1. CLIMATE CHANGE

2. Earth’s Climate Has Undergone Many Changes
Warm
Cold
Icy
Not icy
Cambrian ‘explosion’ of life
Today

3. Currently in a warming period
Rate of warming is exceptional
Cause is too

4. Air Temps Vary, But The Trend Is Clear

5. Increasing Rates Of Warming
Compare line slope

6. Temperature is correlated with CO2

7. CO2 is a product of fossil fuel use
Temperature
Fossil Fuel use
Lagged means 25 time lag (time for atmospheric build up)

8. Compounding factor: permafrost methane
from the atmosphere. Methane's lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide (CO2), but CH4 is more efficient at trapping radiation than CO2. Pound for pound, the comparative impact of CH4 on climate change is over 20 times greater than CO2
Impact of CH4 is 20x that of CO2

9. Factoring in all predicted greenhouse
gas concentrations
The UN Climate Change Report (1/10)

10. RAMIFICATIONS OF WARMING

11. Warming Oceans

12. Coral reef bleaching
healthy
bleached

13. Reduced ice cover at the north pole

14. stampede risk to calves
Polar bear
more swimming
less hunting
Walruses were first spotted coming ashore in large numbers in In 2009, an estimated 3,000 walruses were seen; the number rose to 30,000 in 2011 and went back down to 10,000 in (Read "Ten Thousand Walruses Gather on Island as Sea Ice Shrinks.")
Scientists have seen large haul-outs on the Russian side of the Bering Strait for quite some time, says Anthony Fischbach, a wildlife biologist at the USGS in Anchorage. But since the first recordings of walrus gatherings in Alaska in the 1870s, groups of this size weren't observed until 2007, he said.
While it's not unusual for males to gather in large numbers on Alaska's shores, females typically prefer floating ice chunks as places to give birth, leaving calves on the ice when finding food.
walrus
larger haul-outs
stampede risk to calves

16. Corresponding change in sea level
Past 300 years
20th century

17. Low lying islands/coasts most vulnerable
Maldives – 450,000 people
The Maldives, consisting of over 1,100 islands to the west of India, is the world's lowest-lying nation. On average the islands are only 1.3 meters above sea level. The 325,000 (plus 100,000 expatriate workers who are not counted in the census) residents of the islands are threatened by rising sea levels.
11 islands that will disappear

18. Ocean Acidification
CO2 + H2O -> carbonic acid

20. Ecosystem Change both habitat & biota
Grinnell resurvey project
a century of change
Alpine chipmunk Neotamias alpinus

21. Shifts in climate zones, ecosystems
malaria parasite and vector expand range

22. pushed to highest alpine habitats gone from >33% habitat
Pika
pushed to highest alpine habitats
gone from >33% habitat
intolerant of heat
The tiny pika, a cousin of the rabbit that lives on mountain peaks in the western United States, is running out of options.
In fact, they have already disappeared from over one-third of their previously known habitat in Oregon and Nevada. Now, the situation is so dire that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering the pika for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Because these small mammals have adapted to cold alpine conditions, pikas are intolerant of high temperatures and can die from overheating when exposed for just a few hours.
Migratory birds

23. Increased extinctions
Golden Toad
Increased extinctions
EXTINCT: Golden toad (Bufo periglenes). Along with the Monteverde harlequin frog (Atelopus varius), also of Central America, the golden toad is among the very small number of species whose recent extinction has been attributed with medium confidence to climate change, according to Scholes and Pörtner. Last seen in 1989, the golden frog lived in mountaintop cloud forests that have disappeared due to drought and other climatic changes. Other confounding factors are involved, such as the deadly chytrid fungus, which has killed off many amphibians worldwide.

24. Despite the evidence not all are convinced
• International consensus
130 nations
• Scientific consensus
1250 scientists
• Extensive studies
12,000 papers
• Exhaustive peer review
90,000 comments
skeptical –> raise questions deny –> refuse
Author: The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. (2012)
US senator J. Imhofe, OK
Environmental and Public Works Committee

25. How to proceed? Opposing claims: • Global warming • No global warming
Opposing actions:
• act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
• take no action 1 3 4 2 1 3
Discuss/record on whiteboards the consequences of each pair 2 4

26. http://www. livescience. com/common/media/video/player. php
(6 min)
(6min)
Look for more at How Stuff Works
Sci Amer Frontiers
(22 min)