climate change

Examples of climate change in the following topics:

• Evidence of Global Climate Change

  • Global climate change can be understood by analyzing past historical climate data, such as atmospheric CO2 concentrations in ice cores.
  • Climate change can be understood by approaching three areas of study: (1) evidence of current and past global climate change, (2) causes of past and present-day global climate change, and (3) ancient and current results of climate change.
  • It is helpful to keep these three different aspects of climate change clearly separated when consuming media reports about global climate change.
  • It is common for reports and discussions about global climate change to confuse the data showing that earth's climate is changing with the factors that drive this climate change.
  • This 1 °C change is a seemingly-small deviation in temperature (as was observed during the Medieval Climate Anomaly); however, it also resulted in noticeable changes.

• Causes of Global Climate Change

  • The data shows a correlation between the timing of temperature changes and drivers of climate change.
  • The Milankovitch cycles describe how slight changes in the earth's orbit affect the earth's climate.
  • The variation in the sun's intensity is the second natural factor responsible for climate change.
  • Finally, volcanic eruptions are a third natural driver of climate change.
  • No other driver of climate change has yielded changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at this rate or to this magnitude.

• Climate Change and Biodiversity

  • Climate change, specifically, the anthropogenic (caused by humans) warming trend presently underway, is recognized as a major extinction threat, particularly when combined with other threats such as habitat loss.
  • Scientists do agree, however, that climate change will alter regional climates, including rainfall and snowfall patterns, making habitats less hospitable to the species living in them.
  • Changing climates also throw off species' delicate timing adaptations to seasonal food resources and breeding times.
  • Some climates will completely disappear.
  • Since 2008, grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) have been spotted farther north than their historic range, a possible consequence of climate change.

• Past and Present Effects of Climate Change

  • Results of climate change, past and present, have been documented and include species extinction, rising sea levels, and effects on organisms.
  • Scientists have geological evidence of the consequences of long-ago climate change.
  • Changes in climate can negatively affect organisms.
  • A number of global events have occurred that may be attributed to recent climate change during our lifetimes.
  • In addition to some abiotic conditions changing in response to climate change, many organisms are also being affected by the changes in temperature.

• Climate and Weather

  • A common misconception about global climate change is that a specific weather event occurring in a particular region (for example, a very cool week in June in central Indiana) is evidence of global climate change.
  • However, a cold week in June is a weather-related event and not a climate-related one.
  • Climate can be considered "average" weather.
  • Climate refers to long-term, predictable atmospheric conditions of a specific area.
  • This map illustrates the various climate conditions around the world.

• Changing Human Behavior in Response to Biodiversity Loss

  • Human responses to climate change and species loss include national and international legal measures, as well as the creation of preserves.
  • Additionally, species may be controversially taken off the list without necessarily having had a change in their situation.
  • In relation to global warming, The Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that came out of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that committed countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, was ratified by some countries, but spurned by others.
  • Meanwhile, climate scientists predict the resulting costs to human societies and biodiversity will be high.
  • Detail the benefits and limitations of different human responses to climate change and species loss, such as using preserves to conserve species

• Biodiversity Change through Geological Time

  • Throughout earth's history, these two processes have fluctuated, sometimes leading to dramatic changes in the number of species on earth .
  • These two extinction events, cooling and warming, were separated by about 1 million years; the climate changes affected temperatures and sea levels.
  • It may account for climate changes observed at the time.
  • Hypotheses of climate change, asteroid impact, and volcanic eruptions have been argued.
  • Describe how biodiversity has changed through geological time as a result of mass extinctions

• The Pleistocene Extinction

  • In general, the timing of the Pleistocene extinctions correlated with the arrival of humans and not with climate-change events, which is the main competing hypothesis for these extinctions.
  • It seems clear that even if climate played a role, human hunting was an additional factor in the extinctions.

• Processes and Patterns of Evolution

  • The genetic changes caused by mutation can have one of three outcomes:
  • The same traits are not always selected because environmental conditions can change.
  • For example, consider a species of plant that grew in a moist climate and did not need to conserve water.
  • After thousands of years, the climate changed and the area no longer had excess water.
  • It is over these large time spans that life on earth has changed and continues to change.

• Methods of Reproducing

  • When environmental factors are favorable, asexual reproduction is employed to exploit suitable conditions for survival, such as an abundant food supply, adequate shelter, favorable climate, disease, optimum pH, or a proper mix of other lifestyle requirements.
  • When food sources have been depleted, the climate becomes hostile, or individual survival is jeopardized by some other adverse change in living conditions, these organisms switch to sexual forms of reproduction.