Global climate change .

1. Global Climate Change

3. Global Climate Change
• Identifiable change in the climate of
Earth as a whole that lasts for an
extended period of time (decades or
longer)
– When due to natural processes, it is usually
referred to as global climate variability
– Usually refers to changes forced by human
activities that change the atmosphere

4. What causes Earth’s
climate to change?
 Changes in the atmosphere
 Natural processes
 Volcanoes
 Tectonic plate movement
 Changes in the sun
 Human activities – any activity that releases
“greenhouse gases” into the atmosphere

5. What are
greenhouse gases?
Any gases that cause the “greenhouse
effect!”
Imagine… a car on a cool but sunny day…

9. Research
• Almost 1000 studies
dealing with different
aspects of climate change
have been conducted and
published
• So… how do we make
sense of all this?

10. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
 Why was it
created?
 Created in 1988 by
the United Nations
Environmental
Program
 Established to
provide policy-
makers with an
objective source of
information about
climate change

11. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
 Who is it?
 Governments
 Members of the UN
 Participate by naming
experts and reviewing the
reports before they’re
published
 Scientists
 Close to 1000 scientists
 Climatologists, ecologists,
atmospheric physicists, and
others
Dr. Susan Solomon, a NOAA atmospheric chemist,
an IPCC member and one author of IPCC summary

12. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC)
 What do they do?
 Review current scientific and technical
literature relevant to global climate change
 Provide reports on their findings at regular
intervals
 Reports are designed to be politically
neutral and of high scientific and technical
standards

13. How do they create their
reports?
It’s a multi-step process…

15. IPCC – Words Used in Reports
 When they discuss data:
 Very high confidence to very low
confidence that the data is accurate
 When they discuss the likelihood of
something occurring:
 Virtually certain to exceptionally unlikely

17. Observed
Changes and Effects

18. Warming of Climate
• Warming of the climate is definitely
occurring and can be observed by the:
– Increases in global sea and air temperatures
– Widespread melting of snow and ice
– Rising global sea level

20. Temperature Change Data
1880-1884

21. 1880-18841886-1890

22. 1896-1900

23. 1906-1910

24. 1916-1920

25. 1926-1930

26. 1936-1940

27. 1946-1950

28. 1956-1960

29. 1966-1970

30. 1976-1980

31. 1986-1990

32. 1996-2000

33. 2003-2007

34. Other Observed Changes and Effects
• 89% of current changes in ecosystems are
consistent with changes expected due to global
climate change
• Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide
levels in atmosphere have increased greatly due
to human activities since 1750 and now far
exceed previous levels
• Carbon dioxide has increased by approximately
80% since 1970

35. Other Observed Changes and Effects
• 89% of current changes in ecosystems are
consistent with changes expected due to global
climate change
• Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide
levels in atmosphere have increased greatly due
to human activities since 1750 and now far
exceed previous levels
• Carbon dioxide has increased by approximately
80% since 1970

36. Human-Produced Greenhouse Gas Levels

37. Causes of Change

38. Most of the observed increase in
global average temperature since the
mid-20th century is very likely due to
the observed increase in human-
caused greenhouse gas
concentrations and human influences
have very likely contributed to sea
level rise, too.

40. • Warming and sea level rise will
continue and will probably occur more
quickly than what we’ve already seen
• Even if greenhouse gases are stabilized,
this will probably continue to occur for
centuries
• Some effects may be permanent

41. • Effects on Ecosystems
–Coral systems cannot handle higher
temperatures well
–Wildfires will increase
–Up to 30% of species will be at increased
risk for extinction due to the rapid
changes in their ecosystems

42. • Effects in North America
–Warming in western mountains: several
effects
–Increased rain: will actually help some crops
–Heat waves will increase in number, length,
and intensity
–Coastal communities will be affected by
increased flooding and storms

44. There are several types of options…
• Reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
• Attempt to develop alternatives energies
• Allow emission to continue, but prepare for
global climate changes
• Allow emissions to continue as normal and
leave preparations up to individual countries
• Combine any of these ideas
• Come up with your own unique plan!

45. References
• IPCC Summary Report for Policy Makers. November 2007
• "About IPCC." IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. 20 Apr. 2009
<http://www.ipcc.ch/about/index.htm>.
• "Climate Change | U.S. EPA." U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. 20 Apr. 2009
<http://epa.gov/climatechange/index.html>.
• Rischard, J. F. High noon twenty global problems, twenty
years to solve them. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
• "SVS Animations." NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization
Studio. 20 Apr. 2009
<http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003400/a003490/ind
ex.html>.