1. Climate Literacy Session: Observations Matt Correa December 8, 2015

2. How do we know that the climate is changing? Inquiring minds want to know…

3. How do we know that the climate is changing? How can we be sure it’s not changing due to reasons that have caused it to change in the past (i.e. natural variability)? Inquiring minds want to know…

4. How do we know that the climate is changing? How can we be sure it’s not changing due to reasons that have caused it to change in the past (i.e. natural variability)? What do the scientists who study climate change think? Isn’t there still disagreement about it? Or is there a strong consensus? Inquiring minds want to know…

5. The experts in this case include: climatologists, atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, meteorologists, geographers, hydrologists, biologists, anthropologists, and more! Who are the experts? And what do they think? The Scientific Consensus

6. “Expert Credibility in Climate Change” – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - April 2010 publication and citation data used to identify experts dataset of 1,372 researchers compiled researchers with > 20 climate publications (908) analyzed The Scientific Consensus

7. “Expert Credibility in Climate Change” – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - April 2010 Findings: 97-98% of the most actively publishing climate scientists support that anthropogenic climate change (ACC) is occurring The Scientific Consensus

8. “Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature” – Environmental Research Letters, April 2013 The Scientific Consensus

9. The Communication Challenge The Scientific Consensus

10. Climate: Long-term averages of weather over time (months to years) Weather: Short-term (minutes to weeks) changes in the atmosphere including sunshine, rain, snow, thunderstorms, etc. Climate or Weather?

11. It’s really COLD outside right now!! Climate or Weather?

12. For the past 50 years the average nighttime temperature has been 42 degrees F Climate or Weather?

13. NASA, NOAA and others have determined that 2014 was the warmest year on modern record Climate or Weather?

14.  Average temperature  Sea level rise  Glacial melt  Ocean acidification  Arctic sea ice decline  Ecological effects  Hydrologic changes  Wildfire  Extreme events  Drought  Flood Observations

15. Global Average Temperature Courtesy of climate.gov 20 th Century average

16. Global Sea Level Rise From A. Casenave

18. Ocean Acidification

19. Glacial Melt

20. Arctic Sea Ice Decline

21. Ecological Effects

22. Hydrologic Changes

23. Wildfire Union of Concerned Scientists 2013: www.ucusa.org/westernwildfires

24. Extreme Events

28. Take Home Points  Climate and weather are not the same  Climate change is happening now  Potential synergistic effects are not well understood but could understood but could have significant impacts have significant impacts on our natural and on our natural and human environments human environments