A factoid I read tonight and can’t get out of my head: In 1978, there were 4 billion people on earth. Today there are over 8 billion. By 2100, there will be 10.1 billion.
A factoid I read tonight and can’t get out of my head: In 1978, there were 4 billion people on earth. Today there are over 8 billion. By 2100, there will be 10.1 billion.
Congratulations to the Toronto Maple Leafs for getting their first Round One playoff win in nearly 20 years. And big cheers to my Tampa Bay Lightning, who have had a hell of a few years of playoff hockey. Three Cup finals in three years, winning two… that’s a hell of a run.
And that’s it for the climate quiz. Hope you enjoyed it. Remember: climate change is real and scary, but it’s not hopeless. Lots of people are working on ways to keep the worst of global warming at bay, so educate yourself, and do what you can to help. 4/4
Microscopic fossil shells can reveal climatic conditions by the amount and type of calcium carbonate in their shells.
CarbonBrief.org has a great primer on “How ‘proxy’ data reveals the climate of the Earth’s distant past” ¾
You’re familiar with paleoproxies if you’ve ever heard of studying tree rings to understand historic periods of drought, pests, or fire. Evidence of chemical changes in air and water can also be found trapped in layers of ice drilled out of ancient glaciers. 2/4
Today’s answer: By studying “paleoproxies” such as ocean sediments and sedimentary rocks, we can study ocean and atmospheric temperature from as many as tens of millions of years ago. ¼
Sooo… How far back can we measure ocean and atmospheric temperatures? a) Hundreds of years b) Thousands of years c) Hundreds of thousands of years d) Millions of years
Climate.gov has a great dashboard of climate indicators so that you can check out some of this evidence for yourself. Just take a look at some of the trend snapshots. The trends are… not great. https://www.climate.gov/climatedashboard
3/3
… more things you can measure to look for evidence of climate change: 6. Strengthening mid-latitude westerly winds 7. Fewer extreme cold events / more extreme heat events 8. Increased precipitation events 9. Biological and ecological changes
2/3
Things you can measure to look for evidence of climate change include: 1. Surface, oceanic, and atmospheric temperatures 2. Ice melt 3. Sea level rise 4. Storm frequency and intensity 5. Reduced snow cover … 1/3