Global Warming Science: A Quantitative Introduction to Climate Change and Its Consequences

A quantitative, broad, hands-on introduction to the cutting-edge science of global warming

This textbook introduces undergraduates to the concepts and methods of global warming science, covering topics that they encounter in the news, ranging from the greenhouse effect and warming to ocean acidification, hurricanes, extreme precipitation, droughts, heat waves, forest fires, the cryosphere, and more. This book explains each of the issues based on basic statistical analysis, simple ordinary differential equations, or elementary chemical reactions. Each chapter explains the mechanisms behind an observed or anticipated change in the climate system and demonstrates the tools used to understand and predict them. Proven in the classroom, Global Warming Science also includes “workshops” with every chapter, each based on a Jupyter Python notebook and an accompanying small data set, with supplementary online materials and slides for instructors. The workshop can be used as an interactive learning element in class and as a homework assignment.

• Provides a clear, broad, quantitative yet accessible approach to the science of global warming
• Engages students in the analysis of climate data and models, examining predictions, and dealing with uncertainty
• Features workshops with each chapter that enhance learning through hands-on engagement
• Comes with supplementary online slides, code, and data files
• Requires only elementary undergraduate-level calculus and basic statistics; no prior coursework in science is assumed
• Solutions manual available (only to instructors)

Eli Tziperman is professor of oceanography and applied physics in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.