Global Climate Change

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Global Climate Change
A short introduction ..
KBS K12 Partnership for Science Literacy October
27, 2003
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General Questions for OCTOBER 27 and NOVEMBER
12 1) What evidence do we have that the Earths
climate is changing? 2) How does climate change
affect the biosphere and geosphere? 3) How does
climate change interact with other environmental
changes (like invasive species, human land use,
etc...)?
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Evidence
What evidence do we have that the Ice Age
occurred?
What evidence do we have that the climate is
changing today?
Weather condition of the atmosphere at a
particular time and place, with regard to
temperature, moisture, cloudiness, etc. Climate
average weather conditions of a place, as
determined by changes over a long period (usually
30 years).
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IPCC 2001
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IPCC 2001
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Twenty glacier length records
Franz Josef Glacier (New Zealand), retreated
dramatically in the twentieth century.
1952
1961
1964
IPCC 2001
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Global Warming Climate ChangeThe Greenhouse
Effect
These are NOT the same
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Global Sources of Atmospheric Radiative Forcing
1750 - 1998
Source IPCC 2001
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Long records of past changes in atmospheric
composition provide the context for the influence
of anthropogenic emissions.
IPCC 2001
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The Keeling curve of CO2 measured at Mauna Loa,
Hawaii, as seen in 1971.
(See Weart 2003)
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IPCC 2001
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References
IPCC (J. T. Houghton, Y. Ding, D.J. Griggs, M.
Noguer, P. J. van der Linden and D. Xiaosu, Eds.)
2001. Climate Change 2001 The Scientific Basis.
Cambridge University Press, UK. pp 944.
(http//www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/index.ht
m) Prasad, A. M. and L. R. Iverson.
1999-ongoing. A Climate Change Atlas for 80
Forest Tree Species of the Eastern United States
database. Northeastern Research Station, USDA
Forest Service, Delaware, Ohio.
(http//www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/atlas/index.html
) Tamara S. Ledley, Eric T. Sundquist, Stephen
E. Schwartz, Dorothy K. Hall, Jack D. Fellows,
and Timothy L. Killeen. 1999. Climate Change and
Greenhouse Gases Eos 80(39) 453 (September 28).
(http//www.agu.org/eos_elec/99148e.html) Weart,
Spencer. 2003. The Discovery of Global
Warming. Harvard University Press. (http//www.ai
p.org/history/climate/index.htmlcontents) World
Glacier Monitoring Service (http//www.geo.unizh.c
h/wgms/).