Syllabus for Global Environmental Issues
                                                                            EVS 205
                                                          Dr. Marvin K. Moss, Professor
                                       Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, UNCW
                           mmoss@uncwil.edu, mmoss@coastalnet.com, 962-2379(O), 343-5794(H) 

Assignments

Texts:  Earth Under Siege, From Air Pollution to Global Change, by Richard P Turco (UCLA)
             The Forgiving Air, Understanding Environmental Change, by Richard Somerville (UCSD/Scripps)

Lecture # 1.  Overview of  EVS 205, Global Environmental Issues

Lecture #2. Introduction to Stratospheric Ozone

        What is ozone and how is it formed?
        Is ozone good for us?
        Where is ozone found?
        How is ozone formed?
        Importance of stratospheric ozone
        Ozone processes: production and destruction

Lecture #3.  Why the concern over stratospheric ozone?  

        Ozone depletion
        Antarctica 
        Canada, N America, Europe
        Brief comments on causes--anthropological in nature
        A look at the www
        Web assignment for semester
        Do we (you, me, our children) have an environmental problem re ozone?
        (Lectures following will present a more detailed (that is, a better understanding) of the series of 
        processes discussed thus far.)

Lectures #4and #5.  Threats Against Ozone

        Some (very) basic chemistry of ozone processes
        Composition of the atmosphere
        Electromagnetic spectrum of the Sun (physics of light and radiation)
        Ozone photochemistry and atmospheric T (temperature) profile
        Worldwide distribution of ozone--longitude, latitude, altitude
        Dobson units
        Winds on a rotating Earth

Lecture #6. Ozone pathways

        Creation processes
        Depletion processe
        Catalytic Processes
        Reconsideration of role of stratospheric ozone

Lecture #7 Antarctica ozone depletion

        Discovery and history
        Roland & Molina, Nobel Laureates
        Farnam's observations and discovery of the "hole"

Lecture #8. Chlorofluorocarbons (as major examples)

        CFCs
        Other ozone destroying chemicals

Lectures #9 and #10. Creation of  "The Ozone Hole"

        Polar strategic clouds (PSCs)
        Polar Vortex
        Temperature
        Cl(2) buildup
        Breakdown!
        Recovery

Period #11.  Test #1

Lecture #11. More on strategic stratospheric ozone pollutants

        Health and environmental effects

Lecture#12.  Current Status

        Review of ozone hole with time 1980s to 2001
        Ozone thinning:  S America, Artic, Canada, N America, Europe

Lectures #13and #14.  International Policy:  The Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol

        The Vienna Convention For the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985)
        The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987)
                London Amendment (1990)
                Copenhagen Amendment (1992)
                Vienna Amendment (1995)
                Montreal Amendment (1997)
                Beijing Amendment (1999)

Lecture #14 (cont.).   Overall Assessment

        Empirical Evaluation
        An international treaty that really works:  a paradigm for global warming?
        Political/policy evaluation
        Discussions of Convention and Protocols, or things in general, if needed or desired by students

In the stratospheric ozone module of the course we covered  some basic physics ingredients necessary not only to a proper understanding of ozone depletion but also. as we shall see, to understanding global warming and climate change.  Thus, there will be about ten (10) lectures on global warming, which effectively is about the same number of lectures spent on the ozone issue per se.  The schedule for these lectures will be placed on this web page around September 5.

Three basic lectures on acid rain and dry acid deposition will follow our considerations of global warming. The topics and schedules for these lectures currently are undergoing review. The topics and schedules for these lectures will be posted here by mid-semester.

Test # 2.  Class period # 19,

Test #3.   Class period # 26