Briefing for Teachers

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Briefing for Teachers

• Global Warming

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In the event of an alarm sounding
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What you need to know first

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This Talk

• The problem of scale
• The numbers are overwhelming
• The big question
• What determines the surface temperature of the
  Earth?
• The carbon cycle
• Its a natural process Whats the problem?
• Should we be concerned?
• Three main reasons
• Whats going to happen next?
• Good Question

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What are your concerns?

• Please write down one question or comment
• Then get some tea,
• and come back for a discussion

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This talk

• Download these talks from
• www.protonsforbreakfast.com/gwb

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General Links

• Excellent guide from the Australian Bureau of
  Meteorology(Superb guide (pdf format) going one
  step beyond the generalities 5.6 Mb 78 pages in
  lovely colour!)
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(UN Body
  whose pronouncements on this subject are deemed
  authoritative)
• East Anglia University(Climate Change Unit from
  where you can download actual data and plot your
  own graphs!)

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Climate Models

• EdGCM(Educational Global Circulation Model
  Written by NASA scientists and pretty impressive.
  Runs on Mac or PCs)
• Climate Prediction (Lots of information plus the
  chance to run a climate model on your PC as a
  screensaver)
• The Hadley Centre (Met Office Centre for Climate
  Modelling World leader in its field)
• BBC News Story (Story about a new climate model)

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Ice and Glaciers

• World Glacier Monitoring Service(Lots of very
  technical data about glaciers)
• The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (Lots of
  data about the extent of sea ice and other arctic
  conditions)
• BBC News Story (Recent story about the loss of
  Arctic ice)
• Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre
  (With measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet
  thickness)
• Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre
  (Study relating to stability of the North
  Atalatic Drift (aka Gulf Stream))

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Background (1)

• Wikipedia(Wikipedia is an on-line collective
  encyclopedia results are usually interesting,
  but treat data with caution because entries are
  not refereed search on global warming)
• Planetary data(Data about the planets)
• NASA's Earth Observatory(Look and learn Visually
  stunning and well documented site)
• ESA's Earth Observatory(ESA can do whatever NASA
  can)
• BBC community action(Get involved)
• Lots of good background(The BBC's Climate change
  pages)
• Informative Green site(A 'green' site)

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Background (2)

• Worldwatch site(A site with a worldwide
  ecological remit)
• Japanese Summer Clothing Iniative (The kind of
  small thing which makes a difference if we all do
  it)
• Lots of information (A slightly eclectic
  collection of basic data about a number of
  issues)
• George Monbiot and David Bellamy Dialogue(Search
  for 'Bellamy' whenyou reach the sit a curious
  exchange!)
• Interesting article about surface temperature
  measurement (The 'Greening Earth Society' takes
  an interesting perspective on this debate which
  is distinctly American)
• CO2 Science(Problem? What Problem?)
• BBC News Story (About the important role of water
  vapour (humidity) in climate)