Global Climate Change Research http://www.exploratorium.edu/climate/index.html
Home and Overview of Climate Change Research
1. What will this site tell us?
2. What do we know about climate change?
3. Overview: Atmosphere-What do we know, what is the evidence and uncertainties?
4. Overview:Hydrosphere-What do we know, and what is the evidence and uncertainties?
5. Overview:Cryosphere-What do we know, and what is the evidence and uncertainties?
6. Overview:Biosphere-What do we know, and what is the evidence and uncertainties?
7. Sum it up in three sentences.
1. Define the glossary terms you think need to be defined.
2. Does the atmosphere get colder and thinner as you go higher, until it simply turns into the vacuum of outer space?
3. Why is carbon dioxide such an important greenhouse gas? Don't other gases exist in the atmosphere in much higher concentrations?
4. Would melting the polar ice caps or glaciers reduce the earth's albedo? What effects could this have?
5. Why is measuring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere so important in understanding global climate change?
6. How can we tell the difference between short-term fluctuations in the weather and long-term climate change?
7. What causes repeating cycles of atmospheric warming and cooling?
1. Define glossary terms you think need to be defined.
2. Why is studying the ocean important to understanding climate change?
3. I see an unusual blob of color–what is that?
4. Why is this data useful to fisheries?
5. Is continued global warming likely to lead to a greater chance of droughts worldwide? Won’t some areas get more rain than they do now, rather than less?
6. Why does monitoring ocean temperature matter when what we want to know about is climate change and air temperature?
7. Is there a connection between El Niño and global warming?
1. Define glossary terms you think need to be defined.
2. How will a warmer climate affect Antarctica’s ice sheets?
3. Will continued global warming affect the Arctic and Antarctic regions in the same way?
4. With so much variation in sea ice every year, how do scientists know if recent changes can be blamed on global warming?
5. Using ice cores to understand climate change requires that we know the age of different sections of the ice—but how accurately can the age of ice cores be measured?
6. How are glaciers in Antarctica changing? Glaciologist Andrew Fountain talks about his research on the glaciers in Antarctic's dry valleys.
7. If much of Antarctica is getting colder, does that mean global warming is slowing down or reversing itself?
1. Define glossary terms you think need to be defined
2. Have biologists noticed shifts in animal populations related to climate change?
3. Do scientists have anything good to say about coral bleaching?
4. Do aerosols produced by fires affect cloud formation and precipitation?
5. Can I help scientists track changes in the climate by gathering data about the timing of natural events where I live?
6. How much carbon dioxide do forests take out of the atmosphere?
7. Why should I care about the extinction of an obscure species in Costa Rica?
1. Define glossary terms you think need to be defined
2. How likely is it that climate change will have significant global effects in the next hundred years?
3. If we can't predict whether it will rain next week, how can anyone predict what precipitation will be years from now?
4. Do all scientists agree on how risk of malaria would increase with global warming?
5. Why is predicting future climate so difficult?
6. I heard that a giant ice sheet recently broke off the coast of Antarctica. Did that cause sea level to rise?
7. Do scientists agree that increased carbon dioxide emissions contribute to global warming?
