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Welcome to the Global Change Project! |
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Welcome
to the homepage of the Paleontological Research Institution and Museum
of the Earth’s Global Change Project. The goal of this website is to
collect and synthesize available information on global change and
present it in a straightforward, unbiased, easily-accessed format for
scientists, educators, students, and members of the public. Much
information is available on the internet and in the media about the
important subject of global change, and it can be difficult to sift
through. This site is a resource for those wishing to educate
themselves and others so that as individuals and citizens we can make
informed choices and learn to live more lightly on the planet. |
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Global change
encompasses the many changes involving Earth that occur over time. This
includes changes in climate, biodiversity, land use, and natural
resources, among other things. ‘Climate change’ and ‘global change’ are
often used interchangeably, but this usage is incorrect; climate change
is just one facet of the larger set of conditions that make up global
change. |
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The Purpose of This Website |
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The
Paleontological Research Institution and its Museum of the Earth
recognize, based on scientific research, that humans are responsible
for a large proportion of current climate change. Throughout this
website you will see scientific support for this hypothesis.
Why do scientists think that humans are causing much of current climate change?
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere.
- Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased dramatically, by nearly 50%, since the industrial revolution.
- Since
the late 1980s, Earth’s average temperature has been gradually
rising. This change is not accounted for in natural
variation. Climate models that incorporate increasing CO2 explain this trend better than any models based on natural changes.
- Models that were developed as early as the 1970s have shown that high CO2 concentrations equate with warm periods in Earth’s history.
- Most significant problems with the hypothesis of CO2-based climate change have been answered in the past 30 years.
- There
are still uncertainties about how the climate system works, but none of
these areas of research are expected to prove the basic hypothesis of
human-induced climate change wrong.
Why should you care that the Earth’s climate is changing?
- Billions
of people will be impacted by changing coastlines, water availability,
temperature changes. It will change where and how we live and
where and how we access food.
- When
climate changes rapidly, whether natural or not, it means that whole
species will go extinct because they can’t migrate or adapt quickly
enough. This is true, not only for animals, but also for plants
we depend upon.
- Climate is an
interactive system with feedback loops – change one thing and you
can impact the whole system. The more we change the climate, the
more feedback loops triggered that will cause even greater climatic
change.
Why does PRI and its Museum of the Earth promote the viewpoint that human-caused climate change is happening?
- When
most reputable scientists who are experts in a particular field come to
the same conclusion, using large amounts of independent evidence that
they have gathered and studied over the course of a decade or more,
experience suggests that they and we are approaching a real
understanding of the topic.
- PRI
provides scientific information from this scientific consensus. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- over 2000 scientists from
around the world -- and most other climate scientists today agree that
the Earth is warming and that it is due to human influences.
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