EAE3051 Palaeoclimatology: Discovering Earth's past climate

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. 1

   Describe the history of the Earth's climate system from the formation of Earth (4 billion years ago) to the present.

2. 2

   Describe physical, chemical and biological proxies of climate and explain the techniques used to extract past climate information from these proxies.

3. 3

   Interpret past climate changes from reconstructions developed from paleoclimate proxies and simulations using climate models. Appreciate and quantify the uncertainties in these reconstructions.

4. 4

   Describe the processes causing Earth's past climate changes and explain the key ways in which these processes influence climate.

5. 5

   Explain the role that humans have played in influencing the Earth’s climate system, and deduce the key differences between present-day climate change and climate changes prior to the industrial revolution.

6. 6

   Perform simple quantitative analyses to provide evidence-based arguments for past climate changes, and effectively communicate ideas in written and oral formats.