Courses

* Geological Sciences 106-0-1: The Ocean, the Atmosphere & Our Climate

The course presents basic concepts of the Earth System that controls the planet's climate. Uniqueness of planet Earth: its oceans, land, atmosphere, and biosphere. How did they originate and evolve through time? What do we know about the planet's past from studies of natural radioactivity? How did life on Earth originate and how do living organisms affect the atmosphere and oceans? How is the Earth's climate controlled by solar radiation, atmosphere, oceans, and land? The make-up of the atmosphere and oceans, and its effect on the global climate. How does the growing human population affect the Earth's atmosphere? What are the consequences of human activities to the waters flowing to the ocean, the oceanic coastal zone, and open-ocean waters? How stable is the Earth System?

Geological Sciences 423-A11 111-0-1: Global Environmental Change

Driving forces of global change. Growth of human populations; historical patterns and future trends. Make-up of the environment in the past and present. Effects of humans on major environment: atmosphere, waters, and land. Good background in high school mathematics, chemistry or physics recommended.

http://www.earth.northwestern.edu/courses/A11/A11_Intro.html

(Though Abe Lerman no longer teaches this original ESSE course, it continues to be taught each year with an enrollment of about 100 students.)

* GEOL SCI 301-0  423-C01-0 Environmental Biogeochemistry

Surficial processes and their geological and biological driving forces (atmosphere-land-water interactions, weathering, geochemical transport, sedimentation). Biogeochemical cycles and their role in the global environment

(* taught by ESSE PI)