Climate change
What is causing climate change? What do we need to find the answer? What if we don't try?
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These photographs show that Muir Glacier, formerly a tidewater glacier in Alaska, has retreated more than twelve kilometers (seven miles) and thinned by more than 800 meters (875 yards) since 1941 (B. Molnia, personal communication, May 26, 2006).
The photograph on the left was taken on August 13, 1941, by glaciologist William O. Field. The photograph on the right was taken on August 31, 2004, by geologist Bruce F. Molnia of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Ocean water has filled the valley, replacing the ice of Muir Glacier; the end of the glacier has retreated out of the field of view. The glacier’s absence reveals scars where glacier ice once scraped high up against the hillside. In 2004, trees and shrubs grow thickly in the foreground, where in 1941 there was only bare rock (B. Molnia, personal communication, May 26, 2006).
Details
One of the most controversial international environmental topics being discussed today is CLIMATE CHANGE. While there is little disagreement among scientists as to whether or not our climate is changing, there are differing opinions as to whether the changes are part of a natural cycle or if humankind is precipitating the change.
IEDRO’s mandate does not promote or dispel the idea of climate change or its causes.
IEDRO’s mandate is to gather as much historic environmental data as possible and provide for its digitization so that researchers, educators and operational professionals can use those data to study climate change and global warming. We believe, as do most scientists, that the greater the amount of data available for study, the greater the accuracy of the final result.
Is climate change important?
The following excerpts are quoted from “Green Facts”, a non-profit organization.
What are the likely consequences of climate change?
Regional changes in climate, particularly increases in temperature, have already affected some physical and biological systems. Both natural and human systems are vulnerable to climate change because of their limited adaptive capacity. This vulnerability varies with geographic location, time, and social, economic and environmental conditions.
Some extreme weather events and the damage, hardship, and death they cause are projected to increase with global warming. There is also a potential for large-scale and possibly irreversible impacts which pose risks that have yet to be reliably quantified; their likelihood is probably very low but is expected to increase with the rate, magnitude, and duration of climate change.
Man will have to adapt to and cope with the climate change consequences that are not prevented by mitigation. Economic losses can be expected, especially in poorest regions; the higher the warming, the greater the losses. Promoting adaptation, sustainable development and equity can be mutually reinforcing.
How could climate change affect us in the future?
Projected changes in climate are expected to have both beneficial and adverse effects on water resources, agriculture, natural ecosystems and human health. But the larger the changes in climate the more the adverse effects should dominate.
For instance, some crop and forest productivities could benefit from a small climate change. But for many other natural systems, the adverse effects should be dominant, especially if warming exceeds a few degrees. Human populations are expected to face increasing flooding and heat waves but reduced cold spells. The geographic range for infectious diseases should increase.
The vulnerability of human populations and natural systems to climate change differs substantially across regions and across populations within regions.”
What if we don’t fully understand the causes of climate change?
If we do not fully understand the causes of climate change through a lack of detailed historic data evaluation, there is no opportunity for us to understand how humankind can either assist our environment to return to “normal” or at least mitigate its effects. Data is needed from every part of the globe to determine the extent of climate change on regional and local levels as well as globally. Without these data, we continue to guess at its causes in the dark and hope that adverse climate change will simply not happen.
(c) 2008 IEDRO