Reader's Guide to the Text

Chapter 1

Introduces all the topics covered in the course. Accurately reflects the content and level of difficulty of the course. It will be useful to reread this chapter when studying for the final. The Summary, Key Terms, Review Problems and Critical Thinking Problems at the end of this and all chapters will help you assess what you've learned. We've incorporated some of this material into the assignments and exams.

Chapter 2

An introduction to systems and feedbacks. This chapter is, in some ways, the most difficult in the book, because it's about concepts. Learning the graphing conventions in Figs. 2-1 and 2-2 is optional: some students find it helpful: others don't. The important thing is to grasp the idea behind the figures and be able to express it in a way that makes sense to you. You can skip the section "Response of Equilibrium States to Forcing".

Chapter 3

Don't worry about the frequency of radiation or about photons and photon energy. There are two equations in this chapter that you'll be required to learn and apply in simple problems: the inverse square law (p. 38) and the Stefan Boltzmann Law (p. 41). The planetary energy balance (p. 41-42) is fundamental material that we'll come back to again and again in the course. The same is true of the section on the greenhouse effect. You can just skim the section entitled "Physical Causes of the Greenhouse Effect", which gets a bit too deeply involved in the physics of radiation, but being able to understand the diagram Fig. 3-13 is really important.

Note that colored figures like Fig. 3-3 are repeated in the center section of the book.

Chapter 4

This chapter is not as well written the other chapters in the book so we've supplemented it with lecture notes that can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate dates in the lecture schedule. The figures (many of which are repeated in the center section of the book, are helpful and informative.

Skip the subsections entitled "The Movement of Air" and "The General Circulation" and the box entitled "The Relationship among Temperature...". All you'll need to know about this material is in the lecture notes. The intermediate section "The Driving Force, The Global Energy Distribution, which contains Figs 4.3 and 4.4 is important. The section "The Coriolis Force" is well written but difficult. In class we'll simply describe what the Coriolis force does, but we won't try to explain why it does what it does. Read carefully the sections entitled "The Distribution of Surface Winds","Seasonal Variability", and "Global Distributions of Temperature and Rainfall."

Chapters 5, 6

You won't need to learn this material in detail but these chapters are well worth skimming. Most of the discussion of the ocean circulation (p. 82-88) is too difficult. A knowledge of the basic concepts of plate tectonics (Chapter 6 p. 106-116; ) will enhance your appreciation of the material on climatic variations on the 100-million year time scale, covered later in the book.

Chapter 7

The textbook co-author, James Kasting, is one of the leading authorities on the carbon cycle. This chapter contains fundamental material that needs to be read carefully. Figs. 7-7 and 7-12 are too detailed: we'll present simpler versions in class. You can skip the box on the pH scale and the chemical equations on p. 146. Try the review questions at the end of the Chapter.

Chapter 8

Outlines the origin and history of the earth and its atmosphere. The first of a series of five chapters dealing with the history of climate. Contains mostly factual material that can be read and assimilated much more quickly than the conceptual ideas about geochemical cycles presented in Chapter 7. The material on the formation of the solar system is optional. No need to memorize the terms in Fig. 8-11.

Chapter 9

This Chapter on the history of the atmosphere focuses on oxygen and ozone in the earth's atmosphere and their connection with life. It is concerned with the timing of the rise of oxygen and the development of the ozone layer which protects life on earth from the harmful effects of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Much of the discussion is concerned with the evidence concerning the history of oxygen levels in the atmosphere and with the mechanisms believed to have played a role in controlling it. Not all the questions raised at the beginning of the chapter have been answered. The reading assignment is designed summarize what we know and how we know it and to give students some appreciation for the remaining controversies. Much of the chapter can be skimmed lightly or skipped without losing the main ideas.

Read "Key Questions", "Chapter Overview", "Introduction", The "Prebiotic Atmosphere". It's OK to skip "The Origin of Life" and "Effect of Life on the Early Atmosphere". Skim "The Rise of Oxygen: Geological Evidence" just to get Read "The Rise of Ozone" carefully. Fig. 9-12 is important. Skim "Possible Causes of the Rise of Oxygen" taking note of the final conclusion. Read "Modern Controls on atmospheric O2: Forest Fires and Atmospheric Oxygen", but it's OK to skip the remainder of this section.

Chapter 10

The title of this chapter is a bit misleading. Most of it is about climate and earth history of the past 100-million years. Read from p. 201: "The Cretacious-Tertiary Mass Extinction" onward. To check your comprehension, try Review Questions 4 and 5.

Chapter 11

Here the focus shifts to the climate of the past few million years, a period dominated by large swings between ice ages and warmer 'interglacials'. Read the entire chapter. Try Review Questions 1-5, Critical Thinking Problem 2b.

Chapter 12

This final chapter on climate history focuses on the past 20,000 years and traces the recovery from the most recent ice age and ends with a discussion of El Nino and other kinds of short term climate fluctuations. Try Review Questions 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. A more readable treatment of El Nino is available at the website listed on the lecture schedule.

Chapter 13

This chapter on the ozone hole closely parallels the the treatment in class.

Chapter 14

This chapter on the ozone hole closely parallels the the treatment in class. It contains some highly informative graphs on future projections of carbon dioxide concentrations.