Helen Walters of TED had some questions that were worth asking. The main question she asked was “How do you solve a problem like the climate crisis?” However, the real question is how does one truly understand the earth’s climate when there is just more than a few factors involved?
Well, according to climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, climate modeling is “The discipline that synthesizes data from multiple sources, including satellites, weather stations, even from people camping in the Arctic and submitting measurements of the ice they see around them.” Basically, it is the consolidation of data from all over that helps us understand what goes on. It helps us see the big picture. He provided us with four silent animations that show what is really going on with our climate. The links are listed below.
Cloud patterns over North America
Watch particles swirl in the atmosphere
Real vs. prediction: Watch the world’s climate change throughout the 20th century
3 ways the climate might look in the future
I really liked the analogy of looking at the climate as a jigsaw puzzle that needs to be completed. That was very clever! You need all the puzzle pieces to complete it just like we need to know all the factors involved in the climate to fully understand it. Without the big picture, it is harder to put the puzzle pieces together.
The videos from Gavin Schmidt showing observed changes in climate compared to model simulations for the past century, and of projected future changes for different scenarios of actions to mitigate GHG emissions are excellent! Thanks for adding these to the blog.