3. Questions I hope to answer…
1. What is the difference between the greenhouse
effect, climate change and global warming?
2. What proof do we have that climate change is
happening?
3. Why is it happening?
4. The Greenhouse Effect
The Earth is
surrounded by a
thin layer of gasses
we call greenhouse
gases. These
gases are what
make up our
atmosphere.
Source: NASA
7. The thickness of the atmosphere and the
concentration of its gases influence the surface
temperature on any planet.
Source: Will Steger Foundation, Elizabeth Andre
9. What does “average” mean?
• Climate is the average
weather conditions
over time.
• Global warming refers
to an increase in the
Earth’s average
temperature.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dragons_flight
15. Source: Church, J.A. and White, N.J. (2006). A 20th century acceleration
in global sea-level rise. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L01602
16. Climate Change in the Midwest
• Temperatures are rising, especially in winter.
• Extreme rainfall events (24-hr and 7-day) are
more frequent.
• Winters are shorter.
• Lake ice melts earlier, especially
on smaller lakes.
Source: Great Lakes Report, Union of Concerned Scientists
18. CO2 and the Industrial Revolution
Source: TP Whorf Scripps, Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California La Jolla, California, United States, 1999
20. Credits
Thank you to the National Wildlife Federation for giving permission to
use slides from Climate Classroom.
Hickey, Laura. (2007). Whats up with global warming? Retrieved,
October 10, 2007, from www.climateclassroom.org, www.nwf.org.
The Great Lakes report, as well as other regional reports, can be
downloaded from the Union of Concerned Scientist website at:
http://www.ucsusa.org/greatlakes/glchallengereport.html
Editor's Notes
Significant loss of glaciers in Central Asia began around the 1930s, and become more dramatic in the second half of the 20th century and continue into the 21st century. Glacier area was reduced in the Tien Shan and in the Pamirs, including its largest Fedchenko Glacier. The debris-covered glacier tongue retreated by more than 1 km since 1933 and lowered by about 50 m since 1980.
Coastal and island tide-gauge data show that sea level rose by just under 20 cm between 1870 and 2001, with an average rise of 1.7 mm per year during the 20th century and with an increase in the rate of rise over this period. This is consistent with the geological data and the few long records of sea level from coastal tide gauges. From 1993 to the end of 2006, near-global measurements of sea level (between 65｡N and 65｡S) made by high precision satellite altimeters indicate global average sea level has been rising at 3.1 ｱ 0.4 mm per year.
Brainstorm a list of how this might effect Minnesotans. Be sure to include wildlife, tourism/recreation, agriculture, and human health.
Atmospheric CO2 has increased from a pre-industrial concentration of about 280 ppmv to about 367 ppmv at present (ppmv= parts per million by volume). CO2 concentration data from before 1958 are from ice core measurements taken in Antarctica and from 1958 onwards are from the Mauna Loa measurement site. The smooth curve is based on a hundred year running mean. It is evident that the rapid increase in CO2 concentrations has been occurring since the onset of industrialization. The increase has closely followed the increase in CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.
