climate change and its impact on life. making a distinction… weather is….climate is…
TRANSCRIPT
Climate Change and its Impact Climate Change and its Impact on Lifeon Life
Making a distinction…Making a distinction…
Weather is…. Climate is….
What evidence do we have for the What evidence do we have for the climate record?climate record?
Climate Proxy Climate Proxy
• Indirect sources of climate information from natural archives
• Tree Rings• Ice cores• Cave Deposits• Lake and Ocean Sediments• Tree Pollen• Historical Records
The Ice Core AnalogyThe Ice Core Analogy
• In your group
• 4 bags of Malvaviscos (Marshmallows) of 4 different colors
• Each color is a season for snowfall – White – Winter, Green – Spring, Yellow – Summer, Pink – Fall
• One person for each season, one person to be a volcano, one person to be a timer and pusher
Antarctica from spaceAntarctica from space
AntarcticaAntarctica
Antarctica is covered by iceAntarctica is covered by ice
How snow is squeezed into iceHow snow is squeezed into ice
How an ice sheet is madeHow an ice sheet is made
Antarctic iceAntarctic ice
How thick is this ice sheet?How thick is this ice sheet?
Layered iceLayered ice
The ice core drill rigThe ice core drill rig
The ice coreThe ice core
Handling ice coresHandling ice cores
Studying ice coresStudying ice cores
Layers in ice coresLayers in ice cores
Ice core sites in AntarcticaIce core sites in Antarctica
Vostok
Vostok ice core temperature difference from today
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
0 100 200 300 400Thousands of years before today
Te
mp
era
ture
dif
fere
nc
e (
de
gre
es
F
ah
ren
he
it)
?
Vostok ice core temperature difference from today
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
0 100 200 300 400
Thousands of years before today
Tem
pe
ratu
re d
iffe
ren
ce
(d
eg
ree
s F
ah
ren
he
it)
http://aim.hamptonu.edu/library/gallery/gal-sci.html
What might cause thisWhat might cause this
Natural Human Induced
What might cause thisWhat might cause this
Natural Human Induced
Source: IPCC, 2001
Possible futures - temperaturePossible futures - temperature
Source: IPCC, 2001
CO
2 Con
cen
trat
ion
(p
pm
v)
Projected levels of atmospheric COProjected levels of atmospheric CO22 during the next 100 years would be higher during the next 100 years would be higher than at anytime in the last 440,000 yrsthan at anytime in the last 440,000 yrs
Source: IPCC, 2001