Questions tagged [climate-change]
Questions about changes of the climate system, including questions about global warming.
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Does increased water vapour in atmosphere increase the risk of hypoxia?
I recently found that each degree of warming increases water vapour by 7% and I've also learned that the atmosphere contains (on average) between 1-5% water vapour when saturated, this confused me a ...
4
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3answers
61 views
Does global warming inhibit transport of moisture?
This northern summer, 2021, there were wildfires in Southern Europe and floods in Germany nearly at same time, also, floods and wildfires in different parts of Turkey, and floods in Far East of Russia ...
4
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1answer
42 views
Why are the CMIP6 model outputs for Relative Humidity not scaled to between 1-100%?
I have been looking at the CMIP6 model outputs for 'hur' (Relative Humidity/RH) and I see that they are not scaled to be between 1 and 100 (the units are percent).
Why is this? Is it just an oversight ...
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0answers
40 views
Is climate change really stemming from human influences? [duplicate]
I know that many accept "climate change stemming from the green house effect" as a fact, but I wonder how much influence humans really have on the climate.
1
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1answer
33 views
How can I calculate the relative change in Precipitation using CMIP models without producing unrealistic results in Dry areas?
I am calculating changes in precipitation using the Delta method, wherein the relative changes are calculated thus:
Delta change = (modelled Future climatology (2050s) - modelled historical ...
17
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1answer
1k views
Why is the energy transition start not reflected in the CO2 concentration graphs?
This is a graph from a reputable source of CO2 concentrations in atmosphere the last decades:
I would expect that, as we have been using clean energy for some years now, the graph would start to ...
11
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1answer
2k views
Do satellites decrease the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth?
According to this website, there were 3,372 active satellites in orbit at the beginning of 2021. Furthermore, SpaceX is planning to launch 12,000 satellites to provide cheap internet for everybody, ...
3
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1answer
84 views
When would the next glaciation appear? Worst case
Suppose that the IPCC's best estimate of climate sensitivity (3 K) is relevant and that the Keeling curve will increase as now, with a certain procent more emission next year than previous year, into ...
3
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1answer
53 views
Does deforestation increase global temperatures or just local temperatures?
Did human-caused deforestation impacted climate and rainfall patterns in the past?
I'm asking this because I don't know much about the impact of forest cover loss and evapotranspiration on global ...
2
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2answers
94 views
How much does earth's core temperature affect earth's global surface temperature
Has anyone managed to read the (latest) full IPCC-report and do you know whether they have taken into account the Earth's core temperature in their models. Besides the IPCC-report, do we know how much ...
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0answers
35 views
Are there climatic projections for past conditions in Northern Europe?
I'm looking for projections of past climatic conditions during the last two millennia for northern Europe. I know there are initiatives studying tree rings, but I want to know whether there are ...
3
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1answer
58 views
Was there a period of global warming before the start of the last ice age?
I am curious to know if there was a period of global warming that took place before the start of the last ice age and I would like to know how long this period of global warming lasted.
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120 views
If ocean water was pumped into a desert would it help cool the planet?
Water pumped into a desert would evaporate and increase formation of clouds which would in turn increase the albedo of the Earth. Would this help to cool the planet more efficiently than trying to ...
6
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1answer
92 views
Is it true that methane is responsible for nearly one-third of all warming?
BBC says that the latest IPCC report says methane is responsible for 0.3°C out of 1.1°C of all cumulative warming since pre-industrial times.
According to the IPCC, around 0.3C of the 1.1C that the ...
1
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2answers
95 views
Can we run out of air because of global warming?
Can it be that our air will be unbreathable in a few years due to CO2 emission? I think I may suffer from global warming anxiety and I accuse CO2 for my shortness of breath. Is it rational?
22
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6answers
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How does global-warming-triggered ice melting cause global sea levels to rise?
Apologies for asking a silly question like this. But I want to offer some points which I could not counter, as follows:
Ice is less dense than water, that is why it floats. For the same unit mass, if ...
9
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2answers
2k views
Have there been any studies on how vehicles directly contribute to a rising global temperature?
I've tried searching for this myself, but Google is saturated with the Greenhouse Gases angle of Rising Global Temperatures.
What I'm interested in is the following:
Greenhouse gases aside, to what ...
5
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1answer
386 views
Do perfumes and deodorants contribute to global warming?
If perfumes and deodorants cause air pollution, does that mean they also heat the planet?
2
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1answer
219 views
Would freezing the ocean and storing the ice in the poles reduce effects of climate change or sea level?
Disclaimer
I've read this question already on sending water to the north pole, south pole and glaciers, and I thought I'd give it my own take and see how technically possible it could be.
Question
As ...
4
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1answer
95 views
How much would 5 gigatons of methane warm the atmosphere compared to 5 gigatons of CO2 if both were released in one go?
I don't know much about science, I'm just curious about how much warming a certain amount of CH4 would cause compared to a similar amount of CO2 (both 5 GtC).
I'm sorry if the question sounded a bit ...
3
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1answer
59 views
Simple model that exhibits a climate tipping point
I am trying to understand climate tipping points better and I am looking for a place to ask the following question. If Earth Science SE isn't the right place, a recommendation of a better place would ...
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2answers
5k views
I just read news that Antarctica had set a new record high temperature, above 18 °C. How can this be the case if it is currently winter there?
Currently it is winter in Antarctica. According to news I read, Antarctica has set a new record high temperature, above 18 °C. How did this temperature records occur?
3
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1answer
84 views
Wouldn't 'fertilizing' the ocean to increase cyanobacteria, algae and other phytoplankton populations actually INCREASE CO2 levels in the air?
From the July, 2021 Scientific American:
The Carbon rocks of Oman:
"...fertilizing the ocean would increase the growth of phytoplankton that naturally absorb CO2 through photosynthesis'. (page ...
7
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1answer
245 views
What exactly is "Land-Use Change and Forestry"?
What exactly is "Land-Use Change and Forestry" and why is it sometimes hugely positive (Indonesia) but sometimes hugely negative (China)? Isn't it supposed to be a type of source not sink (...
4
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1answer
76 views
Are small reductions in CO2 emissions better than no reductions, in terms of mitigating climate change?
My understanding of climate change is that a large increase in human-caused CO2 emissions is likely to lead to large change in the Earth's climate through a global warming effect. Scientific consensus ...
2
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1answer
71 views
If we send ocean waters into glacier of north pole/south pole to reduce sea level, will it help global warming?
this is my first time posting in Earth Science, please be gentle to me.
I am Science Enthusiast, though numbers are my enemies for now so I can't come up with formulas or any form of calculations. ...
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0answers
50 views
Best realistic-case scenario, what does our climate look like in 30 years...50 years...a 100 years?
Let's assume, humanity can decide to care more about the survival of our species, our duty to our descendants, than getting rich now. How long would it reasonably take to get to net-zero carbon ...
2
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0answers
50 views
What effect would a slowdown of the AMOC have in particular on North America's climate/weather?
From what I know so far, a slowdown/shutdown in the gulf stream would cause climate change to run counter to the way that it would normally progress (i.e. poles warming faster than the tropics.) Warm ...
3
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1answer
126 views
Is it possible to actually stop climate change, or the only thing we can do is to slow it down?
When I was researching some materials (e.g. this article in Scientific American) regarding the possible ways to fight climate change, I noticed that almost all suggestions look not like the solutions ...
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1answer
94 views
How likely is it for coastal cities to survive next 40 years? [closed]
I live in a coastal city myself and I know there are many measures taken to prevent harm for city buildings from sea waters. I'm not aware of all of them and I wonder if modern cities actually have a ...
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2answers
243 views
How are we going to handle oxygen shortage problem arising due to massive usage of current fossil fuel combustion and future Hydrogen fuel cell tech?
This question is being redirected from the Chemistry Stack Exchange community.
The current corona pandemic has created a situation where in order to save lives, there is a huge huge requirement for ...
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1answer
108 views
How much would weather data from ocean-going vessels improve climate research?
I would like to know how good the weather data coverage is on the surface of the world’s oceans, and how much it would improve climate research/models if weather observations from ocean-going vessels ...
4
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1answer
134 views
As the number of ocean dead zones increases, is the world's primary source of atmospheric oxygen (phytoplankton) at risk?
Disclaimer: I am not a scientist.
I was wondering if there is a concern that the world will run out of breathable atmospheric oxygen as the number of dead zones in the ocean increases with global ...
2
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1answer
240 views
Who are winners from the global warming? Are there any?
As a person living in Russia, I always had mixed feelings when hearing appeals to fight global warming. On the one hand, I completely understand that it is going to be a disaster for lots of people. ...
3
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2answers
134 views
Are wetlands effective against climate change?
In the region where I live, there is a trend that conservation organizations are advocating the conservation and re-valuation of wetlands.
Aside from boosting biodiversity and providing other ...
3
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1answer
78 views
Connection between radiative imbalance and radiative forcing
There seems to be a general consensus that the Earth is in radiative imbalance, i.e., it is absorbing more solar energy than it radiates. One figure I've seen bandied about for this imbalance is that ...
2
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1answer
74 views
Trees cleaning the air
Sorry if this is the wrong place...
I have been camping a lot recently and I couldn't help but notice some of the campgrounds I am in are acres and acres of mostly pine trees. These trees have very ...
2
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1answer
132 views
What are the risks of developing geoengineering?
Wikipedia page for geoengineering entry list a lot of proposals to decrease global temperature:
Solar radiation management methods[5] may include:
Surface-based: for example, surface-based mirror ...
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0answers
33 views
When it comes the average lifetime of chemicals in the atmosphere, is the mean lifetime ~1.4427 times the half-life? As with radioactivity?
There are so many websites giving numbers for 'average' lifetimes of global-warming or ozone-depleting chemicals in the atmosphere, yet they are rarely explicit in their definition(s)...
For instance, ...
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1answer
146 views
Will a new glacial age take place on Earth or Holocene will become a new climatic epoch?
Pleistocene shows a switch between glacial and interglacial ages.
However, humanity is burning fossil fuels and increasing atmosphere's $\ce{CO2}$ content.
Should we expect a new glacial age after ...
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0answers
34 views
How is causality between past CO2 levels and fossilized plant spore proxies established?
According to Mann and Kump (2015),
Geologic proxies are characteristics of sedimentary rocks that we can
use to infer ancient environmental conditions. Climate scientists
study proxies because there ...
7
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3answers
529 views
Why divide total insolation by $4$?
From Nature:
We divide by $4$ since the solar energy is spread over the surface of the planetary sphere. The Earth intercepts a circular area of incoming sunlight, and this area is spread over a ...
2
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1answer
95 views
How to get the exact temperature from 1880 to 2020? [closed]
Wherever I look, I find "Temperature Anamolies" which I assume is an annual temperature change relative to the previous year.
If I wanted to find the exact temperatures (based on NASA's ...
1
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1answer
103 views
Is it possible to kickstart an hypothetical frozen earth with 0.6 ice albedo to an earth with an atmosphere, with just the sun at current distance?
Phase change of water at different pressures and temperatures tell us that with no atmospheric pressure 200 Kelvin (minus 73 Celcius) is enough to turn ice into vapor directly
Wouldn't that suggest ...
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1answer
26 views
How do geologists measure green house gass emmissions from large regions
I read here that volcanoes release about "0.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year". I wonder though, how scientists can estimate the emissions from large regions with geological ...
7
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1answer
115 views
Why is it that "With higher CO2, the dry gets drier and the wet gets wetter"?
The Phys.org article CO2 dip may have helped dinosaurs walk from South America to Greenland quotes Dennis Kent, "adjunct research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth ...
2
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3answers
114 views
Is a hotter climate making trees grow faster and have lighter wood?
I started thinking about this after seeing several articles about falling trees, in particular a few articles about very large trees falling in Los Angeles and New York City. Plus, just thinking about ...
2
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2answers
105 views
Why has the Earth's average sea level risen 'only' by nine inches after one degree C increase in temperature?
I am only doing gross calculations here, but...
If the Earth has warmed by about one degree Celsius in the last century or so, and the thermal expansion coefficient of water is about .0002085, then ...
3
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1answer
72 views
How to measure global temperature?
people always talk about global temperature (such as the global temperature goal of 1,5 K) - but how is this value achieved? It seems to me that it clearly depends on where the measuring stations are, ...
2
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2answers
147 views
What are the evidences that the earth climate is getting warmer?
Someone, who does not believe climate change asked me today --
How is it possible for us to conclude that the past five years are the hottest five years since record begun, since
There are only a ...
