Geography week 1

Lecture 2 4 Fundamental Questions &

Weather versus Climate

1. Rank your sense of alarm about global warming, where 1 is “not too worried, much less important than other problems” and 5 is “very worried, about the most important problem we face.”

6 Questions about Global Warming Here are fundamental questions associated with recent changes in our earth’s climate. Please take a moment to write down your answers and think about them.

2. Is the greenhouse effect considered an established scientific theory?

6 Questions about Global Warming You may or may not have heard some of these critical terminologies used by climate scientists. They will be further discussed in this course.

3. What is Climate Sensitivity? 4. What is Radiative Forcing? 5. What is the pre-industrial atmospheric concentration of CO2?

280ppm

6. What percentage of the world’s energy comes from renewables? About 11% of the world’s marketed energy consumption is from renewable energy sources (biofuels, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind) with a projection for 15% by 2040 (U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

�Global temperatures are rising due to human emissions of greenhouse gases and their resultant accumulation in the

atmosphere�

Is this true? What are the fundamental questions that we have to ask ourselves to test this notion? (5 min group discussion).

1.  Are global temperatures rising?

2.  Is the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases increasing?

3.  Is the concentration of greenhouse gases increasing because of us?

4.  Is global warming due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases?

Under the current administration, we have witnessed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remove the climate change section from its website. Also, the White House’s website has removed the entire climate change section that ties climate change to anthropogenic cause (e.g. The Reuters, January 25, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-climatechange-idUSKBN15906G, The Gardians, May 14, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2017/may/14/donald-trump-climate-change-mentions-government-websites). As a result, It is even more important for you to learn about the scientific mechanisms of climate change and develop an understanding of what the scientific data implies.

Let’s think like a scientist! Assume that you encounter someone who asks you “Is this true?” to the above mentioned statement which was deleted from the White House’s and EPA’s website. To answer this question, what fundamental questions come to mind?

Here are four fundamental questions that need to be addressed. The answers will be covered throughout this course, and you should be able to address these questions scientifically.

�Global temperatures are rising due to human emissions of greenhouse gases and their resultant accumulation in the

atmosphere�

Is this true? What are the fundamental questions that we have to ask ourselves to test this notion? (5 min group discussion).

1.  Are global temperatures rising?

2.  Is the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases increasing?

3.  Is the concentration of greenhouse gases increasing because of us?

4.  Is global warming due to increasing emissions of greenhouse gases?