-
scientific evidence
-
physical principles
- established over 100 yrs ago
- GHGs trap heat, warm planet
- inc GHG -> inc global temp
-
record of distant past
- millions of years into past
- can't take stable climate for granted
-
great variation in climate over earths history
- 10 major ice age cycles in last million years
- climate sensitive to small external influences
- last few thousand years quite stable
-
measurements from recent past
- earth warming with increasing GHGs
- other environmental changes
- overall upward trend over last century clear
-
climate models
- warming will continue if GHGs not stabilised
-
avg temp inc on pre industrial
-
2C
- more heatwaves
- fewer cold spells
- altered rainfall patterns
- higher global rainfall
-
plant productivity changes
- higher in places
- lower in other areas
-
disturbance to ecosystems
- marine
- terrestrial
- biodiversity disturbances
- disruption to food production
- sea level rise
- decreased arctic ice cover
- some may be beneficial in some regions but overall negative effect on current society
-
7C
- all of the above but much larger scale
-
likely beyond adaptive capacity of
- societies
- species
-
uncertainties
- pricise change values not possible
- climate sensitive to small changes
- plausible range of values based on past climate change data
-
tipping points
- possible
- can't be predicted confidently
- change could be more or less severe than current estimates
-
What is CC?
-
climate
-
statistical descr of weather
- variations
- extremes
- averages
-
CC
- change in average over long period of time
- GHG important in determining climate and changes
-
climate change in distant past
- enormous variety
- sensitive to small influences
- evidence of abrupt shifts
-
climate change in recent past
-
avg temp increase
-
evidence
- temp gauges in oceans and air
-
trends
- sea levels
- glaciers
- ice caps
- water vapour content of air
- consistent with temp increase
- Subtopic 3
- Subtopic 2
-
caused by humans?
-
human activity increasing GHGs
- very likely the reason for most of recent temp changes
-
future climate evolution
- warming will continue if GHGs continue to risse
- significant warming 21st century and beyond
- reduction of GHG emissions could reduce future warming signigicantly
-
impacts of CC
- on society
- on environment
- direct impacts
- altering impacts of other stresses
-
how to deal with the uncertainty of the science
-
forecasts uncertain
- will remain this way
-
broad conclusions of science
- high degree of confidence in them
- based on many lines of evidence
-
considerations
- ethics
- economics
- risk management
- science