date: Fri Sep 21 13:38:42 2007 from: Keith Briffa subject: Re: Question about module M593 The Science of Climate Change to: Alice.E.Mitchell@uea.ac.uk Alice It is not (this year) a formal requirement to do M535 , prior to taking M594. However, it is STRONGLY advised (by Mike Hulme who convenes the latter). In future years it is likely to become a formal rpre-requisit but it was not officially listed as such. M535 coves the basics of the evidence for the reality of Global Warming (with the anthropogenic cause implied here). There are lectures on the past , current and future climate, and on the evidence for forcings , the tools used to estimate and the uncertainty associated with , future climate . Much of this is assumed before M594 then procedes to focus on the issues of perception, adaption and climate change mitigation. If you feel strongly that the latter is what you want , it is possible to read and catch up on much of the basic work in M535 yourself. Your background will help this - but is unlikely to be up to date with the focus on the variability of climate on the last 1000 years and the latest IPCC results. These of course can be gleaned from the IPCC publications (Working Group 1). When you refer to M593 , I assume you mean M535. I hope the above helps Keith At 10:40 21/09/2007, you wrote: Dear Prof. Briffa, I am a new MSc Environmental Science student and was wondering if you could advise me about the course M535 The Science of Climate Change. My course director (Dr Carlos Peres) advised me that I needed to take this course in order to do the subsequent course M594 Climate Change: Impacts and Policy. Dr Peres told me that you would be the person to ask any questions about the M593 course. I have taken an 4th year undergraduate course at the University of Alberta, Canada called Global Change taught by Prof Alexander Wolfe. This course covered anthropogenic climate change, glaciation and interglaciation cycles, Milankovitch cycles, Snowball Earth, the Ozone layer, Acid Rain and Banded Iron Formations amongst other things. I was wondering if this course is similar to M593 offered here and if there would be a lot of repitition. In which case would I be able to do the M594 Climate Change: Impacts and Policy without doing the course M593 before hand? Thank you for your help, Alice Mitchell