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Global Climate Change and my career Your Name. Global climate change … is unequivocal, is almost certainly caused mostly by us, is already causing significant.

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Presentation on theme: "Global Climate Change and my career Your Name. Global climate change … is unequivocal, is almost certainly caused mostly by us, is already causing significant."— Presentation transcript:

1 Global Climate Change and my career Your Name

2 Global climate change … is unequivocal, is almost certainly caused mostly by us, is already causing significant harm is growing rapidly, and requires global action and local solutions. The Key Facts

3 Three things to remember Scientists are very confident that humans are causing climate change Climate change will impact California: wildfires, droughts, water shortages, heat- waves Everyone can work to slow climate change

4 http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/ Warming is Unequivocal…

5 J. Hansen et al., PNAS 103: 14288-293 ( 2006) …And Not Uniform Average Surface T in 2001-2005 vs 1951-80

6 Warming differs over space Source: IPCC TAR Summary for Policy Makers

7 Muir Glacier, Alaska NSIDC/WDC for Glaciology, Boulder, compiler. 2002, updated 2006. Online glacier photograph database. Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. August 1941August 2004 Shrinking Glaciers

8 19922002 2005 Source: ACIA, 2004, CIRES, 2005, Roger Braithwaite, University of Manchester (UK) Surface melting on Greenland is expanding

9 Source: Westerling et al. 2006 Western US area burned Increasing Wildfire Risk

10 IPCC, 2007 10 Extreme Events: Heat

11 IPCC, 2007 Extreme Events: Heat 11

12 Natural Carbon Cycle

13 Human Impact on the Carbon Cycle

14 LAND ATMOSPHERE 750 Gt C 379 ppm CO 2 OCEANS emissions from terrestrial systems 100 Gt C per year absorption by terrestrial systems 103 Gt C per year emissions from marine systems 100 Gt C per year absorption by marine systems 102 Gt C per year human-caused emissions: 9 Gt C per year Carbon Flows (2005)

15 Increasing CO 2 Concentrations

16 IPCC, 2007

17 Increasing CO 2 Concentrations

18 Ice Core Records

19 Source: Hansen, Clim. Change, 68, 269, 2005. Ice Core Records

20

21 IPCC, 2007 Black = Observed Gold = Human and Natural Forcings Blue = Only Natural Forcings Fingerprint Analysis

22 How hot will it get?

23 How much greenhouse gases we emit (we can control) How the planet responds to increased greenhouse gas concentrations (we can’t control) – Feedbacks (permafrost, wildfire, etc.)

24 UCS Projected Changes in CA Summer Temperature

25 2004 >9,500 ft 1900 >7,800 ft Pika Species Shifting and…

26 Diminishing Sierra Snowpack Percentage Remaining, Relative to 1961-1990 UCS

27 Mitigation Adaptation

28 Raupach et al. 2007, PNAS 2006 2005 Rapidly Increasing Emissions

29 Climate Stabilization

30 Raupach et al., 2007 Regional CO 2 Emissions 2004 2000-2004 Growth

31 Coral reef collapse National security threat Crop failures Drought More and bigger wildfires Ocean acidification Species extinctions Loss of mountain snowpack Sea-level rise Floods Expanding tropical diseases Heat-waves Human migrations Increased allergy season More air pollution More intense hurricanes Gulf-stream shutdown Melting permafrost Forest die-off Methane-clathrate out-gassing Increased biological invasions Fisheries collapse Ice-sheet collapse Glacial loss Delta and river salination Loss of tropical forests Wetland and flood protection loss

32 Climate Change Impacts

33 California Impacts: Fire and Drought

34 Source: IPCC TAR, SPM

35 Wildfires More frequent fires More intense fires Longer fire durations Longer fire seasons Source: Westerling et al. 2006 Science

36 The good news… We don’t appear to have crossed any tipping points yet For the most part, we control much of our future Everyone can do something to help solve the problem Addressing climate change can be an economic opportunity

37 What everyone can do… Efficiency Appliances Lightbulbs House water use Auto mileage Behavior Carpooling Refuse/reuse/recycle Saving energy Buying green energy Eating local

38 Also necessary… Policy for – efficiency standards – clean energy – electricity grid changes – technology research and design – carbon capture International treaty with targets

39 Global warming It’s more than polar bears…


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