Questions tagged [climate-change]
Questions about changes of the climate system, including questions about global warming.
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How did plants adapt to $\small\sf{CO_2}$ levels past 400k years? Why won't they do it again?
(Description from climate.nasa.gov: This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric $\small\sf{...
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Why do greenhouse gases affect ocean temperature so much?
As I understand it, greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the sun. Much of that radiation would otherwise continue and be absorbed on the planet surface in the ocean or on land.
If CO2 ...
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Where does the biggest land-based ice cap reside?
I'm thinking biggest in volume, regarding which area of the planet will contribute more to a raising in sea level - were the ice in those regions to melt.
I can basically think of two candidates, ...
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Temperature as a function of luminosity and greenhouse gas concentrations
The evidence seems clear that there is an interrelationship between solar luminosity, greenhouse gas concentrations, and temperature.
Has temperature as a function of luminosity and greenhouse gas ...
user641
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Will global climate change alter the interannual and/or intraseasonal variance of temperature and/or precipitation?
A quick skim of the regional chapters in AR5 shows predicted changes to average temperature and precipitation. If I understand (in rough terms) the modelling methodologies used, a variety of models (...
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Why don't errors accumulate in climate models when the time horizon increases?
First of all, I want to add the disclaimer that I am not a climate sceptic or anything. I honestly want to understand this phenomenon. Hopefully, someone can also go into the details as I do have ...
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How to tell if a single day of weather is an anomaly or due to climate change?
I am interested in understanding how to tell if a single day of 'abnormal' weather is due to climate change or not.
From my understanding, you would compare this day's weather to historical weather. ...
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How will increased $\ce{CO2}$ affect forests and other vegetative areas?
Some researchers contend that increases in atmospheric CO2 (e.g., from anthropogenic emissions) will enhance plant growth in general.
What is the level of that enhancement?
Does the associated ...
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Who are the 3% in the often cited "97% of climate scientists"?
The media have variously reported that:
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that climate-warming
trends over the past century are very likely due to human activities.
Based on this ...
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How has and how does the lithosphere affect climate change?
The climatic system can be divided into five main components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, the cryosphere and the biosphere.
All these physical systems operate at different time ...
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Did global warming cause the extreme cold 2013-14 winter in North America?
There have been some claims made (example) that global warming had something to do with why the 2013-2014 winter was so cold in the Midwest area of America.
If this is true then how did global ...
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Are there anti-greenhouse gases?
The Greenhouse Effect can be described semi-formally as follows:
With no atmosphere, virtually all of the heat received by the Sun would be radiated back into space at night. This can be seen on the ...
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Why have "ozone-depleting substances" led to a third of all global warming and half of arctic sea ice loss?
According to the Phys.org article "Ozone-depleting substances caused half of late 20th-century Arctic warming, says study" (emphasis added):
A study published today in Nature Climate Change by ...
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Is it possible to forecast ocean salinity 100 years into the future?
Paleosalinity is measured by chloricity of pore fluids (Adkins 2002).
Current data are provided by the CORA dataset.
In addition to answers to the main question, there are a few more points I'd like ...
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When will glaciation resume? Has global warming delayed return to global cooling?
As far as I understand, we are currently living in the Holocene, an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, i.e. the current ice age that has so far lasted 2.6 million years. The Holocene ...
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To stop anthropogenic climate change, is it necessary to stop extracting petroleum and start pumping carbon under ground?
The amount of carbon (C) on Earth is constants. As far as i understand, all carbon that is not found in the atmosphere or the oceans in the form of CO2 or CO is stored either in the biomass (plants, ...
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How is global greenhouse gas emission calculated?
I am sure there are different methodologies to arrive at such a number. Can someone in layman terms describe some of the most widely used and trusted methods and what data are used? Sorry I am outside ...
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How will climate change affect the extent of the Sahara Desert?
Will it increase the size of it? (perhaps by increasing the extent of the Hadley Cells)?
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How stable is the Gulf Stream? Could it stop suddenly?
I'm not completely clear on what Western intensification means, but it looks like a pretty powerful (combination of) forces that presumably wouldn't be likely to change on a timescale of years (or ...
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When will the Final Ice Age happen?
As the Sun's luminosity slowly rises, the Earth's surface temperature will climb. Will Earth ever be too warm to have any more glacial periods? If so, when will that be?
Edit: The existing answer ...
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For what percentage of the earth's history has there been permanent ice?
Wikipedia comments here that "Permanent ice is actually a rare phenomenon in the history of the Earth, occurring only during the 20% of the time that the planet is under an icehouse effect." A "...
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Can climate change cause earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions?
Different scientists have brought forth a theory that climate change can cause earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. For example:
Professor Bill McGuire of University College London in his ...
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Tipping point theory, historical examples
This article gives a wonderful overview of tipping point theory, where a large system can be brought into a different state by a small perturbation.
Searching online I have found mostly articles on ...
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Why had climate change not been proven beyond doubt for so long?
I just read the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report and noticed that this is the first (or first very significant) report to state that climate change exists and can no longer be scientifically disproved. ...
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Is there any experiment to prove that CO2 with the atmosphere concentration can have greenhouse effect?
All gas molecules have the capability to absorb radiation energy. $\rm{CO}_2$ has much less capability to absorb radiation energy, comparing with water vapor.
In Earth's atmosphere currently $\rm{CO}...
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Why do we recycle paper?
Recycling metal and some plastics makes complete sense to me. Why bury something in a landfill that you'll have to find and dig up more of later. What I don't get is why we recycle paper products, ...
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If water is a renewable resource, why is there water scarcity?
Water is a renewable resource, renewed by the water cycle.
If we use water too quickly, water should get evaporated and come down again as precipitation.
So, Why is there water scarcity if water ...
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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, ...
user20559
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"The world will start COOLING DOWN in 2017"?
There's a story going around the low-grade news factories that one Dr. David Evans has predicted that the world will start cooling down in 2017. One source reports:
He says fundamental flaws in how ...
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How long to melt all the polar ice?
The answers to this question say that the sea level will rise 66m if all the polar ice, etc, melts.
How long will this take?
Transporting incredible amounts of heat energy to the poles and injecting ...
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Will increased precipitation in Antarctica prevent sea level rise?
It has been suggested that global warming will lead to increased precipitation in parts of Antarctica. This would sequester water in the ice sheet, preventing sea level rise.
However, the slope (and ...
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Oscillations in the Keeling curve?
I'm having a slightly difficult time understanding the Keeling curve, pictured here:
I understand that carbon dioxide (ppm) is increasing with respect to time, but why is there an oscillation between ...
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What are some near term effects of Global Warming?
Many of the predictions of Global Warming models are dated in the range of ~100 years or more from the present. I'm wondering if any models or data provide predictions for the more immediate future, ...
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Which percentage of $\text{CO}_2$ emissions are human made emissions?
I was watching a science/myth Youtube channel (science mixed with a lot of speculative/fantasy content) with 2M+ followers and the Youtuber said volcano made emissions were higher than human made ...
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Has the number of natural disasters per year increased significantly in the years since human-caused climate change started?
Human-caused global warming has had an increasingly significant effect on the earth since the industrial era began.
Since the beginning of the industrial era, has there been a significant increase in ...
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Relationship between natural disaster and global warming, in the media
Sorry in advance if this is too broad a question. Feel free to let me know if it is off-topic.
I don't know more than the next person around about climate change, but I am really not a climato-...
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What would happen if we could revert $\mathrm{CO}_2$ production but took it too far?
So recently, scientists managed to produce fuel basically out of thin air (water, air and sunlight).
And in a discussion I had with a friend, the question came up, what would happen if you took that ...
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Carbon dioxide on Mars, Venus and Earth
Earth's atmosphere is 0.038% carbon dioxide. Mars's atmosphere is 95.3% carbon dioxide. Venus's atmosphere is 96.5% carbon dioxide.
If Earth's climate is controlled by CO2, then why is Mars so cold ...
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Did the Neolithic Revolution have an effect on the earth's climate?
I imagine that human agriculture had a major effect on the composition of flora across the planet's surface.
Did the transition from gathering to growing have a measurable effect on climate? If so, ...
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Equation for predicting contrail formation
I am working on a data visualisation of airline flight paths and their probability of forming contrails.
Given weather data for a specific area (location, time, temperature, pressure and humidity) ...
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Is increase in atmospheric $\mathrm{CO}_2$ concentration affecting Earth's atmospheric pressure?
It's well known that the $\mathrm{CO}_2$ levels around the world are increasing, leading to an increase in overall surface temperature, etc.
But I'm wondering, are these gases (or the effects from ...
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How exactly is the "global average temperature" calculated and how reasonable is this method?
During the recent (2015) Paris climate negotiations there was a lot of talk in the media about "limiting the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius".
I keep wondering about what ...
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How were the sea levels around western Europe during the Medieval Warm Period?
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) or Medieval Climatic Anomaly was a time from about 950 to 1250 when climate was warmer than in the timespans immediately before and after.
My question is if this ...
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Synoptic weather predictibility under climate change scenarios
Under climate change scenarios, it is quite certain that high latitude regions will experience more warming than at low latitudes. For example, in winter the reduced area of sea ice and snow cover ...
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With so many positive feedbacks accelerating global warming, how did the earth ever re-enter ice ages after it came out of one?
We hear a lot about positive feedbacks when it comes to global warming. For example: ice reflects solar radiation, so as the ice melts more solar radiation is absorbed which accelerates warming; ...
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Could an icy/extremely-cold asteroid/comet ever strike and cool the Earth?
This is obviously an imaginary question, but it seems like something computable (which I don't have the mathematical ability to do so unfortunately). P.S. I do not have in-depth knowledge about comet/...
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Does this peer-reviewed study (referenced in Forbes) contradict the accepted position that climate change is real?
This Forbes article from 2013 (archive link here) with the headline "Majority Of Scientists Skeptical Of Global Warming Crisis" gets brandied around a lot. It states that
Only 36 percent of ...
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Does this paper, using neural nets, prove industrialization is irrelevant to global warming?
Recently, a paper was published by Abbot and Morahasy (2017) - see specifically Fig. 2. The thesis of the paper is to train an artificial neural network (ANN) on the temperature time series for pre-...
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Does climate change cause increase in CO2?
My main question is how do we know that increase in global temperature does not CAUSE an increase in CO2 concentration?
I am trying to develop my mental model of what's going on for the climate ...
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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 ...
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