Desertification (Tchakerian)

Download: Powerpoint Presentation on Desertification (9 MByte File). This contains material shown in class.

1. Global Desertification: Building a Science for Dryland Development. An article by Reynolds et al (2007).
   In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global change and sustainability science, suggest that concerns about land degradation, poverty, safeguarding biodiversity, and protecting the culture of 2.5 billion people can be confronted with renewed optimism. We review recent lessons about the functioning of dryland ecosystems and the livelihood systems of their human residents and introduce a new synthetic framework, the Drylands Development Paradigm (DDP). The DDP, supported by a growing and well-documented set of tools for policy and management action, helps navigate the inherent complexity of desertification and dryland development, identifying and synthesizing those factors important to research, management, and policy communities.
   
   
2. Drought in the Sahel and the link to sea-surface temperatures.
   A brief summary article with the nice illustration by Zeng (2003).
   Since the late 1960s, the Sahel--a semiarid region in West Africa between the Sahara desert and the Guinea coast rainforest--has experienced a drought of unprecedented severity in recorded history. The drought has had a devastating impact on this ecologically vulnerable region and was a major impetus in the establishment of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification and Drought.
   
   Complex feedbacks. The recent Sahel drought was likely initiated by a change in worldwide ocean temperatures, which reduced the strength of the African monsoon, and was exacerbated by land-atmosphere feedbacks through natural vegetation and land cover change. Land use changes by humans may have also played an important role. SST, sea surface temperature; ITCZ, intertropical convergence zone. From Zeng (2003).
   
   
3. African droughts and dust transport to the Caribbean, a Science article by Prospero and Lamb (2003).
   Great quantities of African dust are carried over large areas of the Atlantic and to the Caribbean during much of the year. Measurements made from 1965 to 1998 in Barbados trade winds show large interannual changes that are highly anticorrelated with rainfall in the Soudano-Sahel, a region that has suffered varying degrees of drought since 1970. Regression estimates based on long-term rainfall data suggest that dust concentrations were sharply lower during much of the 20th century before 1970, when rainfall was more normal. Because of the great sensitivity of dust emissions to climate, future changes in climate could result in large changes in emissions from African and other arid regions that, in turn, could lead to impacts on climate over large areas.
   
   
4. Oceanic Forcing of Sahel Rainfall on Interannual to Interdecadal Time Scales, a Science article by Giannini, Saravanan, and Chang (2003).
   We present evidence, based on an ensemble of integrations with NSIPP1 (version 1 of the atmospheric general circulation model developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the framework of the Seasonal-to-Interannual Prediction Project) forced only by the observed record of sea surface temperature from 1930 to 2000, to suggest that variability of rainfall in the Sahel results from the response of the African summer monsoon to oceanic forcing, amplified by land-atmosphere interaction. The recent drying trend in the semiarid Sahel is attributed to warmer-than-average low-latitude waters around Africa, which, by favoring the establishment of deep convection over the ocean, weaken the continental convergence associated with the monsoon and engender widespread drought from Senegal to Ethiopia.
   
   
5. The North American Dust Bowl and Desertification: Economic and Environmental Interactions (class hand out) from Middleton, N. and D. Thomas, Eds. (1997). World Atlas of Deserticication, United Nations Environmental Programme.

November 15, 2007 Dust, Wind, and Soil Erosion I (Tchakerian)

Class material is contained in the powerpoint file you downloaded for 13 November.

Read: Dust, Wind, and Soil Erosion

November 20, 2007 Dust, Wind, and Soil Erosion II (Tchakerian)

Download: Powerpoint Presentation on Aeolian Dust (29 MByte File).This contains material shown in class.

Book Review Due: Your review of the book Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource by Marq De Villiersis due.

1. The report should be three, single-spaced, printed pages long.
2. The report should:
   1. Explain how the book influenced you. What did you learn that you thought was espceially interesting or important, and why?
   2. You may also compare and contrast material in the the book with other material you have read on the subject.
   3. How do the issues in the book relate to Texas?
3. For more information on writing a book report see the University of Wisconsin Writing Center and Tim Loy has a few useful tips (although more for an English Lit class).

November 22, 2007 Thanksgiving Holiday

November 27, 2007 Human Dimension of Global Land Degradation (Tchakerian)

Class material is contained in the powerpoint file you downloaded for 20 November.

1. Dying Seas:
   1. Salton Sea.
      Salton Sea: Battle Over a Dying Sea, a Science article by Kaiser (1999).
      Scientists are at odds over whether to save the Salton Sea, an engineering mistake that has become a deathtrap for wildlife; the remedy they choose could influence how environmental debacles are dealt with around the world.
      
      
   2. Aral Sea.
      Coming to Grips With the Aral Sea's Grim Legacy, a Science article by Stone (1999).
      There's no undoing this sea's demise, perhaps the most notorious ecological catastrophe of human making. But scientists are hoping to soften the impact.
      
      
      Beached. A Soviet decision to divert river water to cotton farming hastened the Aral Sea's retreat. From Pala (2005).
      
      Aral Sea - To save a Vanishing Sea, a Science article by Pala (2005).
      A project backed by the World Bank aims to reverse the Aral Sea's rapid decline, but it could also increase traffic to an abandoned bioweapons testing site.
      
      The northern portion of the Aral Sea is slowly being brought back to life. A dike supported by the World Bank and repairs along the banks of the Syr Darya River have increased the water level dramatically. An article in Science by Pala (2007).
      
      
2. The Dust Bowl:
   On the cause of the 1930's Dust Bowl, a Science article by Schubert et al (2004).
   During the 1930s, the United States experienced one of the most devastating droughts of the past century. The drought affected almost two-thirds of the country and parts of Mexico and Canada and was infamous for the numerous dust storms that occurred in the southern Great Plains. In this study, we present model results that indicate that the drought was caused by anomalous tropical sea surface temperatures during that decade and that interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface increased its severity. We also contrast the 1930s drought with other North American droughts of the 20th century.
   
   Also read .Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States by Cook et al (2004).
   The western United States is experiencing a severe multiyear drought that is unprecedented in some hydroclimatic records. Using gridded drought reconstructions that cover most of the western United States over the past 1200 years, we show that this drought pales in comparison to an earlier period of elevated aridity and epic drought in AD 900 to 1300, an interval broadly consistent with the Medieval Warm Period. If elevated aridity in the western United States is a natural response to climate warming, then any trend toward warmer temperatures in the future could lead to a serious long-term increase in aridity over western North America.
   
   
3. Owens Valley.
   The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, to ensure an adequate water supply during the early 20th century, obtained water rights to almost all water in the Owens Valley. This led to the destruction of Owens Lake, which became the largest single source of particulate in North America. Recently the district has been required to allow enough water to flow into Owens Lake to reduce the amount of particulates picked up by winds in the area. See A Century Later, Los Angeles Atones for Water Sins in the New York Times.
   

November 29, 2007 Presentations

1. Teams of three students present the results of their report on an environmental topic.
2. Each team has nine minutes for a brief presentation followed by three minutes for questions.
3. Four teams will present today, fivewill present on 4 December.
4. A printed copy of a report based on your presentation is due when you make your presentation.

Presenting today:

1. Team 1. Brown, Houston, Moliver, and Roof: Coral reef degradation.
2. Team 2. Davis, Griggs, and Jones: Wind energy.
3. Team 3. DeAtley, DeForrest, and Keeney: Alternative fuel.
4. Team 4. Gahring, Ponder, and Richardson: Volcanic effects on the atmosphere.

December 4, 2007 Presentations

Presenting today:

1. Team 5. Bridger, Carpenter, and Vietti: Texas red tides.
2. Team 6. Keesee, Skinner, and Terrette: Red Snapper fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.
   
3. Team 7. Mathews, Scott, and Shaw: Do we need alternative fuels?
4. Team 8. Easley, Minicone, and Nalundasan: Florida Everglade environmental problems.
5. Team 9. Banda, Harvey: Reducing waste in Bryan and College Station landfills.
   

December 7, 2007 FINAL EXAMINATION 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

Updated November 29, 2007