Earth System Science 21. On Thin Ice. Lecture 21. Ice Age World and Past Impact of Ice on Humans

UCI ESS 21: On Thin Ice (Winter 2014)
Lec 21. On Thin Ice -- Ice Age World and Past Impact of Ice on Humans --
View the complete course:
Instructor: Julie Ferguson, Ph.D.

License: Creative Commons CC-BY-SA

Description: In recent decades we have observed a significant reduction of the cryosphere due to anthropogenic climate change. The observed and predicted changes in the extent and amount of snow and ice will have major impacts on climate, ecosystems and human populations both at a local and global scale. This course will introduce students to the science behind climate change as well as the physical and chemical processes that govern components of the cryosphere, including snow, permafrost, sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets. Particular emphasis will be placed on the important role that each component plays in the larger climate system and potential feedbacks. We will also examine some of the social, economic and political impacts that the melting cryosphere will have on countries around the Arctic and also worldwide, such as access to new petroleum reserves, infrastructure damage due to melting permafrost, sea level rise and decreases in freshwater availability.

Recorded on February 26, 2014.1

[wlhgmk]

We need to agree on terminology. The way we use it now, there is a confusion between the period between the Eemian interglacial which occured about 125 thousand years ago and the present Holocene interglacial that we are enjoying and the 2.75m year period in which there have been a whole series of glacials and interglacials. Myself, I prefer to call the 2.75m year period an ice age and the periods within this 2.75m year period, glacial periods and interglacial periods. However, I would be happy with any terminology if we all used it consistently. It is more than just semantics. For instance it is often presented that during the 'ice age' we had a huge mega-fauna in the Americas and because of climate change they all went extinct. The truth is something much different. The mega-fauna survived many many shifts from glacial periods to interglacial periods without going extinct while only during the start of our present interglacial, the Holocene, did they go extinct. The difference. The arrival of man. You see where semantics are important.

[mikedebell]

On a more general scale, it keeps the beer cold.

[davidsweeney]

When I was learning this stuff it was called Physical Geography, maybe calling it Earth Science makes the subject sound more friendly to those that are scared of physics?  Nice to see a fellow Brit working in California!

[vanderdole]

Finely some one who speaks normal English :)

[mikedebell]

Tones of animals. More kinds of bison, horses or zebras, camels, cats, prong horns, etc..

[FrankMerton]

I hate to say this but her presentation style, or maybe the way she goes about it, tends to confuse rather than explain. She needs to learn to listen to recordings of her presentations and try to see what I'm saying.