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Global Climate Change Technology and Carbon-Cycle Projection Models

explanatory Essay
2757 words
2757 words
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Global Climate Change Technology and Carbon-Cycle Projection Models Introduction “Global climate change” is the hippest buzz phrase for radical environmentalists, dutiful scientists, industry heads, and policy-makers alike. Philosophically, it is proof that the environment is humanity’s connective tissue; whether your life’s work is spent tilling a field, manufacturing steel, or conducting conference calls, global climate change affects you. The gravity of this human-environment issue is highlighted in the headlines of the EPA’s “Science and Policy News”: “Researchers See ‘No Doubt’ of Human Influence on Climate,” “Climate Change May Be Greater Threat to Biodiversity than Habitat Loss,” “Largest Arctic Ice Shelf Breaks Up” (http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/NewsandEventsScienceandPolicyNews.html). To ensure the further sustainable progress of humanity, it is critical that we work to understand our relationship to climate and its changes. This paper is an assessment of the current work being done to foster that understanding. Specifically, it evaluates global climate change modeling technology, especially the carbon-cycle models imperative for emissions-reduction policy. Climate Science Driven by interactions between the atmosphere, the sea, and life on land, climate is the “average weather” of Earth (http://www.met-office.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre/models/climate_system.html). The climate system is the sum of the gas, heat, and momentum exchanges that take place between all the components of climate: the atmosphere, the biosphere, the cryosphere (icy earth surfaces), and the land surface. Global climate determines the Earth’s weather; tropical storms, drought, and other large-scale weather events can have catastrophic effects on human communities. Global climate determines Earth’s seasons; crop growing seasons ebb and flow with annual rain and sun variations. Global climate determines the terrestrial and oceanic composition of Earth; should average global temperature rise enough, ice caps and glaciers melt, increasing sea levels on coastal zone where millions of people live. In short, the global climate system influences the most basic processes we depend on for survival. A bare-bones definition of climate change refers to variations in climate within different time scales, or to a change in the long-term weather patterns on the planet. However, the broader connotations of the term are critically important to an understanding of climate technology and its applications. Though climate change can be caused by fluctuations in Earth’s cycles and temperature due to “natural” flux in solar radiation, seasonality, or atmospheric concentration (as happens after a volcanic eruption), the term increasingly implies changes in global temperature with significant economic, social, and environmental ramifications (http://nsidc.

In this essay, the author

  • Explains that global climate change is the hippest buzz phrase for radical environmentalists, dutiful scientists, industry heads, and policy-makers alike.
  • Evaluates global climate change modeling technology, especially the carbon-cycle models imperative for emissions-reduction policy.
  • Explains that the climate system is the sum of the gas, heat, and momentum exchanges that take place between all the components of climate.
  • Explains that bare-bones definition of climate change refers to variations in climate within different time scales, or to a change in the long-term weather patterns on the planet.
  • Explains that the most imminent and worrisome kind of climate change is global warming, which refers to the warming of the earth’s surface as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases increase.
  • Explains that scientists can now offer indisputable evidence that humans are responsible for a large part of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.
  • Explains how a climate model simulates the effects of key climate processes in response to these changes in greenhouse gases.
  • Explains that the physical processes that determine climate are complex and vary; scientists have to simplify them for modeling purposes. the hadley center climate models are mostly three-dimensional, run on cray t3e supercomputers.
  • Explains that coupled-atmosphere-ocean models analyze climate variability and rate of change with greenhouse-gas concentrations in the coupled atmosphere and ocean systems.
  • Explains that aogcms like the hadcm3 are not only complex, but accurate. scientists struggle to reconcile the predictions of climate models with mathematical uncertainties associated with these predictions.
  • Explains that the carbon cycle governs the build-up of atmospheric carbon dioxide in response to human emissions, since its concentration is the sum of the amount exchanged in respiration, photosynthesis, and ocean-atmosphere exchange.
  • Explains that scientists have an imperative to study the carbon cycle and its responses to changing climate. increased temperatures could mean lower solubility for carbon dioxide, and lower rates of deep water circulation.
  • Explains that carbon is exchanged between the atmosphere and land surface by plant photosynthesis and respiration, as well as soil microbe processes.
  • Explains how currents and surface biological activity drive the ocean-atmosphere carbon cycle, stating the implications of global warming.
  • Explains how scientists model the effect of increased carbon dioxide concentration on the carbon cycle by coupling an oceanic and a terrestrial climate model.
  • Explains the results of several aogcm carbon cycle models, including a hadley center model, and the fluxnet project, which records the amount of carbon dioxide stored in soil and plant types.
  • Explains that scientists know for certain that human activities are changing the composition of earth’s atmosphere. however, they cannot be entirely confident in their modeled predictions.
  • Explains that the ipcc offers three ways for testing model credibility: comparisons against recent past climate change, observed climate variability, and comparison against paleo-climate measurements.
  • Concludes that if global climate change technology is to be effective, measures must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at an international scale.
  • Explains that the following list will link you to sites with climate simulations, temperature, precipitation, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gas emissions maps. these images shape current climate change policy and dialogue.
  • Cites betts, r.a. et al., contrasting physiological and structural vegetation feedbacks in climate change simulations.
  • Cites the hadley center's recent research on climate change science.
  • Explains that the ipcc building on new knowledge: improving regional climate assessment. kaiser, j.
  • Explains that president bush announces climate change initiatives. 2001. u.s. epa.
  • Explains schimel, d.s., and stott, p.a.

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