State of Science (Week 1)- Post 1


State of Science (Week 1 Notes)


Our observations of climate science have shown us scientific evidence like:

·         Global average surface temperature has increased

·         Atmospheric co2 have increased

·         Sea Ice Extent have decreased

·         Sea Levels have increased

·         Summertime temp. Anomalies (Average summer temp from 1951-1080

·         Air bubbles trapped in ice let us measure air qualities at different times in history

·         Co2- absorbs and emits infrared radiation coming from earth's surface

·         Increased co2 in our atmosphere sets off feedback in other parts of the climate system. Water vapor and sea ice

·         Different studies from different scientists may vary but the central theme comes out at 3 degrees increase per each doubling of co2 concentrations. This estimate has not changed very much over time

·         History of the scientific consensus on climate change

·         The climate scientist consensus view is that global temps are rising and human activities are largely responsible is strong, and that is because scientific evidence is strong.

Climate Literacy The Essential Principles of Climate Science https://downloads.globalchange.gov/Literacy/climate_literacy_highres_english.pdf


Notes:

·         The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) attributes humanity’s global warming influence primarily to the increase in three key heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide

·         Such understanding [Climate Science Literacy] improves our ability to make decisions about activities that increase vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and to take precautionary steps in our lives and livelihoods that would reduce those vulnerabilities.


Peer Review Process:

The scientific community uses a highly formalized version of peer review to validate research results and our understanding of their significance…Through this process, only those concepts that have been described through well-documented research and subjected to the scrutiny of other experts in the field become published papers in science journals and accepted as current science knowledge.


CLIMATE SCIENCE LITERACY IS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE CLIMATE’S INFLUENCE ON YOU AND SOCIETY AND YOUR INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE.

·         Climate model projections suggest that negative effects of climate change will significantly outweigh positive ones. The nation’s ability to prepare for and adapt to new conditions may be exceeded as there are of climate change increases.

·         When Earth emits the same amount of energy as it absorbs, its energy budget is in balance, and it average temperature remains stable

·         The interconnectedness of Earth’s systems means that a significant change in any one component of the climate system can influence the equilibrium of the entire Earth system. Positive feedback loops can amplify these effects and trigger abrupt changes in the climate system. These complex interactions may result in climate change that is more rapid and on a larger scale than projected by current climate models

·         Life—including microbes, plants, and animals and humans—is a major driver of the global carbon cycle and can influence global climate by modifying the chemical makeup of the atmosphere. The geologic record shows that life has significantly altered the atmosphere during Earth’s history

·         Climate is not the same thing as weather. Weather is the minute-by-minute variable condition of the atmosphere on a local scale. climate is a conceptual description of an area’s average weather conditions and the extent to which those conditions vary over long-time intervals.

·         Climate change is a significant and persistent change in an area’s average climate conditions or their extremes. Seasonal variations and multi-year cycles (for example, the El Niño Southern Oscillation) that produce warm, cool, wet, or dry periods across different regions are a natural part of climate variability. They do not represent climate change.

·         Natural processes that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere operate slowly when compared to the processes that are now adding it to the atmosphere. Thus, carbon dioxide introduced into the atmosphere today may remain there for a century or more. Other greenhouse gases, including some created by humans, may remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years

·         Scientists’ ability to predict climate patterns months, years, or decades into the future is constrained by different limitations than those faced by meteorologists in forecasting weather days to weeks into the future

·         Human activities have affected the land, oceans, and atmosphere, and these changes have altered global climate patterns. burning fossil fuels, releasing chemicals into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of forest cover, and rapid expansion of farming, development, and industrial activities are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and changing the balance of the climate system.

·         Scientists and economists predict that there will be both positive and negative impacts from global climate change. If warming exceeds 2 to 3°c (3.6 to 5.4°F) over the next century, the consequences of the negative impacts are likely to be much greater than the consequences of the positive impacts

Important Terms:

·         Climate System: The matter, energy, and processes involved in interactions among Earth’s atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, and Earth-Sun interactions

·         Mitigation: Human interventions to reduce the sources of greenhouse gases or enhance the sinks that remove them from the atmosphere

·         Carbon Cycle - circulation of carbon atoms through the Earth systems because of photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide into complex organic compounds by plants, which are consumed by other organisms, and return of the carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide as a result of respiration, decay of organisms, and combustion of fossil fuels.

·         Circulation of carbon atoms through the Earth systems because of photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide into complex organic compounds by plants, which are consumed by other organisms, and return of the carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide as a result of respiration, decay of organisms, and combustion of fossil fuels.


Understanding Climate Change, Science, Policy, and Practice 


Notes:

·         All around us we see evidence of the human impact on climate, with serious implications for environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

·         Communicating the need to address climate change requires an understanding of the key stakeholder groups at play: the public, government, industry, scientists, and civil society.

·         Tackling the climate change challenge requires the creation of a compelling vision of a desirable future, not just recapturing a mythical past or “tinkering around the edges” of our current development path.

·         International climate change policy has been dominated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

·         Humans can respond to climate change either through mitigation (dealing with the causes) or adaptation (dealing with the effects).More data or science alone will not change individual behavior, but they are crucial for evidence-based decision-making

Comments

  1. Ms. DunleyFebruary 1, 2018 at 11:08 AM

    Much better spacing. We have learned the lesson to take the notes and put them in word first to organize them. We need to select Georgia as the font and the size should be 12. It is important to also rework the bullet points once you have done those two changes.

    ReplyDelete

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