Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Economia e Statistica "Cognetti de Martiis"

The course main aim is a critical knowledge on climate change, focusing on local and global relations that characterize the relationship between society and environment and on policies and actions that can be taken to counteract such change.

At the end of the course students will have:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. Acquire an introductory knowledge of climate system physical components and their natural and anthropic perturbations (first part of the course).

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. Acquire a specific competence and apply technical knowledge on socio-economic-cultural aspects related to climate change, such as mitigation and adaptation policies, economic costs, geopolitical issues (second part of the course).

MAKING JUDGEMENTS. Learn to critically think about the complex interactions between physical and socio-economics aspects of climate change, focussing on possible future policies and the different cultural perceptions of climate change.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS. Demonstrate the acquisition of a correct vocabulary and to know how to expose the essential contents of the subject in a clear and mature way.

LEARNING ABILITY. Be able to tackle the study of advanced textbooks, technical reports and scientific articles, mostly in English, produced by research centers, governments and international organizations, related to climate phenomena and to mitigation and adaptation policies.

PART 1. "TECHNICAL" ASPECTS: THE CLIMATE SYSTEM AND ITS PERTURBATIONS

1. The earth's radiative balance

The laws of thermodynamics

Equilibrium and steady-state

The energy input

The energy output

2. Atmospheric circulation

The Earth's atmosphere

A non-rotating and flat planet: the boiling pot

A non-rotating and spherical planet: the Hadley cell

A rotating and spherical planet: the three-cells system

The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone and the "geography of climates"

3. Marine currents

Seas and oceans

Atmosphere and ocean: similarities and differences

Sea, ice and water vapour: the water cycle and the cryosphere

The discovery of marine currents by navigators

Surface currents

Vertical currents: upwelling and downwelling

Deep currents: thermohaline circulation

The Gulf Stream

Younger Dryas: the Gulf Stream collapse

4. Forcing and feedback

Forcing of natural origin

Forcing of anthropogenic origin

Positive feedback

Negative feedback

5. Greenhouse gases and the carbon cycle

The greenhouse effect: a modified Earth's radiation budget

Greenhouse gases

The carbon cycle

Changes of anthropogenic carbon cycle, the role of the ocean

6. Climatology and paleoclimatology: methods and instruments

Agassiz: the first climate scientist

Trees and other proxies: dendrology, lichenology, varves, stalagmites, seabed, and more.

Archives contained in the ice

The use of isotopes

Satellites and remote sensing

Computer models

7. A short history of climate on Earth

Major ice ages

The "snowball" earth

Quaternary ice age

The last interglacial period: the Anthropocene

The "regionalization" of climate change

PART 2. SOCIO-ECONOMIC-GEOGRAPHYCAL-POLITICAL-CULTURAL ASPECT RELATED TO CC

8. The impacts of CC

Detection and attribution of CC

Physical modifications made by

Impacts of CC

The IPCC scenarios

9. Mitigation policies

Recognition of the problem (from the beginning until Kyoto)

The IPCC

The Kyoto Protocol

Flexibility mechanisms

The Kyoto Protocol: strengths and weaknesses

The post-Kyoto and the Paris Agreement

10. Adaptation policies

History of adaptation policies

Adaptation policies: the need for "regionalization" and "territorialization"

Examples of adaptation policies and related issues

11. The economic costs of CC

Fighting CC: an intertemporal problem

The Stern Report

Criticisms and weaknesses of the Stern Report

12. Policies and instruments for CC (insights)

The stability of climate system: a global commons to be managed

New architectures for treaties on CC

How to equally share the costs of the policies against CC?

13. Cultural construction and narratives on CC

The actors involved

The dynamics

What is science and what is not science?

Face-to-face lesson with projections of educational material, class discussion, expert interventions.

The exams will take place in person.

In person written exam is  organized as follows:

• true-false questions and multiple choice questions to ascertain technical knowledge;
• open questions with answers to 30 lines to test contextual knowledge, critical and synthesis skills.

The exam programme can be downloaded from Moodle

The Moodle webpage of this course will be available for download:

- powerpoint files of the slides;

- pdf files of the articles discussed in class;

- the exam programme. 

Students attending the course must register both on Campusnet (through the appropriate function on this page) and on Moodle (by accessing Moodle via the button at the bottom of this page), in order to allow the interaction teacher-students.

A) Bagliani M., Pietta A., Bonati S., Il cambiamento climatico: aspetti fisici, impatti, politiche. Per una rilettura in chiave geografica, Il Mulino, 2019.

B) Flannery T. (2005), The weather makers: the history and future impact of climate change.

C) Puttilli M., “Geografia delle fonti rinnovabili. Energia e territorio per un'eco-ristrutturazione della società”, Franco Angeli, 2014

D) The exam programme includes also articles from scientific journals, reports by international organizations and lecture notes. 

Lessons are face to face.

Students attending the course must register both on Campusnet (through the appropriate function on this page) and on Moodle (by accessing Moodle via the button at the bottom of this page), in order to allow the interaction teacher-students.

Students affected by Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) or disability are invited to read carefully the supporting tools (https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs-0) and facilities made available by the University of Turin (SLD: https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs/students-specific-learning-disability-sld/services-students-sld; disability: https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs/disabled-students/services-disabled-students), and, in particular, the procedures to follow in order to receive support for the exams (SLD: https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs/students-specific-learning-disability-sld/support-taking-exams; disability: https://en.unito.it/services/students-special-needs/disabled-students/support-taking-exams-disabled-students). 

The course participates in the implementation of the project CLE@U, an innovative teaching proposal awarded by the first edition of the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) Call "Embrace the future: unleash innovation in the classroom" (category: geography teaching). Therefore, the students of the course will have access to additional teaching materials (videos, lessons, slides, texts, and recommended readings) relating to three social research techniques and, for a selection of volunteers, to apply these tools to the CLE community, concerning a teaching topic agreed with the teacher.