1. What have you heard? Global Warming Greenhouse Gases Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Fossil Fuels Ice Core Records Climate Change

2. What have you heard? Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina? How one number touched off big climate-change fight at UW Global warming could burn insurers Activists call on industry to act Jellyfish creature the answer to global warming? www.Scienceblog.com EXAGGERATED SCIENCE How Global Warming Research is Creating a Climate of Fear Research Links Global Warming to Wildfires In a Shift, White House Cites Global Warming as a Problem Global warming causing new evolutionary patterns Rise in wild fires a result of climate change Seattle mayors' meeting a cozy climate for business Seattle reports milestone in cutting emissions

3. Our Questions Today Science of Climate Change What are Greenhouse Gases? How do they cause warming? How are humans affecting the climate?

4. Science of Climate Change: What are Greenhouse Gases? How do they cause warming? How are humans affecting the climate? UW Climate Impacts Group

5. GHE#1 - natural Earth’s Natural Greenhouse Effect

6. GHE#2 - humans Human-caused Global Warming

7. GHE#3 - text The science of global warming is based on well- understood physical principles. There is NO scientific debate about this! Due to human activities, there are now 40% more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere than there were a few hundred years ago. The Earth has already warmed as the consequence of this, and scientists expect that the next 20 to 100 years the world will warm a lot more!

8. Greenhouse gases GHG Sunlight heats the earth Some of sun’s energy is reradiated from surface. GHGs absorb this energy GHGs reradiate some escaping energy back towards surface, making the temperature warmer GHG PCC slide no. 033

9. Most Important Greenhouse Gases Source: U.S. EPA 2005 GHGs: Water: H 2 O Carbon Dioxide: CO 2 Methane: CH 4 Source Examples: Oceans, Rivers, Plants, Soil Combustion, Respiration Wetlands, Oceans, Combustion, Animals http://www.for.gov.bc.ca PCC slide no. 034

10. Future climate change Source: IPCC 2007PCC slide no. 008

11. Risks of future climate change Source: IPCC 2001a Possible threats: Ecosystem change Flooding of coastal communities Spread of diseases Increase of extreme weather events

12. More Evidence: Ice Cores Ice layers preserve information about each year Sources: NOAA, GISP2 websitesPCC slide no. 036

13. Sea Level Rise 1-5 meters in Bangladesh 7-8 meters in Florida PCC slide no. 037

14. Carbon dioxide acidifies seawater CO 2 and carbonate (which plankton use to make shells) combine in the ocean. The ocean is already more acidic than it was 50 years ago. SEM photograph of E. hux Source: Alfred-Wegener-Institut CO 2 Ocean Atmosphere “shelled-critters”

15. Arctic Sea Ice (in September) data from National Snow and Ice Data Center (Boulder, CO, USA) 2005 Canada U.S.A. Asia Russia Europe

16. Arctic Sea Ice (in September) data from National Snow and Ice Data Center (Boulder, CO, USA) 2005 5.6 million km 2 sea ice edge, where normally found

17. Arctic Sea Ice (in September) data from National Snow and Ice Data Center (Boulder, CO, USA) 2005 5.6 million km 2 2007 4.3 million km 2 sea ice edge (where normally found)

18. Arctic Sea Ice (in September) data from National Snow and Ice Data Center (Boulder, CO, USA) Year ‘78‘82‘86‘90‘94‘98‘02‘06 Size (million km 2 ) 9 8 7 6 5 4 2005 2007

19. Melting ice sheets  Sea level rise Greenland Ice Sheet

20. Sea Level Rise Melting of –Greenland Ice Sheet –Antarctic Ice Sheet –Glaciers and ice caps Expansion of heated (warm) sea water 2 - 4  C warming by ~2100  0.18 - 0.59 meter rise in sea level IPCC (2007)

21. “Climate is what you expect Weather is what you get” Weather: Characteristics of the atmosphere over a short period of time, usually no more than a few days. Examples: Current Temperature, Rainfall, Humidity, Solar radiation Climate: The statistics (eg. average) of weather over a long period of time. Examples: Average Temperature, Rainfall, Humidity, Solar radiation Climate Weather Source: www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12/grayskies/ Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Temperatures at SeaTac Airport for one year: Degrees Farenheit

22. Climate Change v. Climate Variability We see the sum of both Climate variability (e.g. Natural swings) Climate change (e.g. warming trend) Time (years) "climate"

23. U.S. 186.1 European Union 127.8 Russia 68.4 Ukraine 21.7 Poland 14.4 China 57.6 Japan 31.2 Australia 7.6 India 15.5 Kazakhstan 10.1 South Africa 8.5 Canada 14.9 Mexico 7.8 Trinidad and Tobago United Arab Emirat es Kuwait Total CO 2 emissions Between 1950-2001 in billions of tons TIME magazine, 2001 US: 4% of world’s total population 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases China:25% of the world’s population 8.5% of the world’s greenhouse gases (since 1950)