Are ‘little ice ages’ and ‘megadroughts’ possible?
Scientists are investigating whether changes in ocean circu- lation may have played a role in causing or amplifying the “Little Ice Age” between 1300 and 1850. This period of abruptly shift- ing climate regimes and more severe winters had profound agri- cultural, economic, and political impacts in Europe and North America and changed the course of history.
Presentation given by Chris Swanston to the the Hudson to Housatonic (H2H) Conservation Initiative for the H2H Conservation in a Changing Climate workshop on December 11, 2014.
Presentation given by Chris Swanston to the the Hudson to Housatonic (H2H) Conservation Initiative for the H2H Conservation in a Changing Climate workshop on December 11, 2014.
Presentation from a Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies public forum on climate change by Perry Sheffield, Professor of Pediatrics and Preventative Medicine, Mount Sinai
Lecture power point of Climate change Adaptation and Mitigation for Department of Natural Resource Management. This short lecture power point is prepared by Mengistu Tilahun
Thanks!!!
"Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis", assesses the current
scientific knowledge of the natural and human drivers of climate change,
observed changes in climate, the ability of science to attribute changes
to different causes, and projections for future climate change.
The report was produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. Over 620
expert reviewers and a large number of government reviewers also
participated. Representatives from 113 governments reviewed and revised
the Summary line-by-line during the course of this week before adopting
it and accepting the underlying report.
“Climate Change
2007: The Physical Science Basis”, assesses the current scientific knowledge of
the natural and human drivers of climate change, observed changes in climate,
the ability of science to attribute changes to different causes, and projections
for future climate change.
The report was
produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. Over 620 expert reviewers and a
large number of government reviewers also participated. Representatives from 113
governments reviewed and revised the Summary line-by-line during the course of
this week before adopting it and accepting the underlying
report.
A Brief History of Earth’s Climate ChangeLarry Smarr
10.01.13
Invited Talk
Youth Leadership Dialogue
Australian American Leadership Dialogue
Stanford University
Title: A Brief History of Earth’s Climate Change
Palo Alto, CA
IB Extended Essay Sample APA 2018-2019 by WritingMetier.comWriting Metier
APA style International Baccalaureate Extended Essay Sample years 2018-2019 written by WritingMetier.com
Topic:
Adverse effects of global warming and what can be done to reduce it?
a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
The Earth’s climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events—like heavy rainstorms and record-high temperatures, are already taking place. One important way to track and communicate the causes and effects of climate change is
through the use of indicators. An indicator represents the state or trend of certain environmental or societal conditions over a given area and a specified period of time. This lesson highlights all those indicators for a better understanding of climate change.
Few global trends have been as controversial as climate change and the Earth’s warming. The Earth has gone through many shifts in cooling and warming driven by natural factors like the sun’s energy or variations in its orbit, but the trend scientists have seen over the past 50 years is unmistakable.
Presentation from a Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies public forum on climate change by Perry Sheffield, Professor of Pediatrics and Preventative Medicine, Mount Sinai
Lecture power point of Climate change Adaptation and Mitigation for Department of Natural Resource Management. This short lecture power point is prepared by Mengistu Tilahun
Thanks!!!
"Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis", assesses the current
scientific knowledge of the natural and human drivers of climate change,
observed changes in climate, the ability of science to attribute changes
to different causes, and projections for future climate change.
The report was produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. Over 620
expert reviewers and a large number of government reviewers also
participated. Representatives from 113 governments reviewed and revised
the Summary line-by-line during the course of this week before adopting
it and accepting the underlying report.
“Climate Change
2007: The Physical Science Basis”, assesses the current scientific knowledge of
the natural and human drivers of climate change, observed changes in climate,
the ability of science to attribute changes to different causes, and projections
for future climate change.
The report was
produced by some 600 authors from 40 countries. Over 620 expert reviewers and a
large number of government reviewers also participated. Representatives from 113
governments reviewed and revised the Summary line-by-line during the course of
this week before adopting it and accepting the underlying
report.
A Brief History of Earth’s Climate ChangeLarry Smarr
10.01.13
Invited Talk
Youth Leadership Dialogue
Australian American Leadership Dialogue
Stanford University
Title: A Brief History of Earth’s Climate Change
Palo Alto, CA
IB Extended Essay Sample APA 2018-2019 by WritingMetier.comWriting Metier
APA style International Baccalaureate Extended Essay Sample years 2018-2019 written by WritingMetier.com
Topic:
Adverse effects of global warming and what can be done to reduce it?
a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
The Earth’s climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events—like heavy rainstorms and record-high temperatures, are already taking place. One important way to track and communicate the causes and effects of climate change is
through the use of indicators. An indicator represents the state or trend of certain environmental or societal conditions over a given area and a specified period of time. This lesson highlights all those indicators for a better understanding of climate change.
Few global trends have been as controversial as climate change and the Earth’s warming. The Earth has gone through many shifts in cooling and warming driven by natural factors like the sun’s energy or variations in its orbit, but the trend scientists have seen over the past 50 years is unmistakable.
It is our HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) project.
This document describes how greatly our environment and social life is effected from Global Warming. It describes various perspectives also.
Gloomy Climate Calculation Collapse of Atlantic Ocean Current PredictedZaighamKamal
Important ocean currents that redistribute heat, cold and precipitation between the tropics and the northernmost parts of the Atlantic region will shut down around the year 2060 if current greenhouse gas emissions persist. This is the conclusion based on new calculations that contradict the latest report from the IPCC.
The largest association of meteorologists and climate scientists issued a fresh statement on the scientific evidence for human-driven climate change and possible impacts. This is an update from the 2007 statement that can be found here: http://www.ametsoc.org/policy/2007climatechange.html
More on climate change on Dot Earth:
http://j.mp/dotBasic http://j.mp/dotBasics
Flies like a plane Safe as a plane with the Power of a plane TS820 Brief introwww.thiiink.com
Advanced Hybrid Propulsion System – TS820 Flettner Rotor
TS820 easy to install – done in normal a docking cycle – easy to operate
TS820 one rotor system, servicing 4 different Tanker types
Cost & IRR?
”Why use 4 or 2 Rotors? ”If you can do it with 2 or 1?
A380/TS820 How much power du you need? how much will you get?
Power Tanker has 12,000Kw installed 2 rotors make up-to 19,000Kw
Base tech 10 years of full scale sea trial
Safety at Sea for Explosive Cargos & Tanker Operations
TS820 Rotors up to 50% of RetroFit fuel and Co2 savings
10 days Retrofit to fix most problems, in a normal docking Cycle cost Only $1...www.thiiink.com
10 days Retrofit to fix most problems, in a normal docking Cycle cost Only $15 million per vessel for a 50% Retrofit emissions and cost reduction?
Shipyards 1 million employed 24/7?
Yearly cost reduction 100 billion US$?
2008 to 2014, nobody noticed 1 ship went from 50 million to 376 million cars per vessels?
Or 2018 just 4 ships equal all the worlds 1 billion cars" or 1.3 trillion cars worth of emissions on 70% of Earth our Oceans?
Or we are all driving 1300 cars each not just 1?
https://www.focus.de/wissen/natur/wissen-und-gesundheit-dicke-luft-auf-hoher-see_id_5247004.html
All shipping date wrong by a factor of 5?
300,000 to 500,000 will die a year + 3 to 5 million with cancer?
Why because nobody somehow noticed 10,000 die plus 100,000 with cancer in Scandinavia alone" in the Scandinavian CLEAN FUEL ZONE?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3327622/Why-sea-breeze-not-good-anymore-Particle-pollution-shipping-far-worse-thought.html
Or by 2020 we will be back to 15 ships equal all world cars like in 2008?
Why no Scrubber?
How is the Co2 50% reduction target by 2050 possible, when its mostly Biofuel and LNG worse than Coal in Actual Co2 emissions?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/07/natural-gas-emissions-will-blow-europes-carbon-budget-at-current-levels
https://www.transportenvironment.org/what-we-do/what-science-says-0
How did BIMCO & ICS get away with it?
Why is nobody saying anything?
https://www.slideshare.net/jornw1/wartsila-shipping-energy-efficiency-presentation19-sep-2008
Letter outlining technical performance verification and due diligence undertaken by THiiiNK and its third party partners on THiiiNK Flettner technology and its fuel saving effects
LIFE-CYCLE IMPACTS OF TESLA MODEL S ͦͣ AND VOLKSWAGEN PASSATwww.thiiink.com
The environmental impacts of Volkswagen Passat gasoline-,
flexifuel E85- and NExBTL biodiesel-fueled cars and Tesla Model S
85 electric car in the United States are assessed in this report.
Volkswagen Passat is about the same size as Tesla Model S.
Burden of proof: A comprehensive review of the feasibility of 100% renewable-...www.thiiink.com
An effective response to climate change demands rapid replacement of fossil carbon energy sources. This must occur concurrently with an ongoing rise in total global energy consumption. While many modelled scenarios have been published claiming to show that a 100% renewable electricity system is achievable, there is no empirical or historical evidence that demonstrates that such systems are in fact feasible. Of the studies published to date, 24 have forecast regional, national or global energy requirements at sufficient detail to be considered potentially credible. We critically review these studies using four novel feasibility criteria for reliable electricity systems needed to meet electricity demand this century. These criteria are: (1) consistency with mainstream energy-demand forecasts; (2) simulating supply to meet demand reliably at hourly, half-hourly, and five-minute timescales, with resilience to extreme climate events; (3) identifying necessary transmission and distribution requirements; and (4) maintaining the provision of essential ancillary services. Evaluated against these objective criteria, none of the 24 studies provides convincing evidence that these basic feasibility criteria can be met. Of a maximum possible unweighted feasibility score of seven, the highest score for any one study was four. Eight of 24 scenarios (33%) provided no form of system simulation. Twelve (50%) relied on unrealistic forecasts of energy demand. While four studies (17%; all regional) articulated transmission requirements, only two scenarios—drawn from the same study—addressed ancillary-service requirements. In addition to feasibility issues, the heavy reliance on exploitation of hydroelectricity and biomass raises concerns regarding environ- mental sustainability and social justice. Strong empirical evidence of feasibility must be demonstrated for any study that attempts to construct or model a low-carbon energy future based on any combination of low-carbon technology. On the basis of this review, efforts to date seem to have substantially underestimated the challenge and delayed the identification and implementation of effective and comprehensive decarbonization pathways.
NGO data manipulation of financial markets?
Everywhere data has been manipulated to suite or fit
the Greenpeace & Co 100% WindSolar UTOPIA?
Not 1 word on Methane 10,000 billion tons of Gas? Puts long term large Green Energy investment decisions into an unforeseeable level of risk, as the go no go or careful timing for these very capital intensive investments in the long term, is suddenly unimaginable or non existing 4 the investor = Not a word Not 1 in Carbon Tracker?
Eu coal stress_test_report_2017 WindSolar = More and More Coal (1)www.thiiink.com
An inconvenient truth ineffective Greenpeace & Co WindSolar FORCED Germany to install more Coal in 10 year than most in 30 years? Or it took Greenpeace & Co ONLY 50 years to Destroy Earth
Tuesday climate stabalization and reducing carbon and ghg emissionswww.thiiink.com
You think Greenpeace is Green Wrong?
100% WindSolar would EQUAL the biggest disruption and destruction of nature in recorded human history” their would be machines everywhere” were there are machines there are people” if there are people were is nature were
is wildlife” we need to stay away from Nature leave it alone?
Peters et al_a_search_for_large-scale_effects_of_ship_emissions_on_clouds_and...www.thiiink.com
Introduction
Ship tracks are widely seen as one of the most prominent
manifestations of anthropogenic aerosol indirect effects
(AIEs), or the change in cloud properties by anthropogenic
aerosols serving as cloud condensation nuclei. A very uncertain
and scientifically interesting question, however, is about
the climatically relevant large-scale forcing by AIEs due to
ship emissions.
In the past decades, a whole suite of AIE-hypotheses has
been put forward of which the “Twomey-effect”, or first AIE,
is the most prominent. For this effect, an increase in available
cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) eventually leads to
more and smaller cloud droplets if the liquid water content of
the respective cloud remains constant. More cloud droplets
increase the total droplet surface area by which the cloud
albedo is enhanced; an effect which was put into the general
context of anthropogenic pollution by Twomey (1974). Other
AIE-hypotheses include effects on cloud lifetime (Albrecht,
1989; Small et al., 2009) or cloud top height (Koren et al.,
2005; Devasthale et al., 2005). Especially the latter hypotheses
are far from being verified (e.g. Stevens and Feingold,
2009). In total, AIEs are subject to the largest uncertainties
Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.
5986 K. Peters et al.: Aerosol indirect effects from shipping emissions
of all radiative forcing (RF) components of the Earth System,
when it comes to assessing human induced climate change
(Forster et al., 2007). However, there exists broad consensus
that on global average, AIEs have a cooling effect on the
Earth System with the most recent multi-model estimate being
−0.7 ± 0.5 W m−2
(Quaas et al., 2009).
Introduction
The transport sectors, including land transport, shipping and
aviation, are major sources of atmospheric pollution (e.g.,
Righi et al., 2013). The emissions from transport are growing
more rapidly than those from the other anthropogenic activities.
According to the ATTICA assessment (Uherek et al.,
2010; Eyring et al., 2010), land transport and shipping shared
74 and 12 % of the global CO2 emissions from transport in
the year 2000, respectively. In the time period 1990–2007,
the EU-15 CO2-equivalent emissions from land transport and
shipping increased by 24 and 63 %, respectively. This growth
is expected to continue in the future, due to increasing world
population, economic activities and related mobility. The future
road traffic scenarios analyzed by Uherek et al. (2010)
essentially agree in projecting an increase of both fuel demand
and CO2 emissions until 2030, with up to a factor of
∼ 3 increase in CO2 emissions with respect to 2000. The ATTICA
assessment also showed that emissions of CO2 from
land transport and shipping affect the global climate by exerting
a radiative forcing (RF) effect of 171 (year 2000)
and 37 mW m−2
(year 2005), respectively. These two sectors
together account for 13 % of the total anthropogenic CO2
warming (year 2005).
In addition to long-lived greenhouse gases, ground-based
vehicles and ocean-going ships emit aerosol particles as well
as a wide range of short-lived gases, including also aerosol
precursor species. Atmospheric aerosol particles have significant
impacts on climate, through their interaction with solar
radiation and their ability to modify cloud microphysical
and optical properties (Forster et al., 2007). In populated areas,
they also affect air quality and human health (Pope and
Dockery, 2006; Chow et al., 2006).
Righi et al_climate_impact_of_biofuels_in_shipping-global_model_studies_og_th...www.thiiink.com
ABSTRACT: Aerosol emissions from international shipping
are recognized to have a large impact on the Earth’s radiation
budget, directly by scattering and absorbing solar radiation and
indirectly by altering cloud properties. New regulations have
recently been approved by the International Maritime Organi-
zation (IMO) aiming at progressive reductions of the maximum
sulfur content allowed in marine fuels from current 4.5% by
mass down to 0.5% in 2020, with more restrictive limits already
applied in some coastal regions. In this context, we use a global
bottom-up algorithm to calculate geographically resolved emis-
sion inventories of gaseous (NOx, CO, SO2) and aerosol (black
carbon, organic matter, sulfate) species for different kinds of
low-sulfur fuels in shipping. We apply these inventories to study the resulting changes in radiative forcing, attributed to particles from shipping, with the global aerosol-climate model EMAC-MADE. The emission factors for the different fuels are based on measurements at a test bed of a large diesel engine. We consider both fossil fuel (marine gas oil) and biofuels (palm and soy bean oil) as a substitute for heavy fuel oil in the current (2006) fleet and compare their climate impact to that resulting from heavy fuel oil use. Our simulations suggest that ship-induced surface level concentrations of sulfate aerosol are strongly reduced, up to about 40-60% in the high-traffic regions. This clearly has positive consequences for pollution reduction in the vicinity of major harbors. Additionally, such reductions in the aerosol loading lead to a decrease of a factor of 3-4 in the indirect global aerosol effect induced by emissions from international shipping.
Det generer ham, at daværende indenrigsminister
Birte Weiss populistisk lukkede
Danmarks atomforsøgsstation på Risø, som
Niels Bohr havde kæmpet utrætteligt for i
1950erne, og hvis første forsøgsreaktor blev
åbnet i 1957. Den sidste reaktor blev lukket i
2000 efter i næsten fyrre år at have fungeret
upåklageligt og leveret eksperimentel fysik
i verdensklasse samt isotoper til hospitalsbehandling.
Isotoper, som i dag må hentes i
udlandet for dyre penge.
Nu handler striden så om de 50 års radioaktive
affald, »som næppe er så skadeligt som
det vore kulkraftværker leverer på 50 dage«
(fordi der er uran i det kul, der brændes af og
sendes ud af skorstenen og spredes ud over
landet, red.).
Thomas Grønlund skriver, at den samlede
mængde affald fra 25 års kernekraft, der har
forsynet Frankrig med 80 procent af elektriciteten,
fylder omtrent det samme som en 1-krone
pr. franskmand, og affaldet kan opbevares i et
rum på størrelse med en gymnastiksal, men
der er en vrangforestilling om, at det er et stort
problem. »Halveringstiden« er cirka 30 år for
de vigtigste affaldstyper fra et kernekraftværk,
men der er ikke samme nul-tolerance over for
andet affald – at det for eksempel tager tusinder
af år at nedbryde meget af det plasticaffald,
der spredes i verdenshavene
Are we overlooking potential abrupt climate shifts?
Most of the studies and debates on potential climate change, along with its ecological and economic impacts, have focused on the ongoing buildup of industrial greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and a gradual increase in global tempera- tures. This line of thinking, however, fails to consider another potentially disruptive climate scenario. It ignores recent and rapidly advancing evidence that Earth’s climate repeatedly has shifted abruptly and dramatically in the past, and is capable of doing so in the future.
Fossil evidence clearly demonstrates that Earth’s climate can shift gears within a decade, establishing new and different patterns that can persist for decades to centuries. In addition, these climate shifts do not necessarily have universal, global effects. They can generate a counterintuitive scenario: Even as the earth as a whole continues to warm gradually, large regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into colder climates.
This new paradigm of abrupt climate change has been well established over the last decade by research of ocean, earth
The global ocean circulation system, often called the Ocean Conveyor, transports heat worldwide. White sections represent warm surface cur- rents. Purple sections represent cold deep currents.
and atmosphere scientists at many institutions worldwide. But the concept remains little known and scarcely appreciated in the wider community of scientists, economists, policy mak- ers, and world political and business leaders. Thus, world lead- ers may be planning for climate scenarios of global warming that are opposite to what might actually occur.1
It is important to clarify that we are not contemplating a situation of either abrupt cooling or global warming. Rather, abrupt regional cooling and gradual global warming can un- fold simultaneously. Indeed, greenhouse warming is a desta- bilizing factor that makes abrupt climate change more prob- able. A 2002 report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) said, “available evidence suggests that abrupt climate changes are not only possible but likely in the future, poten- tially with large impacts on ecosystems and societies.”2
The timing of any abrupt regional cooling in the future also has critical policy implications. An abrupt cooling that hap- pens within the next two decades would produce different climate effects than one that occurs after another century of continuing greenhouse warming.
Characterization and the Kinetics of drying at the drying oven and with micro...Open Access Research Paper
The objective of this work is to contribute to valorization de Nephelium lappaceum by the characterization of kinetics of drying of seeds of Nephelium lappaceum. The seeds were dehydrated until a constant mass respectively in a drying oven and a microwawe oven. The temperatures and the powers of drying are respectively: 50, 60 and 70°C and 140, 280 and 420 W. The results show that the curves of drying of seeds of Nephelium lappaceum do not present a phase of constant kinetics. The coefficients of diffusion vary between 2.09.10-8 to 2.98. 10-8m-2/s in the interval of 50°C at 70°C and between 4.83×10-07 at 9.04×10-07 m-8/s for the powers going of 140 W with 420 W the relation between Arrhenius and a value of energy of activation of 16.49 kJ. mol-1 expressed the effect of the temperature on effective diffusivity.
UNDERSTANDING WHAT GREEN WASHING IS!.pdfJulietMogola
Many companies today use green washing to lure the public into thinking they are conserving the environment but in real sense they are doing more harm. There have been such several cases from very big companies here in Kenya and also globally. This ranges from various sectors from manufacturing and goes to consumer products. Educating people on greenwashing will enable people to make better choices based on their analysis and not on what they see on marketing sites.
Artificial Reefs by Kuddle Life Foundation - May 2024punit537210
Situated in Pondicherry, India, Kuddle Life Foundation is a charitable, non-profit and non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to improving the living standards of coastal communities and simultaneously placing a strong emphasis on the protection of marine ecosystems.
One of the key areas we work in is Artificial Reefs. This presentation captures our journey so far and our learnings. We hope you get as excited about marine conservation and artificial reefs as we are.
Please visit our website: https://kuddlelife.org
Our Instagram channel:
@kuddlelifefoundation
Our Linkedin Page:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/kuddlelifefoundation/
and write to us if you have any questions:
info@kuddlelife.org
Willie Nelson Net Worth: A Journey Through Music, Movies, and Business Venturesgreendigital
Willie Nelson is a name that resonates within the world of music and entertainment. Known for his unique voice, and masterful guitar skills. and an extraordinary career spanning several decades. Nelson has become a legend in the country music scene. But, his influence extends far beyond the realm of music. with ventures in acting, writing, activism, and business. This comprehensive article delves into Willie Nelson net worth. exploring the various facets of his career that have contributed to his large fortune.
Follow us on: Pinterest
Introduction
Willie Nelson net worth is a testament to his enduring influence and success in many fields. Born on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. Nelson's journey from a humble beginning to becoming one of the most iconic figures in American music is nothing short of inspirational. His net worth, which estimated to be around $25 million as of 2024. reflects a career that is as diverse as it is prolific.
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Humble Origins
Willie Hugh Nelson was born during the Great Depression. a time of significant economic hardship in the United States. Raised by his grandparents. Nelson found solace and inspiration in music from an early age. His grandmother taught him to play the guitar. setting the stage for what would become an illustrious career.
First Steps in Music
Nelson's initial foray into the music industry was fraught with challenges. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue his dreams, but success did not come . Working as a songwriter, Nelson penned hits for other artists. which helped him gain a foothold in the competitive music scene. His songwriting skills contributed to his early earnings. laying the foundation for his net worth.
Rise to Stardom
Breakthrough Albums
The 1970s marked a turning point in Willie Nelson's career. His albums "Shotgun Willie" (1973), "Red Headed Stranger" (1975). and "Stardust" (1978) received critical acclaim and commercial success. These albums not only solidified his position in the country music genre. but also introduced his music to a broader audience. The success of these albums played a crucial role in boosting Willie Nelson net worth.
Iconic Songs
Willie Nelson net worth is also attributed to his extensive catalog of hit songs. Tracks like "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," "On the Road Again," and "Always on My Mind" have become timeless classics. These songs have not only earned Nelson large royalties but have also ensured his continued relevance in the music industry.
Acting and Film Career
Hollywood Ventures
In addition to his music career, Willie Nelson has also made a mark in Hollywood. His distinctive personality and on-screen presence have landed him roles in several films and television shows. Notable appearances include roles in "The Electric Horseman" (1979), "Honeysuckle Rose" (1980), and "Barbarosa" (1982). These acting gigs have added a significant amount to Willie Nelson net worth.
Television Appearances
Nelson's char
"Understanding the Carbon Cycle: Processes, Human Impacts, and Strategies for...MMariSelvam4
The carbon cycle is a critical component of Earth's environmental system, governing the movement and transformation of carbon through various reservoirs, including the atmosphere, oceans, soil, and living organisms. This complex cycle involves several key processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, decomposition, and carbon sequestration, each contributing to the regulation of carbon levels on the planet.
Human activities, particularly fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, have significantly altered the natural carbon cycle, leading to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and driving climate change. Understanding the intricacies of the carbon cycle is essential for assessing the impacts of these changes and developing effective mitigation strategies.
By studying the carbon cycle, scientists can identify carbon sources and sinks, measure carbon fluxes, and predict future trends. This knowledge is crucial for crafting policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, enhancing carbon storage, and promoting sustainable practices. The carbon cycle's interplay with climate systems, ecosystems, and human activities underscores its importance in maintaining a stable and healthy planet.
In-depth exploration of the carbon cycle reveals the delicate balance required to sustain life and the urgent need to address anthropogenic influences. Through research, education, and policy, we can work towards restoring equilibrium in the carbon cycle and ensuring a sustainable future for generations to come.
growbilliontrees.com-Trees for Granddaughter (1).pdf
Abruptclimatechange 7229
1. Robert B. Gagosian
President and Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Prepared for a panel on abrupt climate change at the
World Economic Forum
Davos, Switzerland, January 27, 2003
ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE
Should We Be Worried?
For more information, contact Shelley Dawicki
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, MA 02543
(508) 289-2270 • sdawicki@whoi.edu
www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/hottopics_climatechange.html
www.whoi.edu
2. 2 3
JayneDoucette,WHOIGraphicServices
Are we overlooking potential abrupt climate shifts?
Most of the studies and debates on potential climate
change, along with its ecological and economic impacts, have
focused on the ongoing buildup of industrial greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere and a gradual increase in global tempera-
tures. This line of thinking, however, fails to consider another
potentially disruptive climate scenario. It ignores recent and
rapidly advancing evidence that Earth’s climate repeatedly has
shifted abruptly and dramatically in the past, and is capable of
doing so in the future.
Fossil evidence clearly demonstrates that Earth’s climate
can shift gears within a decade, establishing new and different
patterns that can persist for decades to centuries. In addition,
these climate shifts do not necessarily have universal, global
effects. They can generate a counterintuitive scenario: Even
as the earth as a whole continues to warm gradually, large
regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into
colder climates.
This new paradigm of abrupt climate change has been well
established over the last decade by research of ocean, earth
and atmosphere scientists at many institutions worldwide. But
the concept remains little known and scarcely appreciated in
the wider community of scientists, economists, policy mak-
ers, and world political and business leaders. Thus, world lead-
ers may be planning for climate scenarios of global warming
that are opposite to what might actually occur.1
It is important to clarify that we are not contemplating a
situation of either abrupt cooling or global warming. Rather,
abrupt regional cooling and gradual global warming can un-
fold simultaneously. Indeed, greenhouse warming is a desta-
bilizing factor that makes abrupt climate change more prob-
able. A 2002 report by the US National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) said, “available evidence suggests that abrupt climate
changes are not only possible but likely in the future, poten-
tially with large impacts on ecosystems and societies.”2
The timing of any abrupt regional cooling in the future also
has critical policy implications. An abrupt cooling that hap-
pens within the next two decades would produce different
climate effects than one that occurs after another century of
continuing greenhouse warming.
The global ocean circulation system, often called the Ocean Conveyor,
transports heat worldwide. White sections represent warm surface cur-
rents. Purple sections represent cold deep currents.
The Global Ocean Conveyor
3. 4 5
edge of ocean dynamics does not match our knowledge of atmo-
spheric processes. The oceans’ essential role is too often neglected
in our calculations.
Does Earth’s climate system have an ‘Achilles’ heel’?
Here is a simplified description of some basic ocean-atmo-
sphere dynamics that regulate Earth’s climate:
The equatorial sun warms the ocean surface and enhances
evaporation in the tropics. This leaves the tropical ocean saltier.
The Gulf Stream, a limb of the Ocean Conveyor, carries an enor-
mous volume of heat-laden, salty water up the East Coast of the
United States, and then northeast toward Europe.
This oceanic heat pump is an important mechanism for re-
ducing equator-to-pole temperature differences. It moderates
Earth’s climate, particularly in the North Atlantic region. Con-
veyor circulation increases the northward transport of warmer
waters in the Gulf Stream by about 50 percent. At colder north-
ern latitudes, the ocean releases this heat to the atmosphere—
especially in winter when the atmosphere is colder than the ocean
and ocean-atmosphere temperature gradients increase. The Con-
veyor warms North Atlantic regions by as much as 5° Celsius
and significantly tempers average winter temperatures.
But records of past climates—from a variety of sources such as
deep-sea sediments and ice-sheet cores—show that the Conveyor
has slowed and shut down several times in the past. This shutdown
curtailed heat delivery to the North Atlantic and caused substan-
tial cooling throughout the region. One earth scientist has called
the Conveyor “the Achilles’ heel of our climate system.”3
Are we ignoring the oceans’ role in climate change?
Fossil evidence and computer models demonstrate that Earth’s
complex and dynamic climate system has more than one mode
of operation. Each mode produces different climate patterns.
The evidence also shows that Earth’s climate system has sen-
sitive thresholds. Pushed past a threshold, the system can jump
quickly from one stable operating mode to a completely differ-
ent one—“just as the slowly increasing pressure of a finger even-
tually flips a switch and turns on a light,” the NAS report said.
Scientists have so far identified only one viable mechanism
to induce large, global, abrupt climate changes: a swift reorgani-
zation of the ocean currents circulating around the earth. These
currents, collectively known as the Ocean Conveyor, distribute
vast quantities of heat around our planet, and thus play a funda-
mental role in governing Earth’s climate.
The oceans also play a pivotal role in the distribution and
availability of life-sustaining water throughout our planet. The
oceans are, by far, the planet’s largest reservoir of water. Evapo-
ration from the ocean transfers huge amounts of water vapor to
the atmosphere, where it travels aloft until it cools, condenses,
and eventually precipitates in the form of rain or snow. Changes
in ocean circulation or water properties can disrupt this hydro-
logical cycle on a global scale, causing flooding and long-term
droughts in various regions. The El Niño phenomenon is but a
hint of how oceanic changes can dramatically affect where and
how much precipitation falls throughout the planet.
Thus, the oceans and the atmosphere constitute intertwined
components of Earth’s climate system. But our present knowl-
If too much fresh water enters the North Atlantic, its waters could
stop sinking. The Conveyor would cease. Heat-bearing Gulf Stream
waters (red lines) would no longer flow into the North Atlantic, and
European and North American winters would become more severe.
(See computer animation at www.whoi.edu/institutes/occi/
climatechange_wef.html)
The Ocean Conveyor is propelled by the sinking of cold, salty (and
therefore denser) waters in the North Atlantic Ocean (blue lines).
This creates a void that helps draw warm, salty surface waters
northward (red lines). The ocean gives up heat to the atmosphere
above the North Atlantic Ocean, and prevailing winds (large red ar-
rows) carry the heat eastward to warm Europe.
JackCook,WHOIGraphicServices
Today With additional fresh water
The Conveyor’s Achilles’ Heel?
A F R I C A
S P A I N
N O R T H A M E R I C A
ADDITIONAL FRESH WATER
A F R I C A
S P A I N
N O R T H A M E R I C A
ADDITIONAL FRESH WATER
A F R I C A
S P A I N
N O R T H A M E R I C A
A F R I C A
S P A I N
N O R T H A M E R I C A
4. 6 7
Computer models simulating ocean-atmosphere climate dy-
namics indicate that the North Atlantic region would cool 3° to
5° Celsius if Conveyor circulation were totally disrupted. It would
produce winters twice as cold as the worst winters on record in
the eastern United States in the past century. In addition, previ-
ous Conveyor shutdowns have been linked with widespread
droughts throughout the globe.
It is crucial to remember two points: 1) If thermohaline circu-
lation shuts down and induces a climate transition, severe win-
ters in the North Atlantic region would likely persist for decades
to centuries—until conditions reached another threshold at which
thermohaline circulation might resume. 2) Abrupt regional cool-
ing may occur even as the earth, on average, continues to warm.
Are worrisome signals developing in the ocean?
If the climate system’s Achilles’ heel is the Conveyor, the
Conveyor’s Achilles’ heel is the North Atlantic. An influx of fresh
water into the North Atlantic’s surface could create a lid of more
buoyant fresh water, lying atop denser, saltier water. This fresh
water would effectively cap and insulate the surface of the North
Atlantic, curtailing the ocean’s transfer of heat to the atmosphere.
An influx of fresh water would also dilute the North Atlantic’s
salinity. At a critical but unknown threshold, when North Atlan-
tic waters are no longer sufficiently salty and dense, they may
stop sinking. An important force driving the Conveyor could
quickly diminish, with climate impacts resulting within a decade.
In an important paper published in 2002 in Nature, oceanog-
What can disrupt the Ocean Conveyor?
Solving this puzzle requires an understanding of what launches
and drives the Conveyor in the first place. The answer, to a large
degree, is salt.
For a variety of reasons, North Atlantic waters are relatively
salty compared with other parts of the world ocean. Salty water
is denser than fresh water. Cold water is denser than warm wa-
ter. When the warm, salty waters of the North Atlantic release
heat to the atmosphere, they become colder and begin to sink.
In the seas that ring the northern fringe of the Atlantic—the
Labrador, Irminger, and Greenland Seas—the ocean releases large
amounts of heat to the atmosphere and then a great volume of
cold, salty water sinks to the abyss. This water flows slowly at
great depths into the South Atlantic and eventually throughout
the world’s oceans.
Thus, the North Atlantic is the source of the deep limb of the
Ocean Conveyor. The plunge of this great mass of cold, salty
water propels the global ocean’s conveyor-like circulation sys-
tem. It also helps draw warm, salty tropical surface waters north-
ward to replace the sinking waters. This process is called “ther-
mohaline circulation,” from the Greek words “thermos” (heat)
and “halos” (salt).
If cold, salty North Atlantic waters did not sink, a primary
force driving global ocean circulation could slacken and cease.
Existing currents could weaken or be redirected. The resulting
reorganization of the ocean’s circulation would reconfigure Earth’s
climate patterns.
Dramatic Changes in the North Atlantic
Subpolar seas bordering the North Atlantic have become noticeably
less salty since the mid-1960s, especially in the last decade. This is
the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the
era of modern instruments. This has resulted in a freshening of the
deep ocean in the North Atlantic, which in the past disrupted the
Ocean Conveyor and caused abrupt climate changes.
B.Dickson,etal.,inNature,April2002
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985
Year
1990 1995 20001965 1970 1975 1980 1985
Year
1990 1995 2000
34.96
34.95
34.94
34.93
34.92
Salinity(partsperthousand)
East Irminger Sea 34.93
34.92
34.91
34.90
34.89
34.88
Denmark Strait
34.93
34.92
34.91
34.90
34.89
34.88
Faroe-Shetland Channel34.95
34.94
34.93
34.92
34.91
34.90
34.89
34.88
34.87
Labrador Sea
500
25003500
3500
3500
2500
1500
500
500
500
500
1500
2500
500
500
500
1500
1500
2500
2500
4500
Denmark
Strait
Labrador
Sea
Irminger
Sea
Faroe-
Shetland
Channel
Greenland
Iceland
Scotland
Ireland
Labrador
Atlantic Ocean
Denmark
Strait
Labrador
Sea
Irminger
Sea
Faroe-
Shetland
Channel
5. 8 9
1015
Age (thousand years before present)
Little Ice Age
Medieval Warm Period
Younger Dryas
5 0
8,200-Year Event
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
TemperatureoverGreenland(˚F)
rivers that discharge into the Arctic Ocean.6 Global warming
may be an exacerbating factor.
Though we have invested in, and now rely on, a global net-
work of meteorological stations to monitor fast-changing atmo-
spheric conditions, at present we do not have a system in place for
monitoring slower-developing, but critical, ocean circulation changes.
The great majority of oceanographic measurements was taken
throughout the years by research ships and ships of opportunity—
especially during the Cold War era for anti-submarine warfare
purposes. Many were taken incidentally by Ocean Weather Sta-
tions—a network of ships stationed in the ocean after World War
II, whose primary duty was to guide transoceanic airplane flights.
Starting in the 1970s, satellite technology superseded these
weather ships. The demise of the OWS network and the end of
the Cold War have left oceanographers with access to far less data
in recent years.
Initial efforts to remedy this deficit are under way,7 but these
efforts are nascent and time is of the essence. Satellites can mea-
sure wind stress and ocean circulation globally, but only at the ocean
surface. Also recently launched (but not nearly fully funded) is the
Argo program—an international program to seed the global ocean
with an armada of some 3,000 free-floating buoys that measure
upper ocean temperature and salinity. Measuring deep ocean cur-
raphers monitoring and analyzing conditions in the North At-
lantic concluded that the North Atlantic has been freshening
dramatically—continuously for the past 40 years but especially
in the past decade.4 The new data show that since the mid-1960s,
the subpolar seas feeding the North Atlantic have steadily and
noticeably become less salty to depths of 1,000 to 4,000 meters.
This is the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era
of modern instruments.
At present the influx of fresher water has been distributed
throughout the water column. But at some point, fresh water
may begin to pile up at the surface of the North Atlantic. When
that occurs, the Conveyor could slow down or cease operating.
Signs of a possible slowdown already exist. A 2001 report in
Nature indicates that the flow of cold, dense water from the Nor-
wegian and Greenland Seas into the North Atlantic has dimin-
ished by at least 20 percent since 1950.5
At what threshold will the Conveyor cease?
The short answer is: We do not know. Nor have scientists
determined the relative contributions of a variety of sources that
may be adding fresh water to the North Atlantic. Among the
suspects are melting glaciers or Arctic sea ice, or increased pre-
cipitation falling directly into the ocean or entering via the great
R.B.Alley,fromTheTwo-MileTimeMachine,2000
A Long Record of Abrupt Climate Changes
Ice cores extracted from the two-mile-thick Greenland ice sheet pre-
serve records of ancient air temperatures. The records show several
times when climate shifted in time spans as short as a decade.
• The Younger Dryas—About 12,700 years ago, average tempera-
tures in the North Atlantic region abruptly plummeted nearly 5°C
and remained that way for 1,300 years before rapidly warming again.
• The 8,200-Year Event—A similar abrupt cooling occurred 8,200
years ago. It was not so severe and lasted only about a century. But if
a similar cooling event occurred today, it would be catastrophic.
•The Medieval Warm Period—An abrupt warming took place about
1,000 years ago. It was not nearly so dramatic as past events, but it
nevertheless allowed the Norse to establish settlements in Greenland.
• The Little Ice Age—The Norse abandoned their Greenland settle-
ments when the climate turned abruptly colder 700 years ago. Be-
tween 1300 and 1850, severe winters had profound agricultural,
economic, and political impacts in Europe.
6. 10 11
rents is critical for observing Conveyor behavior, but it is more
difficult. Efforts have just begun to measure deep ocean water
properties and currents at strategic locations with long-term
moored buoy arrays, but vast ocean voids remain unmonitored.
New ocean-based instruments also offer the potential to re-
veal the ocean’s essential, but poorly understood, role in the hy-
drological cycle—which establishes global rainfall and snowfall
patterns. Global warming affects the hydrological cycle because
a warmer atmosphere carries more water. This, in turn, has im-
plications for greenhouse warming, since water vapor itself is
the most abundant, and often overlooked, greenhouse gas.
What can the past teach us about the future?
Revealing the past behavior of Earth’s climate system pro-
vides powerful insight into what it may do in the future. Geo-
logical records confirm the potential for abrupt thermohaline-
induced climate transitions that would generate severe winters
in the North Atlantic region. A bad winter or two brings incon-
venience that societies can adapt to with small, temporary ad-
justments. But a persistent string of severe winters, lasting de-
cades to a century, can cause glaciers to advance, rivers to freeze,
and sea ice to grow and spread. It can render prime agricultural
lands unfarmable.
About 12,700 years ago, as Earth emerged from the most re-
cent ice age and began to warm, the Conveyor was disrupted.
Within a decade, average temperatures in the North Atlantic
region plummeted nearly 5° Celsius.
This cold period, known as the Younger Dryas, lasted 1,300
years. It is named after an Arctic wildflower. Scientists have found
substantial evidence that cold-loving dryas plants thrived during
this era in European and US regions that today are too warm.
Deep-sea sediment cores show that icebergs extended as far south
as the coast of Portugal. The Younger Dryas ended as abruptly
as it began. Within a decade, North Atlantic waters and the re-
gional climate warmed again to pre-Younger Dryas levels.
A similar cooling occurred 8,200 years ago. It lasted only about
a century—a blip in geological time, but a catastrophe if such a
cooling occurred today.
Are ‘little ice ages’ and ‘megadroughts’ possible?
Scientists are investigating whether changes in ocean circu-
lation may have played a role in causing or amplifying the “Little
Ice Age” between 1300 and 1850. This period of abruptly shift-
ing climate regimes and more severe winters had profound agri-
cultural, economic, and political impacts in Europe and North
America and changed the course of history.
During this era, the Norse abruptly abandoned their settle-
ments in Greenland. The era is captured in the frozen landscapes
Rapid changes in ocean circulation are
linked to an abrupt climate change 8,200
years ago that had global effects. Some
regions turned significantly colder while
others experienced widespread drought.
R.B.Alley,etal.,inGeology,1997
8,200 Years Ago—An Abruptly Colder, Drier Earth
7. 12 13
of Pieter Bruegel’s 16th-century paintings and in the famous paint-
ing of George Washington’s 1776 crossing of an icebound Dela-
ware River, which rarely freezes today. But the era is also marked
by persistent crop failures, famine, disease, and mass migrations.
“The Little Ice Age,” wrote one historian, “is a chronicle of hu-
man vulnerability in the face of sudden climate change.”8
Societies are similarly vulnerable to abrupt climate changes
that can turn a year or two of diminished rainfall into prolonged,
severe, widespread droughts. A growing body of evidence from
joint archaeological and paleoclimatological studies is demon-
strating linkages among ocean-related climate shifts, “mega-
droughts,” and precipitous collapses of civilizations, including
the Akkadian empire in Mesopotamia 4,200 years ago, the Mayan
empire in central America 1,500 years ago, and the Anasazi in
the American Southwest in the late 13th century.9
Rapid changes in ocean circulation associated with the abrupt
North Atlantic cooling event 8,200 years ago have been linked
with simultaneous, widespread drying in the American West,
Africa, and Asia.10 Regional cooling events also have been linked
with changes in the Southwest Asian monsoon, whose rains are
probably the most critical factor supporting civilizations from
Africa to India to China.11
What future climate scenarios should we consider?
The debate on global change has largely failed to factor in
the inherently chaotic, sensitively balanced, and threshold-laden
nature of Earth’s climate system and the increased likelihood of
abrupt climate change. Our current speculations about future cli-
mate and its impacts have focused on the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, which has forecast gradual global warming
of 1.4° to 5.8° Celsius over the next century.
It is prudent to superimpose on this forecast the potential for
abrupt climate change induced by thermohaline shutdown. Such
a change could cool down selective areas of the globe by 3° to
5° Celsius, while simultaneously causing drought in many parts
of the world. These climate changes would occur quickly, even
as other regions continue to warm slowly. It is critical to con-
sider the economic and political ramifications of this geographi-
cally selective climate change. Specifically, the region most af-
fected by a shutdown—the countries bordering the North At-
lantic—is also one of the world’s most developed.
The key component of this analysis is when a shutdown of the
Conveyor occurs. Two scenarios are useful to contemplate:
Scenario 1: Conveyor slows down within next two decades.
Such a scenario could quickly and markedly cool the North At-
lanticregion,causingdisruptionsinglobaleconomicactivity.These
disruptions may be exacerbated because the climate changes oc-
cur in a direction opposite to what is commonly expected, and
they occur at a pace that makes adaptation difficult.
Scenario 2: Conveyor slows down a century from now.
In such a scenario, cooling of the North Atlantic region may
partially or totally offset the major effects of global warming in
this region. Thus, the climate of the North Atlantic region may
rapidly return to one that more resembles today’s—even as other
parts of the world, particularly less-developed regions, experi-
ence the unmitigated brunt of global warming. If the Conveyor
subsequently turns on again, the “deferred” warming may be de-
livered in a decade.
What can we do to improve our future security?
Ignoring or downplaying the probability of abrupt climate
change could prove costly. Ecosystems, economies, and societies
can adapt more easily to gradual, anticipated changes. Some cur-
rent policies and practices may be ill-advised and may prove in-
adequate in a world of rapid and unforeseen climate change. The
challenge to world leaders is to reduce vulnerabilities by enhanc-
ing society’s ability to monitor, plan for, and adapt to rapid change.
All human endeavor hinges on the vicissitudes of climate.
Thus, the potential for abrupt climate change should prompt us
to re-examine possible impacts on many climate-affected sec-
tors. They include: agriculture; water resources; energy resources;
forest and timber management; fisheries; coastal land manage-
ment; transportation; insurance; recreation and tourism; disaster
relief; and public health (associated with climate-related, vec-
tor-borne diseases such as malaria and cholera).
Developing countries lacking scientific resources and eco-
nomic infrastructures are especially vulnerable to the social and
economic impacts of abrupt climate change. However, with grow-
ing globalization of economies, adverse impacts (although likely
to vary from region to region) are likely to spill across national
boundaries, through human and biotic migration, economic
shocks, and political aftershocks, the National Academy of Sci-
ences (NAS) report stated.
The key is to reduce our uncertainty about future climate
change, and to improve our ability to predict what could hap-
pen and when. A first step is to establish the oceanic equivalent
of our land-based meteorological instrument network. Such a
network would begin to reveal climate-influencing oceanic pro-
cesses that have been beyond our ability to grasp. These instru-
ments, monitoring critical present-day conditions, can be coupled
with enhanced computer modeling, which can project how Earth’s
climate system may react in the future. Considerably more re-
search is also required to learn more about the complex ocean-
air processes that induced rapid climate changes in the past, and
thus how our climate system may behave in the future.
The NAS report is titled Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Sur-
prises. Climate change may be inevitable. But it is not inevitable
for society to be surprised or ill-prepared.
8. 14 15
ROBERT B. GAGOSIAN is Presi-
dent and Director of Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution
in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
He was appointed Director in
1994 and President in 2001, fol-
lowing a distinguished career as
a marine geochemist. He has
served as Chairman of the Board
of Governors for the 52-institu-
tion Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education and
as a member of the Ocean Research Advisory Panel of the US
National Oceanographic Partnership Program. In 2002, he was
appointed to the Science Advisory Panel of the US Commission
on Ocean Policy and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Science Advisory Board, and was elected a Fel-
low of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
References:
1 ”Are We on the Brink of a New Little Ice Age?”—testimony to the
US Commission on Ocean Policy, September 25, 2002, by T. Joyce
and L. Keigwin (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution).
2 Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises, US National Academy of
Sciences, National Research Council Committee on Abrupt Cli-
mate Change, National Academy Press, 2002.
3 “Thermohaline Circulation, the Achilles’ Heel of Our Climate Sys-
tem: Will Man-Made CO2 Upset the Current Balance?” in Science,
Vol. 278, November 28, 1997, by W. S. Broecker (Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory, Columbia University).
4 “Rapid Freshening of the Deep North Atlantic Ocean Over the
Past Four Decades,” in Nature, Vol. 416, April 25, 2002, by B.
Dickson (Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Sci-
ence, Lowestoft, UK), I. Yashayaev, J. Meincke, B. Turrell, S. Dye,
and J. Hoffort.
5 “Decreasing Overflow from the Nordic Seas into the Atlantic Ocean
Through the Faroe Bank Channel Since 1950,” in Nature, Vol. 411,
June 21, 2001, by B. Hansen (Faroe Fisheries Laboratory, Faroe Is-
lands), W. Turrell, and S. Østerhus.
6 “Increasing River Discharge to the Arctic Ocean,” in Science, Vol.
298, December 13, 2002, by B. J. Peterson (Marine Biological Labo-
ratory), R. M. Holmes, J. W. McClelland, C. J. Vörösmarty, R. B.
Lammers, A. I. Shiklomanov, I. A. Shiklomanov, and S. Rahmstorf.
7 “Ocean Observatories,” in Oceanus, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2000, published
by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
8 The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850, by Brian Fagan
(University of California, Santa Barbara), Basic Books, 2000.
9 “Cultural Responses to Climate Change During the Late Holocene,”
in Science, Vol. 292, April 27, 2001, by P. B. deMenocal (Lamont-
Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University).
10 “Holocene Climate Instability: A Prominent, Widespread Event
8,200 Years Ago,” in Geology, Vol. 26, No. 6, 1997, by R. B. Alley
and T. Sowers (Pennsylvania State University), P. A. Mayewski, M.
Stuiver, K. C. Taylor, and P. U. Clark.
11 “A High-Resolution Absolute-Dated Late Pleistocene Monsoon
Record From Hulu Cave, China,” in Science, Vol. 294, December 14,
2001, by Y. J. Wang (Nanjing Normal University, China), H. Cheng,
R. L. Edwards, Z. S. An, J. Y. Wu, C. C. Shen, and J. A. Dorale.
WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION (WHOI) is a pri-
vate, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated
to the study of all aspects of marine science and to the education
of marine scientists. It is the largest independent oceanographic
research institution in the US, with staff and students number-
ing about 1,000.
In an atmosphere that nurtures discovery, WHOI scientists,
engineers, and students collaborate to explore the frontiers of
knowledge about planet Earth. They develop theories, test ideas,
build seagoing instruments, and collect data in hostile marine
environments. Their diverse research agenda includes geologi-
cal activity deep within the earth; plant, animal, and microbial
populations and their interactions in the oceans; coastal erosion;
ocean circulation; pollution control; and global climate change.
The WHOI fleet includes three large research vessels (R/V
Atlantis, R/V Knorr, and R/V Oceanus), coastal craft, remote and
autonomous vehicles, and the deep-diving human-occupied sub-
mersible Alvin. The WHOI annual operating budget of more than
$120 million is supported by grants from federal agencies, in-
cluding the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval
Research, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration, and by private contributions and endowment income.
TomKleindinst,WHOIGraphicServices