climate change power point

First of all, you should know that weather and climate are not the same thing.

WEATHER IS:
• Short term
• Limited area
• Can change rapidly • Difficult to predict
WEATHER is what’s happening outside your window right now. CLIMATE is the average of many years of weather observation. CLIMATE IS:
• Long term
• Wide area
• Seasonal changes • Measured over long spans of time Climate is affected by many factors ABIOTIC FACTORS:

BIOTIC FACTORS:

Latitude

Transpiration

Altitude

Respiration

Ocean Currents

Photosynthesis

Topography

Decomposition

Solar Radiation

Digestion

Evaporation
Orbital Variations
Volcanic Activity

Greenhouse Gases are essential to our climate http://www.larryjzimmerman.com/wproblems/warming/greenhouse.gif

Planets with very little greenhouse effect are either very cold…
Pluto’s average temperature is –370° F

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/pluto/statistics.html

…or they have huge temperature swings from day to night.
On Mars, there is about a 300 degree F difference between high and low temperatures

(http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/planetary/mars.ht ml )

Planets with abundant greenhouse gases are very hot The average temperature on Venus is about 855° F! http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/venus/statistics.html …and then there’s Earth….

…which is just right…
…for the moment, anyway.

A number of greenhouse gases occur naturally in the
Earth’s atmosphere
•Water vapor
•Carbon dioxide
•Methane
•Nitrous oxide

With no greenhouse gases at all in its atmosphere, scientists estimate that
Earth’s average atmospheric temperature would be about -18° C, or about 0°F http://plaza.ufl.edu/knhuang/project2/cause.html The greenhouse gas content of the atmosphere is being altered by human activity.
The result of this change is global warming.

Evidence of Climate
Change comes from many different sources.

Glaciers are melting away worldwide
Agassiz Glacier,
Montana, in
1913…
…and in 2005

Pasterze
Glacier,
Austria, in
1875…