Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "The Discovery of Global Warming"
Weather, Climate Change, and the Necessity of New Thinking
Climate change poses humanity with the sort of problem it has not evolved to handle. This is the result of several factors in our evolutionary history, deriving from the very different world our pre-historic ancestors inhabited. The early days of our species were fraught with immediate physical perils, such as the scarcity of food sources, constant threats from wild animals, the lack of shelter, and so forth. All of these problems require attention in the present; otherwise, one would starve, be eaten, freeze, etc. So harsh was this early human existence that it left little time for thinking about anything else – like the future, the long run. Hence, focusing on the present at the expense of the future provided a survival advantage. And this short-sightedness was relatively harmless, for … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Summer Reading Responses, Weather
New England weather is fickle, but to this extent?
As early as the 1930s, the person on the street was discussing how “the weather wasn’t what it used to be.” How is your personal experience with the weather congruent or incongruent with what climate scientists are telling us? Memories of the storms and extreme weather of our childhood are always exaggerated. Yet in my short 21 years living, I believe that we can see the difference in weather from previous years and decades that scientists have predicted. Just looking at the weather of the east coast of the United States over the past years, shows that we truly are in times of change. The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart highlights the seemingly contrasting changes I have noticed in the weather and storms throughout my childhood. The most basic … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
Evidence of Anthropogenic Warming
Referring to figure 3 on page 182 in Weart, how would you argue that we have entered a time of anthropogenic warming? If you had been living in the 16th to 19th centuries and had the data of figure 3 to that point in time how would you argue the possibility of climate change? Extrapolating a story from climate change data is difficult because there is a great deal of variability involved. Weather and temperature change constantly so exact numbers often fade to averages and estimates. The further back in history one explores, the more uncertainty there will be simply because of less technology and attention paid to the subject. However, through ice, pollen, soil, and fossil samples, scientists have pieced together the story of earth’s climate. The graph on page … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Summer Reading Responses
Seeing is Believing
Although the scientific discovery of anthropogenic caused global warming has been accepted by the vast majority of the scientific community, there are some knowledge gaps which make climate change difficult for the average person to accept and believe. One of these confusions comes from the misunderstanding of the difference between climate and weather. It can be easy for someone to believe in global warming when there are record breaking heat waves in their town or state. At the same time, an unusually cold winter or bad blizzard can give skeptics the “proof” they need to say it doesn’t exist. However, these examples can neither prove, nor disprove, global warming. These seasonal variations are examples of weather, not climate. It is true that one aspect of climate change will mean greater variability … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
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