Astro 7: Planetary Climate Science - Instructive Video Lectures and Other Resources
Some Key Papers, Books on Civilization, Energy Consumption, and Climate
Tim Garrett: (2011) "How Persistent is Civilization Growth?"
Tim Garrett: (2011) "Are there Basic Physical Constraints on Future Anthropogenic Emissions of Carbon Dioxide?"
Tim Garrett: (2012) "No Way Out? The Double Bind in Seeking Global Prosperity Alongside Mitigated Climate Change"
Tim Garrett:(2012) "On the Coupled Evolution of Inflation, Wealth and Atmospheric Concentrations of Carbon Dioxide"
Tim Garrett: (2012) "Can we Predict Long Run Economic Growth?"
Tim Garrett: (2014) "The Physics of Long Run Economic Growth"
Tim Garrett: (2014) "Long Run Evolution of the Global Economy: 1 - Physical Basis"
Jared Diamond: "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"
Articles on the Cognitive / Emotional Aspects of Facing Climate Reality
https://www.isthishowyoufeel.com/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/scientists-climate-crisis-activism-extinction-rebellion
https://eos.org/features/the-emotional-toll-of-climate-change-on-science-professionals
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/07/weight-of-the-world-climate-change-scientist-grief/
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/august/1566136800/jo-lle-gergis/terrible-truth-climate-change
https://www.theinertia.com/environment/an-earth-scientist-on-climate-change-weve-created-a-civilization-hellbent-on-destroying-itself-and-im-terrified/
https://grist.org/climate-energy/climate-depression-is-for-real-just-ask-a-scientist/
https://www.patreon.com/posts/not-coping-with-32503338
General, Climate Physics
ClimateOne - A series of hour long programs with prominent energy/climate experts. Generally good
AGU's (American Geophysical Union) YouTube Channel with many lectures on climate
A good mathematical introduction to the Greenhouse Effect for the science major
Ask a Climate Scientist (for Sept '13)
Climate Literacy YouTube channel - some good supplements
Panel Discussion on Climate (including me!) (Sept '14 on CTV) (58 min)
A Panel Discussion w/ Republicans and CCL People at CCL NorCal Meeting '15 (46 min)
Biomimicry - nature's ways of materials engineering in the world (21min)
The Physics of Climate Change - A. E. Dessler, to physics people, summarizing IPCC AR5 (1:01:23)
Climate One - A Conversation between Prof. Naomi Oreskes and Prof. Steven Chu (1:23:32)
UCSC Climate Conference Feb 2017
The Selfish Green - BBC Interview with Richard Dawkins, David Attenborough, Richard Leakey, Jane Goodall (59:19)
Ocean Circulation and Climate Change
AMOC Shutdown - Potential and Implications (9:21)
Stefan Rahmstorf: Is the Gulf Stream Slowing (2016) (26:55)
James Hansen: Video summary of "Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise, and Superstorms"(2016) - (15:00)
Climate Change Implications for Hurricanes
Kerry Emmanuel: "The Problem of Hurricanes and Climate Change" (Mar '14) (53:36) Excellent, and science-dense!
The Coriolis Effect
Hurricanes 2017 - A Taste of the Future (Kerry Emmanuel) (1:11:50) - at a nicely scientific level
PaleoClimate of Earth, and Mass Extinctions
Snowball Earth (44 min, BBC program)
Quick History of Climate Science and Last 50 Myrs of Climate (9 min)
CO2 - The Biggest Control Knob in Earth's Climate History (57 min)
Richard Alley - 4.6B yrs of Earth Climate, role of CO2 (in 2015) (24min)
Richard Alley - The Biggest Control Knob: CO2 in Earth's Climate History (57:06)
65 million years with James Hansen (8min)
Catastrophe - the End Permian Extinction 250ma (47min)
4.6 billion years of Earth Climate (Richard Alley. 24 min)
William Ruddiman: Early Anthropogenic Transformations of Earth's Climate (1:15:51)
Global Warming - a panel discussion w/ Peter Wadhams 2018 (2:24:46)
Climate State: The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells (49:29)
Oceans, Ice Sheet Dynamics, Sea Level and Climate
The Role of the Oceans in Climate (Dr. Kevin Trenberth; 79 min)
What's Going On with El Nino? (July 2015 Dr. Kevin Trenberth; 104min), skip forward 7min to avoid intro
Prof. Richard Alley "Ice Sheets and Sea Level Rise in a Warming World" (44 min lecture at Stanford University Oct. 2012)
"Under a Green Sky - Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps" - Peter Ward (U. Washington)
Summary of Predictions and Conclusions in the IPCC AR5 (Jonathan Gregory, Hadley Met Office) (48:36)
Dr. James Hansen at Stevens Institute "Facing the Truth about Climate Change" (38 min)
Acidic Oceans: Why Should we Care? UCTV lecture (2009) by Prof Andrew Dickson of Scripps Institute (57 min)
135 Years of Ocean Global Warming. UCTV Lecture (2012) by Prof Dean Roemmich of Scripps Institute (57 min)
The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification (NRDC, glossy, narrated by Sigourney Weaver) (21 min)
Worldwide Flooding: Sea Level Rise (45 min)
Sea level Rise in the IPCC AR5 (48 min)
Nova - Secrets Beneath the Ice (53 min)
A New Climate State: Arctic Sea Ice 2012 (6:38)
Scientists' Concerns Challenge Conservative Sea Level Rise (6:22)
Richard Alley at INSTAAR - excellent on ice shelf instability dynamics (2015) (57:55)
Eric Rignot "Ice Sheet Systems and Sea Level Rise" at AGU '15 (41:56; start at 1:40)
Stefan Rahmstorff "Rising Seas - How Fast, How Far" (Earth101 Nov '16) (31:32)
Earth Map, if All the Ice Melts (2 min)
James Zachos "Ocean Acidification in Earth's Past- Implications for the Future (44:50)
Methane Release from the Arctic
Permafrost Methane Tipping Point (2012) - and associated article
Changing Planet: Permafrost Loss (6 min)
Richard Alley - on Subsea Methane Hydrates (5:25)
Arctic Sea Ice: Why it Matters (19 min)
Methane Hydrates: Natural Hazard or Natural Resource? UCTV (53 min)
The Day the Oceans Boiled (9 min)
Arctic Sea Ice and Reasons/Visuals Why Satellite Data Was Interpreted Too Optimistically (2010) (9:45min) (had the link, and lost it!)
Carbon Cycle Feedback from the Arctic in Global Climate Change - David Archer (2015) (46:40) - excellent discussion of why Arctic methane hydrates are very likely stable
David Archer - Sub sea Permafrost and the Methane Cycle on Siberian Shelf (45 min)
Global Warming Effect of Arctic Methane (32:51) (one-sentence condensation: IPCC assumed 23x for CH4, not 100x more appropriate for the short-range strong emissions.)
Permafrost: The Tipping Time Bomb (Yale Climate Series) (6:04) (includes short interview with A. Vaks on 2013 tipping point of 1.5C)
Researchers Talk Permafrost Carbon Feedback Models (2018) (36:43)
Welcome to the Dark New Climate - soil carbon release (interview on Radio Ecoshock in 2016) (1:00:00)
Polar Effect of Climate Change
Dr Jason Box: Greenland and Global Warming (in 2013) (55:35)
CNN on Greenland Melt (11:10)
Dr Jason Box at The Economist Arctic Summit 2015 (19min)
TEDx - Dr. David Barber "7 Surprising Results from the Reduction of Arctic Sea Ice Cover" (16:20)
Interview with Anton Vaks in 2013 on tipping point for permafrost melt (11:11)
Harvard's Prof. Jim Anderson "Feedbacks that Set the Timescale for Irreversible Change" (52:55)
Climate Sensitivity: Temperature for a Doubling of CO2 (ECS)
Why (if no tipping points, in an idealized CO2 planet) ECS is a Constant Part 1 (20:10), Part 2 (16:30) George Mason University (warning - WONK alert!)
What makes a Greenhouse Gas? George Mason University (14:04)
Earth's Limits, Politics, Denialism
Temperature predictions: Climate models vs mainstream climate scientists vs climate denialists (1:43)
John Holdren "Global Climate Change and U.S. Interests" (1:10:20)
Interview with Climatologist Steven Sherwood "Making Sense of Climate Denial" (30:47)
Dr. Nate Hagens: The End of Growth (50:48) - This is one of the most insightful, comprehensive, and valuable of all discussions on understanding the human challenge
Dr. Nate Hagens: The Limits to Growth: Where are We and What do We Do About It" (1:33:04) - This is updated Oct '14 and even better
Dr. Nate Hagens: Humans - Transitioning from Teenagers to Adults as a Species (1:43:54)
Dr. Nate Hagens: A Framework for Supply and Demand on a Full Planet (34:24)
Dr. Nate Hagens: Turning 21 in the Anthropocene (EarthDay 2015) (56:00)
Interview with Nate Hagens (13:34)
Dr. Joseph Tainter: The Collapse of Complex Societies (1:33:24)
Dr. Joseph Tainter: Energy Gain and Energy Future - The Collapse of Sustainability (56:51) (Roman Empire collapse and today's global civilization)
Richard Alley: "Limits to Growth: World on the Edge" (from 37:20 to end for energy strategies)
Richard Alley: "The Big Picture on Energy and Climate in 2017" (1:20:00)
Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider - Modern history of global warming and climate denialism (12 min)
Bill Moyers interview with Naomi Klein: Capitalism and Climate (53 min) - this is excellent
TED: J. Hansen Talk and Graphs on Paleo vs Current Climate Change, Denialists Debunked (18 min)
Richard Milne: Evidence for human caused climate change vs climate denial tactics (1:19:55)
Dr. Eugenie Scott: Parallels in Denialism in Evolution and Climate (53:07)
Climate Wars: BBC Documentary Series, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (1 hr each)
The Myth of GDP (5:44)
Final Warning: Limits to Growth (on the origin of the Club of Rome) (42:29)
There is No Tomorrow: Limits to Growth and the Future (34:51) - 2012. packed with the essential data and facts, excellent content! (but cheesy graphics)
Dr. Dennis Meadows: Club of Rome - It is Too Late for Sustainable Development (48:23)
Climatologist Dr. Jorgen Randers: Club of Rome and the failure of Capitalism due to Short Term'ism (31:14)
Marc McCaffrey AGU Series: Communicating Climate Science (23:53) (K-14 schools do it poorly)
NPR's "On Point" Interview with Naomi Oreskes on her novel of the future (60 min)
"Can Global Warming be Held to +2C?" (as of 2012, response to "no warming" question is outdated) (58 min)
"Communicating Climate Science in the Dis-Information Era" (48:16)
James Hansen 2015, talk at Canadian Nuclear Association (24:34)
ClimateGate nonsense, debunked by Michael Mann (7:19)
Mark Carney, head of Bank of England: "Climate Warning at Lloyds of London" (4:31)
Dr. Kevin Anderson: "Real Clothes for the Emperor - Facing the Challenges of Climate" in 2012 (58:03)
Dr. Kevin Anderson: "The Ostrich or the Phoenix? Dissonance or Creativity in a Changing Climate" in 2015 (48:43)
Dr. Kevin Anderson (Dir of Tyndall Climate Center UK): "Going Beyond the Dangerous" in 2011(1:26:38) A rare lecture from a climate scientist telling the stark truth about pressure from policy people on scientists to rosy up their projections and statements. (from the intro..."Professor Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre (the UK's top academic institute researching all aspects of climate change) is a depressing guy. Here, in his lecture 'Beyond dangerous climate change: emission scenarios for a new world', he lays out the grim reality of climate change, and our inability to address it globally.
We are currently mitigating towards 4 degrees C of warming and yet planning for only 2 degrees C. As Anderson points out, that's ass backwards. Further, he sees absolutely no way we can meet those targets, given the rapid industrialisation of China and the emerging economies, and the current state of global political inaction.
He points out, with brutal honesty, that 'climate analysts construct their scenarios not to avoid dangerous climate change but to avoid threatening economic growth'. There is, therefore, almost no possibility that we are going to act, either in time or at the scale necessary, to address the challenge facing us.
We pretend that 2 degrees C is our threshold. Yet the climate scenarios and plans presented to policy makers do not actually reflect that threshold. As Anderson says, 'most policy advice is to accept a high probability of extremely dangerous climate change rather than propose radical and immediate emission reductions.'" Go to 63min into this video to hear how academics are highly pressured to give rosy projections by policy people.
Dr. Kevin Anderson: "Delivering on +2C; Evolution or Revolution?" (53:51) See 30min into this, for quotes from science advisors to policy people and refusal to advise the true science.
Dr. Kevin Anderson: "Rhetoric to Reality" on climate change (23:34)
Dr. Kevin Anderson: (2011) "Global Warming - Brutal Numbers, Tenuous Hope (57:44)
Dr. Kevin Anderson in 2015 Interview by Alex Smith (1:00:00)
Dr. Kevin Anderson; interview at Paris COP21 Part 1 (16min) , Part 2 (25min) , Part 3 (15min)
Dr. Kevin Anderson; on Courage, Straight talk on Climate, and Advice to his Student Interviewer (Dec 2016) (1:02:02)
Dr. Hugh Hunt and Kevin Anderson at COP21 (32:40)
Dr. Kevin Anderson and Hugh Hunt, at COP23 in Bonn 2017 (27:49)
Dr. Kevin Anderson and Panel at 2017 UNFCCC (on corruption of the U.N. process) (39 min)
Dr. Kevin Anderson: Global Warming and Global Economic Collapse (56:15)
Dr. Kevin Anderson: Paris, Climate & Surrealism - How Numbers Reveal a Different Reality (Cambridge Climate Series) (52:38)
Dr. Vaclav Smil: "Energy Transitions - neither Fast nor Cheap" (1:14:34)
Prof. Sandra Faber: An Astronomer Looks at Human History and our Future (Lick Obs talk) (July '11) (58:53)
Prof. Sandra Faber: Cosmic Knowledge and the Long Term Strategy of the Human Race (May '16) (1:41:24)
Sarah Penryhn Jones: Meditation on Climate Impacts (29:57)
Martin Gilens: The Economic Elites Control Legislation (2014) (44:34, but skip up to 11:40) - extremely relevant to pondering climate policy action
James Hansen: "Climate Change - How Can Young People Take Charge of Their Future (1:12:00) March '17)
The Collapse of Growth (2012) Michael Trout TED (16:29)
Addiction to Growth: The Root Cause of Climate Change (Dr. Phillip Lawn) (23:00)
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber - the Future of Earth: Climate, Complexity, Conversion (33:10)
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber "We Need Disruptive Change" (25min)
John Rockstrom - "Potential Irreversible Planet Thresholds for a Disasterous Future (12:47)
Interview with David Spratt, author of "What Lies Beneath" on scientific reticence, IPCC politics, new science (30:11)
Big Oil Knew (3:41)
CMIP6 Modelling (Gerald Meehl) (22:31) - great insider view of what the scientists had to put up with at the hands of the UN policy people in doing climate modelling
Biophysical Economics - Charles Hall (1:00:04)
Climate Change - Effects on Crops, Water Supplies...
Dr. David Battisti - Climate Change and Global Food Security (1:05:57)
Yale Course: Energy and Matter Movement through Eco Systems (49min)
Psychological and Cognitive Pathologies Involved in Response to Climate Science
Stephan Lewandowsky - The Cognition of Climate Change Denial (21:48)
Stephan Lewandosky - In Whose Hands the Future? (18 min)
MOOC: "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial" - a free online course
Critical thinking, mainstream media's false balance, and the Value of Satire (6 min)
How, and How Not to Communicate on Climate Change (5:13)
The Emotions of Climate Change (Yale Climate Connections) (8:40)
Climate Grief, Dealing with it (30min. Start this audio file at 31:50 in)
Abrupt Climate Change and Climate Tipping Points
Jim White "Abrupt Climate Change: Past, Present, Future" at AGU '14 (51:56)
NRC: Abrupt Changes to Climate (2013) (1:04:24) (skip forward to 02:29) (includes J. White, R. Alley, M. Mann, others)
Richard Alley: Abrupt Climate Change in the Arctic (and Beyond) - an Update (Dec 2013 AGU Talk) (51:53)
James Hansen "2 Degrees is a Recipe for Disaster" (13 min)
James Hansen: Climate Change and Energy (89 min)
Abrupt Climate Change and Extreme Events - Prof Paul Mayewski (Sept '16) (52:20)
Peter Ward on Mass Extinctions (TED 2008 19min)
Inside the Experiment: Abrupt Climate Change and Ice Cores (5:48)
Early Warning of Climate Tipping Points - Prof. Tim Lenton (Sept 2016) (39:35)
Tim Palmer "Climate Change, Chaos, and Inexact Computing" (1:17:03) at Perimeter Inst.2016
Tim Lenton "Disaster in the Making: Cascading Tipping Points and Permafrost" (1:00:00)
Strategies and GeoEngineering to Deal with Climate Change - Good, Bad, and Ugly
Prof. Klaus Lackner in 2010: Artificial Trees to remove atmospheric CO2 (53 min) (costs here outdated, too rosy)
Powering the World with 100% Renewables Stanford Engineering's Mark Jacobsen (54 min)
EnergieWende - A series of movie shorts on Germany's Transformation to Alternative Energy
UCTV lecture: Carbon Sequestration (50 min; skip forward to 04:15 to begin)
UC Berkeley Panel 2009: Carbon Sequestration (1hr27m)
Carbon dioxide Sequestration: Hype or Hope? Dr. Sally Benson (1:18:45)
Aldyen Donnelly - Why Carbon Pricing Hasn't Worked (47:02) Nori podcast
Liquid Metal Batteries - Don Sadoway (TED talk 2012 15 min)
Grid Energy Storage (1hr 32m)
Carbon Sequestration Must be Big and Quick - William Calvin ( 2011) (52 min)
Carbon Sequestration - Can we Afford it? (Univ Az, for beginners, start at 11min in) (54min)
Carbon Dioxide Removal (wikipedia)
GeoEngineering for Climate - NASA JPL's Riley Durn (1:27:57)
Elon Musk and the dumbness of hydrogen fuel cells (2min)
Why Battery Packs are Winning over Hydrogen Fuel Cells (5:38)
The Elon Musk YouTube channel - A brilliant innovator and straight talker. Learn-by-example and become inspired! .
Carbon Engineering ad - air capture of CO2 (7 min)
Ocean Pipe-Dream (3 min)
Climate GeoEngineering and its Governance at COP22 2016 (23:52) - some welcome talk from engineering people who acknowledge engineering truths
"Climate Change on Earth" - some geo-engineering ideas for a TV audience (Nov 2016) (45 min) (but "salting" clouds idea not as promising as promotion here)
LBL's Dr. David Fridley's Debunking of BioFuels "The Myths of BioFuels" (1:28:54)
Interview with Peter Fiekowsky at Paris 2015 (28min) (but puts too much faith in extrapolations of carbon sequestration costs from very small scale experiments)
Paul Hawken: "Drawdown" lecture (1:17:23)
The Price is Wrong: Why Carbon Pricing Won't Solve the Climate Crisis (1:17:14) Webinar
Geo-Engineering: Risk Management. Ken Caldiera and David Keith (56:29)
at AMS meeting 2012, general overview
UCSC's Prof. Greg Rau: Carbon negative Hydrogen generation (2min) 2017
Can We Re-Freeze the Arctic - GeoEngineering Governance , at COP23 2017 (24min) alas, they don't really address the question
Survivable IPCC Projections Based on Science Fiction, Reality far Worse (6:35) (overly lurid title, but good interview pieces from key people. Important from Hugh Hunt especially)
Ken Caldiera - Key Note Speech at SRM Conference 2015 (36:21)
David MacKay "Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air" (1:06:02)
David MacKay "A Reality Check on Renewables" TED (18:34)
Don Sadaway - Storage is the Remedy for Renewables 2017 (17 min)
Sam Stranks - Revolutionizing Solar PV with Perovskites 2017 (17min)
Jancovici: Can we Save Energy, Jobs and Growth at the Same Time? (2018) (should have asked "and the planet"; then the answer would be - no. But good talk)
Charles Mann - "How will we survive with 10 billion people?" (12:57)
Weather on Other Planets
Vorticity modeled in the atmospheres of several Exoplanets (Laughlin 2007)
Extreme heating observed at peri-astron passage of HD 80606b (Laughlin 2009)
Miscellaneous
"The Birth of the Earth" DVD to be played in class, on YouTube
Dr. Stefan Rahmstorff: The Climate Crisis (39:08)
Dr. Stefan Rahmstorff: Can We Control the Climate Crisis in Time? (at COP23 in Bonn 2017) (12:38)
The Case for Urgent Action to Limit Climate Change (Prof. Richard Somerville) (59 min)
Film from 350.org: "Disruption. Climate. Change" (1 hr)
Interview with New York Times climate journalist Justin Gillis (1hr 3min)
Implications of a World Without Snow (Diane Rehm Show 2014) (55min, audio only)
Interview w/ Curt Stager "Deep Future" (22min)
Elizabeth Kolbert "Fresh Air" interview on "The Sixth Extinction" (36:55)
UCSC 2015 Climate Conference - Richard Alley, Penn State U
Erik Fernandez (World Bank)- Why +4C MUST be Avoided (2015) (47:51)
From the New and Bizarre Weather File...
* Midwest-sized tornado strikes Italy... and in November (2012)
* "Apocalyptic" rain in Sardinia (and in November again (2013)
Inspirational
It is profoundly dispiriting to see how humans have treated this planet, and the persistent denial of human responsibility centered here in the United States. We need examples of inspiration to keep our sanity (at least, I certainly do). In that spirit, I offer these -
European culture at its best (6 min) This flash mob brings to me a smile so big it hurts. If only Schiller's Ode guided civilization today...
"The Warriors of Quigang: A Chinese Village Fights Back" (Academy Award nominee documentary short)
TEDx Santa Cruz YouTube channel - lots of great people from here with great ideas!
A Child's Song: Shallow Waters
Young People tell the UN "Why Do You Sit Here, and Pretend, and Do Nothing?" (2:26)
The Girl who Silenced the World for 5 minutes
Google Science Fair Project: Portable solar powered water purification design
Electricity Rebels in a German Town
Jackson Browne sings - "Before the Deluge"
"Elegy for the Arctic" - piano composition by Einaudi, played in the Artcic
A Swedish Teenager's Compelling Plea for Climate Action (5:43)
The Opposite of Inspirational: We're All Dead! (note:McPherson's claims are just plain wrong - the "photo-negative" of climate denialists (thanks to Scott Johnson for that on-target characterization)
Guy McPherson: Earth Extinction 2030 (1:04:35) (Nov 2013)
Interview: Science Writer Scott K. Johnson's Debunking of Guy McPherson's Claims (1:00:00)
The Bigger Picture
TED talk by Wade Davis "Dreams from Endangered Cultures" (18min)
Local Talks (including on KSCO)
"Planet Watch: on KSCO, w/ Gary Griggs" (59min)