Climate and Global Change

Warm near the equator and cold at the poles, our planet is able to support a variety of living things because of its diverse regional climates. The average of all these regions makes up Earth's global climate. Climate has cooled and warmed throughout Earth history for various reasons. Rapid warming like we see today is unusual in the history of our planet. The scientific consensus is that climate is warming as a result of the addition of heat-trapping greenhouse gases which are increasing dramatically in the atmosphere as a result of human activities.

Although we humans have never experienced fast <a href="/earth/climate/climate.html&dev=1/windows.html">global
warming</a>, our
planet has. And our planet keeps records of what happened. The oldest
records that the
<a href="/earth/earth.html&dev=1/windows.html">Earth</a> keeps
are in its
<a href="/earth/geology/sed_intro.html&dev=1/windows.html">rocks</a>.
In this image, <a href="/headline_universe/olpa/methane_28may08.html&dev=1/windows.html">geologists Chris von der Borch and Dave
Mrofka</a> collect
sediment samples in South Australia. These rocks hold clues to help
explain why climate changed abruptly 635 million years ago.<p><small><em>                    Courtesy of Martin Kennedy, UCR</em></small></p>Coral animals build reefs in warm, tropical seawater. However, <a href="/earth/changing_planet/ocean_temperatures_intro.html&dev=1/windows.html">seawater can be too warm</a> for their liking.  If waters get too warm, coral animals lose the algae that live within their little bodies, a process called coral bleaching. Without the algae, corals have less nutrition. Unless cooler temperatures return, allowing algae to
 return, the coral dies.<p><small><em>Credit: UNC</em></small></p>Many forms of air pollution are human-made. Industrial plants, power plants
and vehicles with internal combustion engines produce <a href="/earth/climate/nitrogen_airpollution.html&dev=1/windows.html">nitrogen
oxides</a>,
<a href="/earth/Atmosphere/vocs.html&dev=1/windows.html">VOCs</a>,
<a href="/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_monoxide.html&dev=1/windows.html">carbon monoxide</a>,
<a href="/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html&dev=1/windows.html">carbon dioxide</a>,
<a href="/physical_science/chemistry/sulfur_oxides.html&dev=1/windows.html">sulfur dioxide</a> and
<a href="/earth/Atmosphere/particulates.html&dev=1/windows.html">particulates</a>.
Some of these gases are <a href="/earth/climate/cli_greengas.html&dev=1/windows.html">greenhouse
gases</a>,
meaning that they retain heat in the Earth's atmosphere, due to the Earth's
<a href="/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html&dev=1/windows.html">greenhouse effect</a>.<p><small><em>Image copyright UCAR</em></small></p>Scientists at the University of Michigan have found that <a href="/earth/polar/cryosphere_permafrost1.html&dev=1/windows.html">permafrost</a> in the <a href="/earth/polar/polar_north.html&dev=1/windows.html">Arctic</a> is extremely sensitive to sunlight.  Exposure to sunlight releases carbon gases trapped in the permafrost, including <a href="/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html&dev=1/windows.html">climate-warming</a> <a href="/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html&dev=1/windows.html">carbon dioxide</a>, to the <a href="/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html&dev=1/windows.html">atmosphere</a> much faster than previously thought.<p><small><em>George Kling, The University of Michigan</em></small></p><b><i>Looking for online resources to use in support of climate change education?</i></b>  Our <a href="/teacher_resources/climate.html&dev=1/windows.html">Climate Change Educator Resources page</a> provides links to online content, classroom activities, interactives, and videos as well as resources provided by other leading organizations and agencies on this topic.  Our <a href="/teacher_resources/climate_change_course.html&dev=1/windows.html">Climate Change Course Content page</a> provides links to online content for a range of climate change associated topics.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of   Mila Zinkova, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license</em></small></p>A <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024035/article">study</a> of over 40,000 written entries in Irish Annals and ice core measurements shows a strong correlation between <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/interior/eruptions.html">volcanic eruptions</a> and extreme cold weather in Ireland over a 1200 year period, from 431 to 1649.  During this time up to 48 volcanic eruptions were identified in Greenland ice core records through deposition of volcanic sulfate in annual layers of ice. Find out more about <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/geosphere_volcanoes_influence_on_climate.html">volcanoes and climate</a>.<p><small><em>Image Courtesy of Marco Fulle</em></small></p>

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