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Climate Change

Final lecture about climate, 27 April 2018: CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/Last-Lecture-Climate.pdf

Climate change notes: CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/ClimateChangeNotes.pdf (pdf file, 101.5 kb)

Climate change notes: CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/ClimateChangeNotes.doc (pdf file, 43 kb)

Study Questions about Climate and Energy: CroninProjects.org/Vince/Course/PhysGeol/ClimateEnergyQs.html

Reliable Sources of Climate Information

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), http://ipcc.ch
  • IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers, ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/AR5_SYR_FINAL_SPM.pdf
  • IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report, Synthesis Report, Full Report, ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full.pdf
    IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp.
• Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) overview, http://science2017.globalchange.gov
• NASA web resources about global climate change, https://climate.nasa.gov
• National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) web resources about climate and global climate change, https://www.climate.gov
  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Climate Information, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information/
  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) State of the Climate, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/
  • NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Global Climate Change Indicators, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/faq/indicators.php
• U.S. Global Change Research Program, https://www.globalchange.gov
• Current and past atmospheric concentration of CO2 gas in the atmosphere, measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, http://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/

Interesting article in the New York Times, 25 April 2018, by David Bornstein, entitled A Smorgasbord of Solutions for Global Warming, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/25/opinion/a-smorgasbord-of-solutions-for-global-warming.html

An interactive resource about sea-level rise, offered by the New York Times November 24, 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/24/opinion/sunday/what-could-disappear.html?_r=0

Highlights: Climate change impacts in the United States

U.S. National Climate Assessment, US Global Change Research Program (2017)

available via https://nca2014.globalchange.gov/downloads http://s3.amazonaws.com/nca2014/high/NCA3_Highlights_HighRes.pdf?download=1

Main Findings of the National Climate Assessment of 2017

1. Global climate is changing and this is apparent across the United States in a wide range of observations. The global warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels.
2. Some extreme weather and climate events have increased in recent decades, and new and stronger evidence confirms that some of these increases are related to human activities.
3. Human-induced climate change is projected to continue, and it will accelerate significantly if global emissions of heat-trapping gases continue to increase.
4. Impacts related to climate change are already evident in many sectors and are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond.
5. Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways, including through more extreme weather events and wildfire, decreased air quality, and diseases transmitted by insects, food, and water.
6. Infrastructure is being damaged by sea level rise, heavy downpours, and extreme heat; damages are projected to increase with continued climate change.
7. Water quality and water supply reliability are jeopardized by climate change in a variety of ways that affect ecosystems and livelihoods.
8. Climate disruptions to agriculture have been increasing and are projected to become more severe over this century.
9. Climate change poses particular threats to Indigenous Peoples' health, well-being, and ways of life.
10. Ecosystems and the benefits they provide to society are being affected by climate change. The capacity of ecosystems to buffer the impacts of extreme events like fires, floods, and severe storms is being overwhelmed.
11. Ocean waters are becoming warmer and more acidic, broadly affecting ocean circulation, chemistry, ecosystems, and marine life.
12. Planning for adaptation (to address and prepare for impacts) and mitigation (to reduce future climate change, for example by cutting emissions) is becoming more widespread, but current implementation efforts are insufficient to avoid increasingly negative social, environmental, and economic consequences.

Climate trends include the following:

• Increasing average temperature
• More frequent incidents of extreme weather
• Intensity, frequency, and duration of hurricanes
• More severe storms
• More precipitation in some areas, and less in others leading to drought conditions
• Increase in frequency and intensity of heavy downpours
• Longer frost-free season
• Increased ice melt
• Rising sea level
• Increase in ocean acidification

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