Climate Change Evidence

Climate change evidence, in the form of ice ages, was discovered by scientists in the 19th century. Swiss civil engineer, Louis Agassiz was one of the first to observe and write about the morain (rock fields) left by glacier advances and retreats. These observations spurned further study and theories, such as the "Milankovitch Theory", which are the result of astronomical cycles. The understanding that climate wasn't static became more excepted over time.

Some Observations

Observations of the retreat of glaciers in parts of the world has been documented in written accounts and photography - once this became available. Some of the cases are quite remarkable.

The striking images above are from: Alden / GNP Archives (1913); Blase Reardon / USGS (2005)

These pictures show how a glacier in Glacier National Park has changed over 92 years (first is from 1913 and second is from 2005) Once "natural climate change" was accepted, it was debated early on by scientists - after the onset of the Industrial Revolution - that all the coal burning might lead to an impact. In fact, as early as 1895 Swedish chemist, Arrhenius Svante proposed extra carbon dioxide (resulting for burning the coal for fuel) could lead to an increase in temperatures in the atmosphere.

Modelling Nature

A large component of climate science has developed around the evolution of supercomputers and the predictions they can provide. Climate Modelling are now run by scientific teams from all the industrialized countries of the world. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, and World Climate Research Programme (World Meteorological Organization) run GCM's, to name a few. Despite observational and empirical climate change evidence there are still people who doubt global warming. The global warming skeptics point to all the natural effects that impact the climate and make the case that all the warming is a natural event. Global temperatures have indeed risen and fallen in the past. During the time of the dinosaurs the global temperature was as high as 72 F (compared with our 59 F today). This was due in large part to the primitive atmosphere containing a significant amount of naturally occurring greenhouse gases. Volcanic eruptions were much more common 65 to 250 million years ago. The concentration of CO2 in the early Carboniferous Period was 1500 parts per million! (compared with around 380 ppm today).

The big difference between then and now is the rate of this increase. Climate change evidence is more plentiful than ever - with observation, photography, computers, and even human memories at the climate scientist's disposal.

Evidence is mankind's best friend if we are to survive climate change.