1: The Science of Climate Change

What will we learn?

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• explain what the climate system is;
• explain what we mean by the human causes of climate change;
• explain what we mean by the human consequences of climate change;
• define and differentiate between key terms related to the human dimensions of climate change;
• discuss how reasons for concern about climate change risks are increasing.

The scientific consensus demonstrates that climate change in the 21st century is a human problem. People are causing climate change through their everyday actions and through the socioeconomic forces underlying those actions. At the same time, people are feeling the consequences of climate change through various impacts on things they value and through the responses they are making to address climate change.

This graphic denotes the scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change, based on several recent studies.  This is adapted from work done by Cook (2016).

Credit: Studies into scientific agreement on human-caused global warming by John Cook from Skeptical Science is licensed under CC-BY-NC-3.0

This graphic is an illustrated summary of the recently released IPCC AR6 Report (which we're reading this week!) 

Credit: Enviro Visuals

In this first lesson, we will explore the science of climate change and look very broadly at causes and consequences. We need to develop a framework for understanding the relationships between humans and the climate. Start thinking about the various scales of space and time involved in the human dimensions of climate change.