Saturday 8 March 2014

Week 8 Reflection

  1. What are the most important themes you have learned?
    This week I learned more about the Anthropocene, a term I first heard a few weeks ago in one of the Adaptation to climate change seminar series. I learned that the Earliest evidence of anthropogenic impact included prehistoric flint workings at Grime's Graves at around 3000-2000 BC.
    Also calculated my individual carbon footprint as 2.51 tonnes (Home, 0.61 tonnes; Appliances 1.74 tonnes; Travel 0.16 tonnes) which was less than I anticipated.
    The course has reinforced what I have learned about climate change from other sources. Probably the most important theme is ocean acidification, something I knew little about
  2. What aspect(s) did you find difficult?
    Nothing this week caused me much difficulty.
    Again, I found nothing during the course that was really difficult. I don't find writing particularly easy but I found that using blogger was relatively straightforward. Might even encourage me to blog on other topics.
  3. What did you find most interesting? And why?
    Both this week and throughout the course I have found the presentation of the course material excellent! Perhaps most interesting were the weekly feedback sessions which were similar to university tutorials. I also enjoyed reading and participating in the discussions with other students.
  4. Was there something that you learned that prompted you to do your own research?
    I am very interested in the Arctic and was prompted to look at Observational determination of albedo decrease caused by vanishing Arctic sea ice after I heard it mentioned in a seminar I attended. I also looked at Calving on tidewater glaciers amplified by submarine frontal melting.
    I contacted Anglia Ruskin University regarding the building I used as an example and received a useful reply from them.
  5. Are there any web sites or other online resource that you found particularly useful in furthering your knowledge and understanding?
    I keep an eye on the National Snow & Ice Data Center to follow the progress of the Arctic Death Spiral.
    I had the good fortune to attend the seminar series mentioned above. The materials from the seminars are available here.