Evidence for Climate Change
Evidence for climate change includes various indicators such as rising global temperatures, melting ice caps, and changing precipitation patterns. These changes are supported by scientific data collected from sources like satellite observations, ice core samples, and historical climate records. The evidence points to human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, as the primary driver of these changes.
7 Key excerpts on "Evidence for Climate Change"
eBook - ePubGlobal Climate Change
Turning Knowledge Into Action
- David Kitchen(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Hold them in mind as you read through the text and examine the data in more detail. Looking Ahead … Chapter 2 presents physical evidence from around the world that rising global temperature is changing Earth’s climate. The signs of climate change are visible around the world from the poles to the equator. The impact is greatest at northern latitudes, especially in Arctic regions, where sea ice, ice sheets, tundra, and glaciers are melting rapidly, but is also evident in Antarctica where ice shelves that existed for thousands of years have become unstable and broken apart. Global sea level is rising due to the thermal expansion of the oceans and the addition of meltwater, and storm surges now threaten many low lying coastal regions and the lives of millions. Weather patterns that have been stable for generations are changing as the atmosphere warms and retains more moisture. While some regions experience more intensive storms and sudden downpours, others suffer from record droughts and wildfires. Critical Thinking Questions Describe how an older friend or relative remembers what the weather was like when they were younger. Older folks will often tell you that the weather has changed...
eBook - ePubHubris
The Troubling Science, Economics, and Politics of Climate Change
- Michael Hart(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Compleat Desktop Publishing(Publisher)
...Changes occur in all aspects of local climate, all the time and all over the world. Geological records show that climate also changes continually through deep time. Change is what climate does, and the ecologies of the natural world change concomitantly in response.” 410 Science writer Matt Ridley characterizes the current conceit that climate is in equilibrium unless disturbed by human agency as a special kind of narcissism that afflicts modern environmentalists. 411 Figure 6-4: Atmospheric CO 2 and temperature fluctuations over geological timescale Standard graph showing lack of correlation in geologic time between atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and temperature. Source: http://www.biocab.org/Carbon_Dioxide_Geological_Timescale.html. The IPPC’s assessment of the impact of climate change The idea of using secondary evidence to bolster the basis for an hypothesis is in itself not a problem. In such cases, however, it is important that the secondary evidence actually demonstrate the alleged relationship. As the above examples suggest, such is not the case. In the few instances in which there may be a correlation, there are better explanations for the phenomenon than anthropogenic climate change. Climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability are the responsibility of IPCC Working Group 2. It has now prepared five assessment reports in addition to a special report on extreme events. All follow the working procedures of the IPCC, with co-chairs, lead authors, contributing authors, and review editors tasked with providing a detailed assessment of the state of the science in their respective areas based on a review of all relevant, peer-reviewed literature. 412 These procedures seem to have been more a matter of public relations than of actual practice. As Donna Laframboise and her collaborators have demonstrated for AR4, a large amount of information is sourced from so-called grey literature...
eBook - ePub- Roger G. Barry, Richard J Chorley(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER THIRTEEN Climate change Mark C. Serreze and Roger G. Barry LEARNING OBJECTIVES When you have read this chapter you will: understand the difference between climate variability and climate change and know the characteristic features that may constitute a change of climate be aware of the different timescales on which past climate conditions are studied and the sources of evidence that may be used recognize the major climate forcing factors and feedback mechanisms and the timescales over which they operate understand the anthropogenic contributions to climate change appreciate the possible impacts of climate change on environmental systems. A GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS In this final chapter we examine climate variability and change, climate forcing factors, feedbacks and projected future states of the climate system. In many parts of the world, the climate has varied sufficiently within the past few thousand years to affect patterns of agriculture and settlement. As will become clear, the evidence is now overwhelming that human activities have begun to influence climate. Realization that climate is far from being constant came only during the 1840s, when indisputable evidence of former Ice Ages was obtained. Studies of past climate began with a few individuals in the 1920s and gained momentum in the 1950s (see Box 13.1). Instrumental records for most parts of the world span only the past 100 to 150 years, and are typically assembled at monthly, seasonal or annual time resolution. However, proxy indicators from tree rings, pollen in bog and lake sediments, ice core records of physical and chemical parameters, and ocean foraminifera in sediments provide a wealth of paleoclimatic data. Tree rings and ice cores can give seasonal or annual records. Peat bog and ocean sediments may provide records with 100 to 1000-year time resolution. In any study of climate variability and change, one must pay careful attention to possible artifacts in the records...
eBook - ePub- Knut Schroeder, Trevor Thompson, Kathleen Frith, David Pencheon(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- BMJ Books(Publisher)
...Global climate change is widely regarded as the most urgent environmental issue in the Anthropocene because it affects humans around the globe, particularly with regard to food security and access to clean water [3-7]. What is the evidence for global climate change? The earth's climate is constantly changing. The planet has had ice ages as well as longer warm periods, but there is increasing evidence that global temperatures are currently rising at unprecedented rates due to human activity. The research evidence for this warming has been compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a team that involves over 1000 scientists from around the globe. In its 2007 4th Assessment Report, the IPCC concluded that ‘warming of the climate system is unequivocal’ [6]. Any remaining doubts about rising earth surface temperatures were dispelled in 2011 by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study, which has created a data set combining 1.6 billion temperature reports from 15 pre-existing data archives [8]. This study presents secure evidence of an average rise in world land temperatures of approximately 1°C since the mid-1950s. Surface temperature is not the only marker of global warming. The UK Met Office compiled, in 2011, results for other climate indicators from over 20 international institutions. Using a variety of resources and independent analysts to confirm the findings, data clearly show a rise in global average temperature (Figure 2.1), increases in ocean water temperatures, rising sea levels, as well as shrinking of the arctic sea ice, glaciers and Northern hemisphere snow cover [9]. Figure 2.1 Observed global average temperature for each decade from 1850 to 2009 relative to 1961–1990 [9]. (Reproduced with permission from the UK Met Office. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.) [9] The link between temperature changes and carbon dioxide Various factors influence climate...
eBook - ePubClimate Conflict
How Global Warming Threatens Security and What to Do about It
- Jeffrey Mazo(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Climate change has been and will continue to be far from uniform around the world: it shows great variation from region to region. The anticipated climate change in any particular part of the globe is driven not just by average warming but by changes in global ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns that directly impact climate by, for example, strengthening or weakening monsoons. Cyclical patterns like ENSO can also be strengthened or weakened, and more persistent geographic shifts in climate zones can occur, as they have in the past. The most basic difference is between land and water: continents will warm more than seas, and continental interiors will warm more than areas close to the ocean. The amount of warming, too, tends to vary by latitude, with higher latitudes projected to warm more, and according to factors such as the presence of large mountain ranges, which also affect precipitation. 23 Precipitation patterns in particular will vary significantly, in terms of both total amount and the chronological distribution and intensity of precipitation events. Although, overall, precipitation is expected to increase with global warming, within this global average some regions could see declines. For example, for projections to the end of the century under one scenario, the best estimate for global temperature increase is 2.8°C. 24 However, the median annual temperature increase ranges from 1.8–4.9°C depending on region. The projected increase is 2.5°C or less for Southeast Asia, southern South America, and the small island states of the Caribbean, tropical northeast Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific, and more than 4°C for the Arctic and adjoining regions such as northern Asia, Alaska, eastern Canada, Greenland and Iceland...
eBook - ePub- Will Steffen (Lead Author)(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- CSIRO PUBLISHING(Publisher)
...4 The rate and magnitude of climate change This chapter summarises climatic trends observed over the past few decades, both globally and in Australia, and describes the rate and magnitude of potential change over the next century. 4.1 THE NATURE OF CONTEMPORARY CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change is altering the fundamental abiotic environment in which biological species and communities exist. Understanding the nature of climate change, from the human-driven changes that are observable now to the long-term patterns of variability within which contemporary ecosystems have developed, is essential for assessing the vulnerability of Australia’s biodiversity to the rapidly changing environment of the 21st century. The science of climate change has progressed significantly over the past two decades. The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 concluded that the warming of the climate system over the past century is unequivocal. Figure 4.1 shows the changes in the mean surface temperature over the past 150 years. Global average temperatures have increased 0.74°C (1906–2007). Twelve of the 13 years in the 1995–2005 period rank among the 13 warmest years in the instrumental record since 1850. Warming has occurred across the globe but has been greatest in the northern high latitudes (IPCC 2007a). The IPCC (2007a) concluded that it is very likely that anthropogenic (human-induced) greenhouse gas increases have caused most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century. The most important of the anthropogenic greenhouse gases in terms of its effect on climate is carbon dioxide (CO 2). The longest continuously monitored CO 2 site in a non-industrial area, on top of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, has documented increases from below 315 ppm to above 380 ppm in just over the past 50 years (Fig. 4.2)...
eBook - ePubApplied Climatology
Principles and Practice
- Allen Perry, Dr Russell Thompson, Russell Thompson(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Recently, Santer et al. (1996) have provided the most convincing demonstration yet that human actions are producing an ‘anthropogenenic fingerprint’ that can be recognized when the patterns of surface temperature change that are actually occurring, are compared with the expected changes of the model predictions. While the regional distribution of climate change still cannot be well projected, the broad patterns are becoming clearer and these include: 1 Continents, particularly at high latitudes, will warm more quickly than the oceans. 2 Deserts are likely to become more extreme as they become hotter but not significantly wetter. 3 Developing countries will probably be more seriously affected by climate change than developed countries, since they have fewer adaptation options. Perry (1995) has noted that resilience to climate change requires flexibility and adaptability and a capacity to bounce back and recover, qualities that are associated with economic well-being, a strong highly developed infrastructure and a young demographic structure. Significantly, ecologists testing the resistance and resilience of vegetation subjected to extreme events (McGillivray and Grime, 1995) find that in a similar way to society at large vegetation tolerance is a function of nutrient stress tolerance. Ecological crisis together with economic conditions have weakened the capacity of many countries to adjust to changes in the climatic environment. A prudent way to face the climate of the future is through a portfolio of actions aimed at mitigation, adaptation and improving knowledge...
