What is your objective for today?

Vocabulary: Objective 6 – Climate changeclimate ppm (parts per million) weathercelestialMilankovitch orbitaxis tiltRotation greenhouse gases

Useful vocabulary Paleo – old or ancient

Paleo proxies - preserved physical characteristics of the past that provide information on Earth’s past such as from tree rings, ice cores, fossil pollen, ocean sediments, corals

Paleoclimatology – the study of Earth‘s ancient climate.

Weather & ClimateWhat is the difference between weather and climate?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUiwtVSkUwQ

Has Earth’s climate changed in the past – YES!

How many ice ages have occurred? Did humans ever experience an ice age? Explain how you know.

How many warming trends? Which period are we in now: warming or ice age?

With your group - Make a list of what may have caused Earth’s climate to change in the past.

What caused Earth’s climate to change in the past?

The Earth’s climate is a dynamic interaction between changes in the amount of energy coming from

the sun (sunspot cycles) the distance and tilt of the Earth to the sun

(Milankovitch Theory) the position and height of the continents ocean circulation composition of the atmosphere – the

greenhouse gases

Our Sun The number of sunspots

cycles from many to few every 11 years due to the Sun’s changing magnetic field.

last solar minimum was 1996 and we entered a period of solar maximum last year (2013).

During solar maximums there is a small increase in the energy output from the Sun, and a small increase in global temperatures on Earth and a change in rainfall patterns

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

Earth’s tilt changes between 22 - 25 degrees on a cycle of about 41,000 years affects weather: more "tilt" means more severe seasons - warmer summers and colder winters. We are heading to minimum.

The shape of Earth's orbit around the sun changes every 100,000 years with an additional cycle every 400,000 years; Currently Earth’s orbit is closer to being circular. Orbit changes primarily due to the gravitational interaction between Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn.

The precession (wobbles like a top) of Earth’s closest approach to the sun changes on a cycle of about 23,000 years. Currently the closest approach occurs in January, making northern hemisphere winters slightly milder. 11,000 years ago, the closest approach occurred in July, making the seasons more severe than today. Precession occurs primarily due to the gravitational interaction between Earth, Sun, and Moon.

Milankovitch Theory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD8THEz18gc

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/ice-age-cycles/ (watch this one)

How do we know the Earth’s climate has changed in the past and is changing now? – What is the evidence?

Make a list of data scientists might collect how they could study changes in the climate

Evidence of climate change comes from:

Ice Cores: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/environmental-change/measuring-climate-change/ice-cores/

Layers in lake and ocean sediments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRa-yvQVLrs (start at 2:43)

Temperature records Sea levels Glacier Melt: http

://www.ted.com/talks/james_balog_time_lapse_proof_of_extreme_ice_loss.html (11:10 - 17:49)

Tree rings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck5yfj8hOQE Coral Reefs https://spark.ucar.edu/coral-studying-past-climate-movie

facts Data from Antarctic ice cores show atmospheric CO2 levels over the past 750,000

years cycled between about 180 and 280 parts per million (Past climate cycles 2011).

  Measurements in May 2013 of global CO2 levels were at 396 ppm (NOAA 2013),

concentrations were probably last this high 3 to 5 million years ago; a time before humans when the Earth was 3-4 oC higher than today, horses and camels lived in the Arctic region, and sea levels were approximately 10meters higher than today (Kunzig 2013). http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html (current CO2)https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/ (Scripps)

  sea levels are rising on average 1.7mm/year (Willis et al. 2008)

average global temperatures have increased by approximately 0.8oC in the past 10 years ( Hansen et al. 2010)

while our oceans absorb approximately 25% of the CO2 we release into the atmosphere; the chemical reaction that occurs when oceans absorb CO2 has resulted in the average ocean surface waters becoming more acidic – the pH of ocean waters have decreased by approximately 0.1units in the past 150 years (PMEL Group)

in the past 100 years, ocean temperatures (from the surface to 700m depth) have increased by approximately 0.1oC (Sea Temperature Rise).

Why? Human activity and addition to the Greenhouse Gases in our atmosphere: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorcarbons (CFC‘s)

“In the Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world, concluded there's a more than 90 percent probability that human activities over the past 250 years have warmed our planet.” (Causes)

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/video/Climate-Change-101-With-Bill-Nye-the-Science-Guy.html

How does climate change relate to our definition of an ecosystem?

ecosystem - a dynamic biological community of interacting organisms and their environment. http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/10-signs-clim

ate-change-is-already-happening-130422.htm

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/spms3.html

Quizzes to try later http://

www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/climate/quiz/quiz4.cfm (Quiz on climate change)

http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/climate/quiz/quiz3.cfm (another quiz)

Resources

Balog, James. "James Balog: Time-lapse Proof of Extreme Ice Loss." TED: Ideas worth Spreading, Sept. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/james_balog_time_lapse_proof_of_extreme_ice_loss.html>.

Biello, David. "Just How Sensitive Is Earth's Climate to Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide?" Scientific American. Science, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-sensitive-is-climate-to-carbon-dioxide>.

Black, Richard. "Gulf Stream 'is Not Slowing Down'" BBC News. BBC, 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8589512.stm>.

"Causes." Global Climate Change. Ed. Amber Jenkins. NASA, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://climate.nasa.gov/causes>.

Gardiner, Lisa. "How Do We Investigate Climates of the Past?" Windows to the Universe, 15 June 2009. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/CDcourses_investigate_climate.html>.

Harms, Nicole. "How to Know If a Website Is Reputable or Not." EHow. Demand Media, 02 Jan. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how_5824500_website-reputable-not.html>.

Hollowell, Karen. "How to Use Notes to Organize Writing for a Research Paper." EHow. Demand Media, 08 June 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/how_6604680_use-organize-writing-research-paper.html>.

"How Is Today’s Warming Different from the Past?" Global Warming : Feature Articles. Ed. Paul Przyborski. Earth Observatory, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php>.

Montecino, Virginia. "Helpful Hints to Help You Evaluate the Credibility of WebResources." Helpful Hints to Help You Evaluate the Credibility of WebResources. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2012. <http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm>.

Powerhouse Museum. "How Do Scientists Measure Climate Change?" Ecologic Powerhouse Museum, n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/ecologic/the-exhibition/climate-change/how-do-scientists-measure-climate-change/>.

"What's the Difference between Weather and Climate?" What Is Climate? University Corporation for Atmospheric Research Images, n.d. Web. 07 Aug. 2014. <https://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/what1.htm>.