The goal of this course will be to identify and understand the connections between the different portions of the earth that most directly affect humans, namely the surface environment. In particular, the course will examine how the biosphere and its connections with the geosphere affect the Earth’s “climate” defined in the broadest sense.

The first half of the course will look at several key cycles of importance to sustaining life, and will also define the “climate system”. Greenhouse gases and their possible effect(s) on the “climate system” will be examined.

The second half of the course will look at several case scenarios of past “climate change” events and how these may have affected biodiversity. Forces that have acted upon geosphere and biosphere operate at different time-scales, from billions of years to seasons. The course will look at the long-term and short-term climate variations, including catastrophic events, and what were the likely causes and ultimate effects of these variations.