…in less than 20 minutes!

More than you wanted to know

about Climate change…

Bruce LarsonStratham Memorial SchoolStratham, NH 03885

In February 2007, an international panel of experts (the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) concluded:

-Global warming is occurring.-Increase in global temperature is a result of human activities.-Given current trends, temperature extremes, heat waves, and heavy rains will continue to escalate in frequency. -The Earth’s temperature and seas will continue to rise into the next millennium.

Understanding climate change Involves understanding A budget more complex than Secretary Geithner’s…

Energy budget basics: more coming in thangoing out.

The budget is out of balancefor two reasons directly related to humans:

We are heating from below theatmosphere with the energystored in fossil and nuclear fuelandhuman activity gives off gases which act as a heat trapping blanket.

Climate is generally defined as average weather, and as such, climate change and weather are intertwined. Observations can show that there have been changes in weather, and it is the statistics of changes in weather over time that identify climate change.

Instrumental observations over the past 157 years show that temperatures at the surface have risen globally, with important regional variations.

Did the sun do it?

This diagram shows thethree ways the Earth can ‘jiggle’ in its trip around the Sun.

This graph spansa million years. Each color is a wiggle, and the bottom is a prettyregular glacial period.

On Mauna Loa, something was making the CO2 graph rise in a steady sawtoothed graph - rising in the spring, and dropping in the fall.

Human activities contribute to climate change by causing changes in Earth’s atmosphere in the amounts of greenhouse gases, aerosols (small particles), and cloudiness.

Glaciers and ice caps are melting…

February 2009 (average surface temperature)

These maps are compiled monthly and are excellent to look at

during hurricane season to see the extent of surface warming.

“The Earth’s climate is tracking into uncharted territory.” Andrew GliksonCanberra, Australia (Andrew Glikson undertakes earth and paleo-climate research at the Research School of Earth Science, Australian National University.)

The IPCC has an excellentFAQ about the science of climateat the following location:

http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg1/ar4-wg1-faqs.pdf

Or you can Google ‘IPCC’ and see the entire package!

Ocean currents

Solar cycles

Plant transpiration

Comet impacts

Cows, horses, pigs

Volcanoes

Burning fossil fuels

Glaciers and ice caps store/release fresh water

Fluorocarbons

Orbit variations

Cloud cover