Undergraduate general-education course providing an overview of the fundamentals of earth's climate, including the greenhouse effect, water and chemical cycles, outstanding features of the atmospheric and ocean circulation, and feedbacks between different system components. The couse covers exciting and contentious scientific puzzles of the climate system, including the causes of the ice ages, greenhouse warming, and El Niño/La Niña. We also discuss the importance of climate science and prediction to society, with emphasis on science's role in identifying, quantifying, and solving environmental problems such as the ozone hole and greenhouse warming.

Lecture and discussion, 4 units. Special laboratory option 1L, 1 unit. Letter grading.