1. A sample student project by Kyle Thompson EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE USING ICE CORE DATA

2. How do we know climate before humans? Oxygen generally has 8 protons and 8 neutrons giving it an atomic mass of 16 amu. However, isotopes of oxygen also exist giving oxygen 10 neutrons and a mass of 18 amu. The ocean absorbs many of these isotopes Which do you think evaporates easier, O-16 or O-18?

3. Lighter masses are easier to evaporate, so O-16 evaporates quicker. This means that in cooler times, less O-18 evaporates. In Warmer times, More O-18 evaporates. By looking at ratios of O-16 and O-18 in ice core samples, scientists can determine what the temperatures were during the time. They compare these temperatures to ones discovered as early as the 1980’s when we actually have temperature records!

4. So What’s The verdict? Using the previous knowledge and applying the law of uniformitarianism, scientists were able to show this models using ice core records: Uniformitarianism – Using the present to interpret the past

5. At the top, this is the concentration of carbon dioxide discovered in ice core records At the bottom, this is the temperature interpretation based on oxygen isotope ratios Notice how the amount of carbon dioxide and the temperature correlate extremely close.

6. As you can see, the climate can change by about 11 0 C during certain times. The low points are glacial periods and the high points are interglacial (or little ice) periods Scientists believe that the drastic change in temperature in the interglacial periods is accelerated by the unusually high amounts of carbon dioxide in the air.

7. This is a current day model with blue being carbon dioxide As of March 2013, the current carbon dioxide level is 396.8 ppm Using this graph as showing each box being 10,000 years, we really don’t know exactly how temperature will react to this sudden burst, but consensus among climate scientists suggest that our climate will change drastically

8. EVIDENCE

9. Glacial ice in the Arctic is completely disappearing over less than 100 years

10. From 2000 to 2012, 10 years ranked in the top 15 busiest hurricane seasons, which includes 2005’s hurricane Katrina at #1 and 2012’s hurricane Sandy at #3

11. From 2000 to 2012, 9 of the years were ranked the 10 hottest years on record with 2010 being the hottest. #3 was 1998.

12. So What Now? With evidence presented by scientists, we should be easily ready to accept the climate is changing We know there are natural ways for climate to change, but it’s undeniable that human activity is probably accelerating the process even though we haven’t felt the effects of it at this point. Much of this human activity is due to burning of fossil fuels which are unrenewable resources for humans. So what can I do as an individual to help curb climate change?

13. ACTION PLAN

14. My Plan My plan is (and has been) to ride my bike to work instead of driving. It basically takes five minutes longer to ride every day! I ride five miles to work (school) and five miles back for a total of 10 miles per day for 191 days. My car gets 27 miles per gallon in the city. My goal is to see how many kg of carbon dioxide I save, and how much everyone would save if they did the same thing!

15. Using previous knowledge From a past module, I know that 1 gallon of gasoline releases 9000g of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So in a school year, I ride 191 days for 10 miles for a total of 1910 miles. If I divide 1910 by 27 (my miles per gallon), I would use 70.7 gallons of gas per year if I drove my car. Taking 70.7 gallons x 9000g/gallon, that would be 636300 g or 636.3 kg of carbon dioxide One human weights about 70 kg, so that’s the amount of just over 9 humans worth of carbon dioxide saved every year!

16. What about the world? Let’s assume that ½ of the population commutes 10 miles a day to and from work. This is 3.5 billion people. From my previous calculation, I use 636.3 kg of carbon dioxide every year. Taking this number times 3500000000, this is 2227050000000 kg of carbon dioxide or 1010000000 metric tons. Think of the impacts if everyone rode to work every day using this assumption!

17. A suggested world goal What if 10% of people biked to work instead of driving, even only on warm and sunny days? The amount of dirty and unrenewable resources would be reduced allowing us to live a cleaner life. This would be a starting point for humans, but the implications could go much farther!

18. Works Cited Atkins, N. (1998). Determining past climate change - oxygen isotopes. Retrieved from http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met130/notes/chapter16/isotope.html British Antarctic Survey. (2012). Ice cores and climate change. Retrieved from http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/bas_research/science_briefings/icecorebriefing.p hp CSI: South Florida. (2013). The oxygen isotope ratio. Retrieved from http://131.91.162.18/nasa/module-3/how-is-temperature-measured/isotopes Institute of the Environment. (2013). Past and present climate change. Retrieved from http://www.southwestclimatechange.org/climate/global/past- present TPM Media LLC. (2013). Graphic: The top 10 warmest years on record. Retrieved from http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/graphic-top-10-warmest- years-on-record Weather Underground, Inc. (2013). Busiest atlantic hurricane seasons on record. Retrieved from http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/top10.asp Wiscombe, W. (2013). Paleoclimatology: The oxygen balance. Retrieved from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_OxygenBalance/