For this assignment you will critique an article about some aspect of climate change. Your critique should be about 1 page and should contain the following elements:
(a) a 1-paragraph summary of the article
(b) a critique of the science - is it sound? Which scientific claims have merit and which do not? Can you point to a specific statement in an accepted source to back up your view? Use the IPCC as the standard; rely also on lectures and the textbook, but you need not do new research. If the article raises scientific issues outside of what we covered, give an indication of what claims you would want to investigate.
(c) give your reaction to the message of
the article. You are free to react in any way you choose.
Please choose one of the following.
(1) This article disputes the claim that
Kilimanjaro's melting snows give evidence of global climate change.
http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/Articles/2002/vca9.htm
(2) Overview of issues surrounding climate
change
http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/dangerousexperiment/
(3) Two columns by Jack Kemp on climate change (hard copies will be available on Monday 3/11)
(4) A critique of the "hockey stick" reconstruction
of northern hemisphere temperature since AD 1000
http://www.john-daly.com/hockey/hockey.htm
For #4 you need not do a thorough rebuttal
of the science, since he raises so many points. Focus on his comparison
of the hockey stick (composed of hundreds of proxy records) to about a
dozen local records of climate.
We will select a few to be presented orally
as a basis for class discussion.