Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Download this course

Share this free course

Could we control our climate?
Could we control our climate?

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Acknowledgements

This free course was written by Dr Tamsin Edwards with contributions from Dr Mark Brandon.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this free course:

Course image:  courtesy: Mark Brandon.

Figure 1: Andrew_Howe; iStockphoto.com

Figure 2: (a) A Stradivarius violin: © Σπάρτακος https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 3.0/ deed.en; (b) Sunspots on 3 March 2015: © SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Figure 3: An example reconstruction of total solar irradiance (solar output reaching the Earth) since 1850 (Krivova/Ball). Direct observations (Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos, PMOD) are also shown for the later period. (Adapted from IPCC, 2013a)

Figure 4: egrego2. https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 2.0/

Figure 7: A collage of newspaper articles reporting predictions of global cooling in January 1970: Article back left: New York Times (1932) ‘Next Great Deluge Forecast by Science’, May 15; Article back centre: Washington Post (1970) ‘Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age’, January 11; Article back right: Washington Post (1970) ‘Scientists See Ice Age In The Future’, January 11; Article front centre: New York Times (1975) ‘Scientists Ask Why World’s Climate Is Changing; Major Cooling Widely Considered to Be Inevitable’, May 21.

Figures 8 and 9: Global sulfur emissions; from Smith et al (2011): Smith, S.J. et al (2011) Anthropogenic sulfur dioxide emissions: 1850-2005, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, vol. 11, pp.1101-1116, European Geosciences Union. http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by/ 3.0/

Figure 10: Papworth House, Sussex, UK/Bridgeman Images

Figure 11: Courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center.

Figure 12: PlaneMad/Wikimedia; https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/ by-sa/ 2.5/ deed.en

Figure 13: Steve Albert, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Figure 14: Eric Rostan and Blacki Migliozzi June 2015

Video 1: Climate Change: A Horizon Guide', (c) BBC, March 2015

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out

If reading this text has inspired you to learn more, you may be interested in joining the millions of people who discover our free learning resources and qualifications by visiting The Open University – www.open.edu/ openlearn/ free-courses.