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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
- Syllabus
- Course Goals
- Welcome to Environmental Studies
and Environmental Geosciencs and
Course Overview
- Discussion:
- What do you consider to be the the most important
environmental issue?
- Have we left anything off the schedule?
- What tools do you need to pursue your interests
in the environment?
- 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:
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:
- The Executive
Summary of Chapter 8 of the IPCC
Third Report on Accuracy
of Models of Climate Change
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- The UNESCO Climate Change web site has a good, official summary
of the issues.
- Global
Change: Policy Issues
- The US Congressional Research Service Report
on Global Change Treaty: The Kyoto Protocol (a 92 kByte PDF file)
starting at Policy Context.
- The
the Energy
Information Administration's Analysis and Report and the implications
for the US economy of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- 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.
- The American Petroleum Institute has their own views on the subject.
- 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.
- 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
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:
- 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:
- Hydrogeology,
a third tutorial written for the US Environmental Protection Agency.
- National
Primary Drinking Water Standards (a pdf file).
- 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:
- Tutorial
on Ground
Water Quality written by Agricultural & Biological Engineering
Department, Purdue University for the US Environmental
Protection Agency.
- 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.
- LNAPL: Liquid Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids.
- 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:
- Ocean Channel web page on Mercury
in Fish.
- Science Daily report Mercury
In Ocean Fish May Come From Natural Sources, Not Pollution
- 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:
- Overfishing has depleted stocks of large
fish according to a National Geographic Society article.
- 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:
- Pamela Gore has a good set of web pages describing Shoreline
and Coastal Processes.
- 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
Useful web sites:
- Proposed
changes in Texas aimed at reducing air pollutant concentrations
- Current
wind directions
- Texas
emission inventories
- Visibility
trends at Big Bend National Park
- Details
of the Carbon I and II power plants
- Location
of particulate matter sampling sites
- Real
time PM2.5 data
- Current
visibility map.
November 1, 2007 Acid Rain and
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion
Acid Rain
- Read Acid
Rain.
- Download and read this 700KB PDF review
article article on acid rain in North America.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- The EPA publishes Preliminary
Summary Emission Reports listing the amounts of pollutants emitted by individual power plants.
- The EPA also publishes maps of acid rain deposition
at their map
gallery.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The report
should be three, single-spaced, printed pages long.
- The report should:
- Explain how the book influenced you. What did you learn that
you thought was espceially interesting or important, and why?
- You may also compare and contrast material in the the book
with other material you have read on the subject.
- How do the issues in the book relate to Texas?
- 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.
- Dying Seas:
- 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.
- 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.
F-1.gif)
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).
- 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.
- 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
- Teams of three students present the results of their
report on an environmental topic.
- Each team has nine minutes for a brief
presentation followed by three minutes for questions.
- Four teams
will present today, fivewill present on 4 December.
- A printed copy of a report based on your
presentation is due when you make your presentation.
Presenting today:
- Team 1. Brown, Houston, Moliver, and Roof: Coral reef
degradation.
- Team 2. Davis, Griggs, and Jones: Wind energy.
- Team 3. DeAtley, DeForrest, and Keeney: Alternative
fuel.
- Team 4. Gahring, Ponder, and Richardson: Volcanic
effects on the atmosphere.
December 4, 2007 Presentations
Presenting
today:
- Team 5. Bridger, Carpenter, and Vietti: Texas red
tides.
- Team 6. Keesee, Skinner, and Terrette: Red Snapper
fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Team 7. Mathews, Scott, and Shaw: Do we need
alternative fuels?
- Team 8. Easley, Minicone, and Nalundasan: Florida
Everglade environmental problems.
- 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
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