My son, Cameron, was studying at Oxford and he said: This is what I am learning: What is the climate? Climate is defined as the 40 year average of weather, including *Temperature * Precipitation * Humidity * Cloudiness and * Wind speed and direction. When we see a colder day than usual, it is an indication that the climate has changed. When we see a warmer day than usual, it indicates a climate change. When we see more snow, more extreme storms such as the storm in the Phillippines, it just means in a warmer world, more water is evaporated into the atmosphere, and more comes down as snow or rain. When there is more precipitation, we get more snow and more rain. The water cycle is determined by temperature and the climate that we are in. Weather is a manifestation of the overall climate. The fact that there was Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy, the storm in the Phillippines in a smaller period of time does indicate that there is a change in the climate. Most hurricanes coming up the East Coast veer out to sea because of the Jetstream so they dont affect the Northeast. The change in the jetstream causes hurricanes not to be pushed off to sea. As a result we saw all these major storms hit the Northeast recently. The oceans are also warmer off the coast of the Northeast which exacerbates the hurricanes. A blocking high pressure area over Greenland also pushed the hurricane back into the Northeast U.S. This same blocking high pressure also caused extremely low temps this past winter because the Jetstream from the arctic was blocked. Iceland didnt have a freeze because the sea ice in Iceland was melted, so it was warmer in Iceland than Boston. In November 2015 countries are supposed to get together and put something in place following the Kyoto Protocol. As of now there is nothing in place internationally. The plan is to have a major meeting of heads of state when the UN convenes in September, followed by a meeting in Latin America, and then the meeting in Paris which should result in some kind of system of commitments to begin to take effect in 2020 and begin to be put in place in 2015. The largest scientific organization in the world, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, posted a website what we know about the reality, risks and results of climate change. Based on overwhelming evidence, more than 97% of scientists agree that human-caused climate change is happening. And yet most Americans still think climate change is a topic of significant disagreement. We are at risk of pushing our climate towards abrupt and irreversible changes which can be catastrophic. The sooner we act, the lower the risk and cost, and there are things that we can do. Humans have put heat trapping gasses (i.e. greenhouse gasses) into the atmosphere; they are also decreasing the amount of plants and trees that can absorb carbon dioxide; they are changing the reflectivity of the earth - by building highways, parking lots, buildings, and removing forests - and the atmosphere, and changing the acidity of the ocean.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 23:06:27 +0000