Course Description
This course will explore the science behind our understanding of climate change. We will trace the history of climate science, going all the way back to the work of nineteenth century scientists who first studied the role of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and the first computer models in the 1960s and 70s, which accurately predicted the changes we’ve observed in the last few decades. We’ll then explore how modern climate models are put together, and what they tell us about the choices we now face for the future. The course does not assume any prior knowledge of climate science and is suitable for anyone wanting to learn more about what climate scientists do, as well as resulting policy.
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Course Director
Steve Easterbrook
| Steve Easterbrook is the Director of the School of the Environment and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. (1991) in Computing from Imperial College in London (UK) and joined the faculty at the School of Cognitive and Computing Science, University of Sussex. From 1995-99, he was lead scientist at NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in West Virginia, where he investigated software verification on the Space Shuttle Flight Software, the International Space Station, and the Earth Observation System. He moved to the University of Toronto in 1999. His current research is in climate informatics, where he studies how climate scientists develop computational models to improve their understanding of earth systems and climate change, and the broader question of how that knowledge is shared with other communities. His book, “Computing the Climate: How we know what we know about climate change” was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. |
Steve Easterbrook
Term and Time
Fall 2025 – starting September
9:50 am on Friday morning
Room TBA in York Hall
Course Outline
Two weeks before the course starts, you can download a printable PDF giving the 10-week detailed course outline.
NOTE: The course outline opens in a new browser tab where you cannot see the LLIR page header and menu. You can download the outline for future reading and printing. When you are finished, return to our website as follows:
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Lecture Notes
Links to resources such as additional reading or play lists are provided here as the Course Director makes them available during term. Like the course outline, lecture notes open in a new browser tab so that you can download and print them.
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