Welcome to Climate Science for Everyone! We’ll begin this week by introducing the course and explaining why understanding climate change science is important to you. Then, we’ll quickly discuss a short history of climate change science. Finally, you will learn about the increase in global average surface temperature since the pre-industrial era in the context of international agreements to limit warming. This will provide foundational knowledge for the rest of the course material.

This week, you will learn about the energy balance of the earth system and how the increase in global average temperature since the pre-industrial era can be explained in terms of changes in this energy balance.

This week, you will learn about how human activities have changed the atmospheric concentrations of the two main greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide and methane. We will also touch on how the atmospheric concentration of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols, which have offset some of the warming from greenhouse gasses, is changing because of pollution control measures.

This week, you will learn how global average surface temperature will evolve over the course of this century under various greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Additionally, we will give you a chance to reflect on what you’ve learned in the course and how you can take action to help with climate change both personally and professionally.