Understanding Climate Change by Modeling the Earth's Atmosphere as a Well-Stirred Tank

Abstract

Coming to terms with climate change by understanding climate processes and their policy implications is essential not only for climate scientists and policymakers, but also for the general public, for industrial practitioners, and for engineers, including process system engineers. We have developed a simplified linear climate model (SLCM) to enable non-specialists to explore the essential physical and chemical processes caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Trading-off simplicity and accuracy, achieved by calibrating model parameters using established simple climate models, the SLCM allows (i) determining the climate impact of given past and future emissions, (ii) determining the amounts of CO₂ removal needed to compensate for any unavoidable emissions of CH₄ and N₂O from agriculture, and (iii) back-calculating emission pathways to meet specified global warming targets.