Discussions on climate, geography and global change by a graduate student
Roughly since the early 1800's, people have recorded and transcribed weather observations. Since then, new instruments and methods have entered the science, as well as the idea of climate change itself. We went from measuring short-term weather to long-term climate variations. So how can we justify when the climate is changing? As a refresher, remember …
Continue reading Climate Change 101: Observing the climate itself
What a mouthful. I apologize on behalf of the U.S. for these ones. While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was born in 1988, the United States had something of their own cookin'. Since 1989, we've had one group that had undergone a quick name change from USGCRP to CCSP 2002-2008, and back again to …
Continue reading Climate Change History 101: the United State’s Climate Assessments
Before you buy or sell a home, you have it assessed or appraised. The same goes for our climate... only no one person can buy the sky above our heads. We make assessments in climate science to evaluate climate change risks, impacts, vulnerability and the adaptive capacity of our environments. This information is provided to …
Before understanding climate change science, first define the difference between climate and weather. Think hard. There are more similarities between the two than differences, but the key is long-term occurrences and impact. Weather is the current state of the Earth's atmosphere and it's short-term variations. It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring type …
Continue reading Climatology, climatic changes, and the introduction of a new science.
