Lecture
Click for a larger image. A similar graph to data presented in your textbook, this graph shows the change in Earth's average temperature compared to the average between 1960-1990 (ATOM Education Shop)."Climate change" is the favored term by scientists over global warming---as the increase in earth's temperature is not a problem (it has been much hotter in the past)---but the sudden change in climate that can be disastrous. In this lecture, we will take a look at the past, present, and future of climate on Earth. Unfortunately, Earth’s climate is complex, and the forecast is not as simply as “Cloudy with a 30% chance of rain with a high of 68 degrees”
- Past: What is global climate, and how has climate changed in the past?
- Present: What is happening to climate, what is the debate, what is causing the changes?
- Future: What problems could global warming cause, what can humans do to curtail or deal with global warming?
Within climate change, we’ll review the ideas behind the scientific method, and look at what happens when science and politics mixes together.
Before you start reading, keep this in mind: governments and industry are already allocating provisions and resources (that is, spending money) to understand how Global Climate Change will affect the political stability of the world and the stability of local and world economies. They are all working on contingency plans. Why do you think that is? (You don’t need to read the entire reports; they are listed here if you’d like to read exactly what they say about Global Climate Change’s affects on political and economic stability.)
- The US Department of Defense recently wrote a report assessing the geopolitical consequences of abrupt climate change impacts, including drought, famine and severe storms, along with drastic cooling in some regions. The risk of climate change is significant enough to warrant planning for the instability and war that may result. (Click here to see actual report.)
- Major insurers are demanding more research and preventative measure be put in place to understand or prevent global warming. They fear the consequences of global warming will lead to a significant increase in losses due to weather related damage. (Click here to see the entire report; note: this is a 7 mb file).
- Many major company CEOs and shareholders are demanding they account for climate change in their business plans. One of the early leaders was Cinergy (now Duke Energy--click for information) which in 2005 called for regulation of the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.