A Study of Past and Present Climate Conditions

Climate is the average weather conditions present in a particular area over a long period of time. Earth’s climate is an intricate system that is essential to our livelihoods. It is for this reason that scientists, such as paleoclimatologist, are hoping to better understand future climate conditions by studying the Earth’s past and present climate conditions.

There are two types of data available to scientist studying past and present climate conditions. The first is instrumental data, which is observed data that can be measured by weather monitoring instruments. Some examples of weather monitoring instruments are thermometers, rain gauges, weather balloons and satellites. The downside to instrumental data is that data is only available for the last 150 years or so. In order to study climate conditions before instrumental data was available, scientists have to use proxy data. Proxy data is data collected from natural recorders of climate variability. Some examples of natural recorders are ice cores, tree rings, corral and ocean and lake sediments. For example, scientist drill deep into ice located in such places as Antarctica and extract ice cores that can contain air bubbles, dust and/or isotopes of oxygen. These components then can be tested to determine the climate conditions at the time the components became frozen in the ice.

According to instrumental data from the last 150 years, the Earth’s average temperature has risen by 0.5⁰C. As you can see in Figure 1 below, during the later half of the 1800’s Earth’s temperature fluctuated from as low as -0.5⁰C to as high as -0.3⁰C. Around 1910, the average temperature began a steady incline until the 1940’s to almost above average temperatures. Beginning in the early 80’s, a...

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...areer, such as the Arthur Fleming Award in 2006 and the NOAA’s Adminstrator’s Award for excellence in scientific research in 2003. He has published or co-published several peer –reviewed work and has participated in several field exercises. In other words, Dr. Anderson is a qualified individual to be presenting information about the Earth’s climate.

Works Cited

Anderson, Dr. David and Dr. Carrie Morrill and Dr. Eugene Wahl. A Paleo Perspective on Global Warming. NOAA. July 2009. Web. February 2012.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/home.html

“Ice Cores and Climate Change.” British Antartic Survey.2007. Web. February 2012.

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/bas_research/science_briefings/icecorebriefing.php

Jones, Phil. Global Temperature Record. Climatic Research Unit. January 2012. Web. February 2012.

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/