Many people are confused about unusually severe and cold winters in the UK, western US, eastern Pacific and Iceland. Meanwhile, warmer temperatures are increasing in western Greenland, Siberia and northern Canada, running at a rate of 2C to 10C higher than normal. (Guardian.co.uk) Confusion about global warming and climate change increases with each scientific report, as it appears that expert scientific opinions do not agree or their reports are continuously changing on what is causing what and how.
Obviously, what science tells us about climate change depends on who is telling what. For example, the Science Rapid Response Team (CSRRT) looks at things differently than a political website with an agenda to sell and a vote to buy. It is up to the average citizen to understood that not everything is as it appears to be in the media. A true scientist states facts, covering diverse areas in the complex science of climate change. According to the CSRRT, there is a huge difference in what scientists are aware of concerning climate change and what the public knows-which is where the problem lies. Many times, scientific opinions are based on incorrect scientific information portrayed through the media either on purpose or because of reporting errors. Because of this, the CSRRT was developed to correct such situations-with top scientists, members of the media, office holders and their staff, and various levels of government.
There are numerous organizations available online that provides accurate scientific climate change information, such as NASA, NOAA, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Scientific research and testing on climate change is scientific, thorough and detailed more than private companies.
Climate change vs global warming
The average person uses the phrases “climate change” and “global warming” interchangeably, with many people considering them the same thing. The truth is, global warming is an overall warming of the planet with an average temperature over the entire Earth. Climate change refers to regional climate characteristics—temperature, rainfall, wind, humidity, and severe weather. Global warming is about how cool or warm the Earth is, while climate changes are defined by many factors.
Where confusion reigns is because they interact, with global warming proven to cause climate changes. This is due to an increase in carbon dioxide. This is what is discussed in scientific journals, not as incorrect data as in the public media. “Global warming refers to surface temperature increases, while climate change includes global warming and everything else that increasing greenhouse gas amounts will affect.” (NASA) By 1980, another scientific term entered the picture…”global change.” Including climate change, this included many other types of changes that adds further to the confusion.
According to NASA scientific studies, the changes in sea level and precipitation patterns have a huge impact on people-much more than rising temperatures. Because of this, scientific research is now studying a larger picture. This involves more than surface temperature change, which is where the term “global climate change” comes into play by the Climate Change (ipcc).
Carbon fingerprints
Up to this point, independent and direct observations have demonstrated that atmospheric carbon measurements show that burning fossil fuel has increased the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Its measurements prove that extra carbon dioxide is trapping heat, where it would normally escape into space.
This theory is also being proven because of an increasing number of greenhouse effects and warming patterns, changing the atmospheric structure as a whole. A few of these human fingerprints consist of less oxygen in the air, a shrinking upper atmosphere, a cooling upper atmosphere, a rising tropopause, less heat escaping into space, night are warming faster than days, more fossil fuel carbon in the air, more heat is returning to earth, winter is warming faster than summer, there is more fossil fuel in the coral; and there is a developing pattern of ocean warming. Altogether, this is part of the climate change currently going on within Earth.
Increased global warming causing climate changes
Unfortunately, non-scientific people have a tendency to look at just a small piece of the puzzle, what the Native Americans refer to as mouse vision instead of hawk vision. These same people will argue vehemently that humans do not effect carbon dioxide emissions as much as natural emissions, with over 97% of climate experts agreeing that humans are the direct cause of global warming. What they do not understand is that nature can absorb 788 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year, with natural absorptions balancing nature’s natural emissions. Why? Nature was made to emit and absorb carbon dioxide for a balancing act. People are unable to do this as over half of their carbon dioxide goes into the air and stays there. Presently, there is strong scientific evidence that carbon dioxide in the air is at its highest in over 2 million years because of fossil fuel burning…and increasing as we speak.
Scientific laboratory experiments and satellites are showing direct evidence that less heat is escaping into space over the past 20 years. This is due to the carbon dioxide trapping infrared radiation—referred to as “thermal radiation.” Testing on global warming and climate changes with data and different data analysis techniques has been done with numerous independent studies using reconstructed temperatures gathered from the past 1,000 years.
What does any of this have to do with climate changes? The hottest 12 months on global record have been from June 2009 to May 2010, with the rate of energy building up at a rapid rate. In fact, the period from 2000-2009 has been scientifically proven that it is the hottest period on record, even though the average person says the weather is cooling down.
When the climate on earth builds up or loses heat, it forces a change in the Earth’s planetary energy balance. In the past 1,000 years, this has been caused by the sun, carbon dioxide and aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air). Scientific studies show that humans have caused a very rapid disturbance to the climate system that is very profound in nature.
Climate sensitivity
If the greenhouse gases on Earth were doubled, how much would the climate change—especially the temperatures? Climate sensitivity refers to the change in the average global surface air temperature, following the radiative forcing of a unit change. Climate change is being pushed by excessive climate sensitivity as shown through various scientific techniques: ocean heat, satellite readings, past climate changes and climate models, instrumental measurements and volcanic eruptions. The independent scientific studies have covered a range of specific periods while looking at different aspects of the climate—analyzing each test with various methods.
Conclusion
Anyone can say there is no such thing as climate change, global warming or global change. It is an easy thing to say, but scientifically it has become a proven fact by the majority of climate scientists who do this for a living. Only another scientist has the ability to disprove it. A statistic teacher once said that anything can be proven by numbers if desired, but science is where true objectivity comes in—as long as the source is legitimate , all sides and areas are studied, which results in unbiased conclusions.
