Note #1: Reading assignments do not become official until they show up in the Announcements section above. However, we will work hard to get the official reading assignments to match up closely with the assignments below for at least three weeks into the future.

Note #2: Optional readings are exactly that: optional. They are readings we've used in past quarters, or readings we thought about using but decided not to. If you're curious, take a look, but these readings will not be fair game for the exam or otherwise be in any way required reading for the course. (Translation: optional means optional.)

* The grade looker-upper is currently off-line, so here is an Excel spreadsheet with final grades (listed by the last 4 of your student ID). Also, here is the final exam, with a draft answer key in the footnotes. IF YOU WANT YOUR EXAM BACK, you have two options. Option #1 is to email Yoram before 3pm today (Monday) and then go pick up your exam at your convenience at the POE front desk, MGH 274. Option #2 is to wait until Yoram returns to campus in early May and pick it up then. Grade changes and other such matters will also have to wait until early May, but please don't hesitate to email me reminders.

* The natural science librarians (who did the library tutorial) are going to display some of your posters during spring quarter in the natural science library, first floor of Allen Library South!

* ENVIR 100 is not being offered spring quarter, but it is being offered summer quarter and during the 08-09 school year. If you enjoyed the class tell your friends, and whether or not you enjoyed the class we're looking forward to reading your class evaluations so that we can work to make the class better in future.

* Thanks for a great quarter, and have a great break!

* Here is a review sheet for the final exam. (There is no answer key, but it will be a focal point for the final quiz section. Note also that previous midterm and final exams are linked below under "Grades", and that the final is comprehensive but will have an emphasis on material covered since the midterm.) Happy studying, and see you on Friday in MGH and at the final exam next Thursday at 8:30am! PS #1: The posters from Wednesday were great! PS #2: Anybody who missed class feedback (or has additional feedback for the teaching team) is encouraged to use the anonymous feedback form that can be found below under "Help"---thanks for your comments and suggestions!

* Below are the readings for the next few classes. A full list of readings and PDFs of class presentations (when available) are below in the Readings and Lectures section. We will try (but cannot guarantee) to make PDFs of future class presentations available ahead of time, so you can check for those too. Also note that podcasts and screencasts of lectures are available under Basic info.

Post-midterm readings (pre-midterm readings are below)

1. Nature (2007). Questions: Why might increasing ground-level ozone have a positive effect on global warming (i.e., cause it to increase)?
   
2. Pollution Probe (2006). Questions:(1) How does acid rain form? (2) How does it impact terrestrial, aquatic and the built environment including human health? (3) Eliminating or reducing SO_2x have benefits in addition to their direct impacts on air pollution and acid rain; what are these? (4) What is the Sudbury success story?
3. BC (2004). Questions: What are point and non-point sources of pollution? (2) what are the sources of ground level ozone and what is its impact on health and the environment? (3) Do pollutants change form once they get into the air? (4) What are the environmental benefits that resulted from the use of recycled vs. virgin fiber in the printing of this primer?
4. Law and Stohl 2007 ("Arctic air pollution: origins and impacts." Science 315: 1537 – 1540.) Sample questions to help you if you decide to read this article (this is a tough article, but see if you can extract some of the major points): (1) what causes arctic haze (list the long-, medium- and short-distance sources of air pollutants involved in arctic haze)? What role (as a positive or negative force factor) do these pollutants play in terms of climate change?
5. Karnosky et al. 2007 ("Perspectives regarding 50 years of research on effects of tropospheric ozone air pollution on US forests." Environmental Pollution 147: 489 – 506.) Sample questions to help you if you decide to read this article (1) What are the differences between tropospheric and stratospheric ozone. (2) Summarize the history of our knowledge about ozone. (3) What is the story about ponderosa pine? (4) How do people study ozone effects on trees? (5) What effects might ozone have on forest ecosystems?
6. McLaughlin et al. 2007a ("Interactive effects of ozone and climate on tree growth and water use in a southern Appalachian forest in the USA." New Phytologist 174:109–124. Question: What is the implication of the increase in water use by trees following ozone exposure?
7. McLaughlin et al. 2007b ("Interactive effects of ozone and climate on water use, soil moisture content and streamflow in a southern Appalachian forest in the USA." New Phytologist 174: 125-136.) Question: What happens to streamflow in this article? Is this a positive outcome of ozone and climate change?
8. Felzer et al. 2007. ("Impacts of ozone on trees and crops." C.R. Geoscience 339:784–798.) Question: How might ozone and NOx affect the carbon uptake abilities of trees and crops? What happens if ozone levels are capped?
9. Miller 2006. (Assessment of forest sensitivity to nitrogen and sulfur deposition in Maine." Report submitted to Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection.) Question: Why are some of Maine's forest projected to be very sensitive to acid rain and others not?

1. Demessie A. 2008. Effects of climate change on agriculture, particularly in semi-arid tropics of the world. Epidemiology 19: S230-S230.
2. Easterling WE. 2007. Climate change and the adequacy of food and timber in the 21st century. PNAS 104: 19686-19686.
3. Howden SM, Soussana JF, Tubiello FN, Chhetri N, Dunlop M, Meinke H. 2007. Adapting agriculture to climate change. PNAS 19691-19696.
4. Lobell, D.B., M.B. Burke, C. Tebaldi, M.D. Mastrandrea, W.P. Falcon, and R.L. Naylor. 2008. Prioritizing climate change adaptation needs for food security in 2030. Science 319: 607 – 610.
5. Morton JF. 2007. The impact of climate change on smallholder and subsistence agriculture. PNAS 104: 19680 – 19685.
6. Tubiello FN, Soussana JF, Howden SM. 2007. Crop and pasture response to climate change. PNAS 104: 19686-19690.
7. Meleux F, Solmon F, Giorgi F. 2007. Increase in summer European ozone amounts due to climate change. Atmos. Envir. 41: 7577 – 7587.

1. For the EPA website, (1) define PM2.5, (2) describe the health risks associated with PM2.5, and (3) give two reasons children are most sensitive.

   For the Keating et al. reading, (1) What are some concerns about the addition of 52,000 metric tons of PM2.5 into the U.S. boundary layer? (2) What about ozone and how is PAN (peroxyacetyl nitrate) related to ozone? (3) What is the future likely to hold in terms of foreign contributions of air pollutants to the US? (4) How do we get a driver aboard this bus?

1. Jafee et al. 1999. "Transport of Asian air pollution to North America," Geophysical Research Letters 26: 711-714.

   Selin NE, Jacob DJ, Park RJ, Yantosca RM, Strode S, Jaegle L, Jaffe D. 2007. Chemical cycling and deposition of atmospheric mercury: Global constraints from observations. J. of Geophy. Res.-Atmos. 112: D02308.
   
   Weiss-Penzias P, Jaffe DA, Swartzendruber P, Dennison JB, Chand D, Hafner W, Prestbo E. 2006. Observations of Asian air pollution in the free troposphere at Mount Bachelor Observatory during the spring of 2004. J. of Geophy. Res.-Atmos. 111. D10304.
   
   Weiss-Penzias P, Jaffe D, Swartzendruber P, Hafner W, Chand D, Prestbo E. 2007. Quantifying Asian and biomass burning sources of mercury using the Hg/CO ratio in pollution plumes observed at the Mount Bachelor Observatory. Atmos. Environ. 41: 4366 – 4379.
   
   Wolfe GM, Thornton JA, McNeill VF, Jaffe DA, Reidmiller D, Chand D, Smith J, Swartzendruber P, Flocke F, Zheng W. 2007. Influence of trans-Pacific pollution transport on acyl peroxy nitrate abundances and speciation at Mount Bachelor Observatory during INTEX-B. Atmos. Chem. And Physics 7: 5309 – 5325.

1. What are the mission and vision statements of each organization?
2. What is the current hot topic (based upon your review of the website) for each organization? What are the issues? Who are the possible (or identified) stakeholders?
3. For the Cascade Land Conservancy, make sure you look at the agenda, conservation and stewardship pages.
4. For the Nature Conservancy of Washington page, how does the local mission dovetail or differ from the mission of the parent non-profit, the Nature Conservancy?

1. What is the vision statement of each organization?
2. Are undergraduate and graduate students involved and how?
3. Find one interesting project from each site.

* For Mon Jan 7: (Lecture PDF and PPT) No readings.

* For Wed Jan 9: (Lecture PDF and PPT) Required readings are National Academy of Sciences 2001 ("Grand Challenges in Environmental Sciences", executive summary), the King County Environmental Services website, and the King County Sims Global Warming Initiative website.

1. For the NAS reading: What are the environmental challenges listed in this summary?
2. For the Environmental Services website: (1) What major environmental issues, in your opinion, that are highlighted on this page are similar to the grand challenges cited by the National Academy article? Select no more than six. (2) What is meant by stewardship? (3) What is a ‘green' building? (4) What are biosolids? (5) What is a watershed and what is the Cedar River Watershed?
3. For the global warming website: What is the history of Ron Sims' leadership in understanding and addressing global climate change? What is meant by adaptation to climate change? Based upon the response of western Washington to the floods of December 2007 (see, e.g., this Jeep Patrol video) and your readings for Monday, do you think western Washington is prepared (adapted)?

1. For the CIG website, answer the following questions with regard to the Pacific Northwest Over the last 100 years, what has happened to (1) temperatures, (2) precipitation, (3) snowpack, and (4) spring? (5) What do the red and blue dots in Figures 1a, 1b and 1c mean? (6) What does dot size tell you?
2. For the Service 2004 reading: Take the information from the CIG and other reading assignments and integrate them with what Service points out in his article. What is the future of water in the west? Think about winter and summer. What is water used for in the west? What are the big issues and will what you have learned from Monday through Friday make the issues less or greater in the future? How?

1. For the 1997 article: (1) What does the (anonymous) author think about environmental issues? [Note that almost all Economist articles are written anonymously.] (2) Do you think the author is just a cranky jerk, or do you think that one or more of the authors' critiques are valid? If so, which ones and why? (3) How well has the article held up now that 10 years have passed since its publication?
2. For the 2006 article: (1) How does this article compare with the 1997 article on the subject of climate change? (2) Does the author argue that scientific uncertainty argues for taking action or not? Why? (3) What does the second-to-last letter to the editor suggest about the author's biases? (This will come in again next week when we do environmental ethics, and note that it's not just the author's biases---the last letter to the editor indicates that one of your instructors read this article many times, and he has to confess that he didn't pick up on this problem either :)
   

• 1.3 ("What is the greenhouse effect?")
• 3.1 ("How are temperatures on earth changing?")
• 5.1 ("Is sea level rising?")
• 6.1 ("What caused the ice ages...?")
• 8.1 ("How reliable are the models...?")
• 9.1 ("Can individual extreme events be explained by greenhouse warming?")
• 10.2 ("How likely are major or abrupt climate changes?")

1. For the Grist article: (1) What does Professor Light do on a day-to-day basis? (2) Name one benefit of urban density. (3) What does Professor Light think about Bjorn Lomborg, who is author of The Skeptical Environmentalist and has taken over from Julian Simon in promoting the optimistic viewpoint captured in "Plenty of Gloom"?
2. For the Singer article: The article opens with a discussion of whether or not to build a dam in a wilderness area, but goes on to discuss many other "moral situations". Give three examples and give one argument for each side.

1. For the Solow article: Think about how you would answer his challenge to "invent for yourself how you are going to explain to the Chinese that... even living at their standard of living they shouldn't burn [their] coal, because the CO2 might conceivably damage somebody in 50 or 100 years."
2. For the Larry Summers memo: This memo came from somebody who was U.S. Treasury Secretary and also President of Harvard University. Can you understand his argument? Do you agree with it?

1. For the McKibben article: How many children would you like to have? What role (if any) does the state of the environment play in your answer to that question, and how (if at all) do you think the environment affect the childbearing decisions of most people? Also: give an example of how social science has changed over time. (Was it really a science 100 years ago? Is it really a science now?)
   
2. For the Lutz article: What is likely to happen by the end of the century? What are current and projected human populations (roughly speaking)? How does what is happening compare with Garrett Hardin's argument that "freedom to breed is intolerable"?

1. What is the history of wolves in Yellowstone? What does Ripple and Beschta mean by the ecology of fear? What responses have occurred in Yellowstone as a result of the re-introduction of the wolf and are there any ‘benefits' from these responses?