SUBJECT AND CENTRAL QUESTION
Climate Physics: How Can a Trace Gas Warm a Planet? Start with radiation balance, infrared absorption, greenhouse gases, albedo, feedbacks, oceans and atmosphere.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
MIT's Global Warming Science, especially “A Little Climate Physics.” It is a sequence of short university lecture videos rather than one monolithic lecture and includes planetary energy balance, greenhouse effect and Earth's radiative budget. MIT — A Little Climate Physics
CLASS DISCUSSION
Why does CO₂ matter when water vapor is the more abundant greenhouse gas? What is forcing versus feedback? Where does the additional energy actually go?
GROUP DISCUSSION
- Why does CO₂ matter when water vapor is the more abundant greenhouse gas?
- What is forcing versus feedback?
- Where does the additional energy actually go?
