Spring 2027

Global Warming: Science and Impacts

Fundamental study of global warming causes, scientific evidence, future predictions, impacts on humans and ecosystems, and societal debates over solutions.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Till Wagner3.8/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jack Williams

The course involved lots of readings, though assessments focused on lecture content rather than external sources.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe the physical basis by which CO2 and other greenhouse gases control atmospheric temperatures.

  • Explain the trends and drivers of historical and future climate change using a combination of observational data, climate model simulations, and hands-on exercises with a simple layer model.

  • Summarize the global carbon cycle, its major reservoirs and fluxes, and the role of natural and anthropogenic processes.

  • Apply concepts of climate feedbacks and climate sensitivity both qualitatively and quantitatively.

  • Discuss and evaluate impacts of anthropogenic emissions on the physical climate system, ecosystems, and human development.

  • Evaluate current and proposed strategies for climate mitigation, adaptation, and geoengineering.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2 UW Guide 3

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ATMOCN/ENVIRST/GEOG 332

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.29/5 from 7 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.48 GPA, 61.9% A/AB (n=84 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 76.4% A/AB (n=72 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.48 GPA, 76.8% A/AB (n=82 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

GALEN MCKINLEY is recorded teaching in Spring 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JACK WILLIAMS is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2019, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TILL WAGNER is recorded teaching in Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 600

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Jack Williams

Students appreciated the instructor's ability to explain complex concepts and stay current with field developments, noting that tests primarily covered lecture material.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.67 GPA, 76.4% A/AB (n=72 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.48 GPA, 76.8% A/AB (n=82 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.37 GPA, 63.3% A/AB (n=60 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jack Williams

The course involved lots of readings, though assessments focused on lecture content rather than external sources.

Past student reviews · Jack Williams

A student found the class engaging and highly recommended the professor for their immersion in the material and clear explanations of difficult topics.

Topics

  • Mechanisms and causes of global warming.
  • Evidence for climate change and underlying science.
  • Predicted impacts on human systems and ecosystems.
  • Societal debates regarding climate solutions.

Skills

  • Describe the physical basis of greenhouse gas temperature control.
  • Explain climate change trends using observational data, models, and layer model exercises.
  • Summarize the global carbon cycle, reservoirs, fluxes, and process roles.
  • Evaluate climate mitigation, adaptation, and geoengineering strategies.

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 3 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

5 earlier forecasts · 0.19 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
ATMOCN/ENVIRST/GEOG 332 · Spring 2027

Global Warming: Science and Impacts

Recorded 2026-10-14
ATMOCN/ENVIRST/GEOG 332 · Spring 2027

Global Warming: Science and Impacts

Recorded 2026-10-14
ATMOCN/ENVIRST/GEOG 332 · Spring 2027

Global Warming: Science and Impacts

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "eadba78e73ff64534f025fd032664521309ba9484d8803c0b96a1d7a45b2cf64",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
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}