Global Climate Change Background Information

From Sir David King’s Plenary Lecture at the AAAS, Global Warming: The Imperatives for Action (see link below).

In less than 200 years, human activity has increased the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases by some 50% relative to pre-industrial levels. At about 372 ppm, today's atmospheric carbon dioxide level is higher than at any time in at least the past 420,000 years. Figure source: University of Berne and NOAA.

Updated on June 30, 2015

Global Climate Change Background Information

Introduction

The purpose of this site is to provide background information on Global Climate Change site. Suggestions for other links and reports would be greatly appreciated. Please send suggestions for information or your comments for posting as an email attachment to Dale Meade .

New Items

National Climate Assessment 2014 - May 6, 2014
Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of climate change: The Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (WGIII AR5) provides a comprehensive assessment of all relevant options for mitigating climate change through limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as activities that remove them from the atmosphere. The report is massive (2,000 pages), here is a small piece Slides summarizing IPCC WGIII AR5. Posted April 16, 2014
John Holdren discusses "Global Climate Disruption" at Harvard Environmental Action Committee on Climate Change Nov 6, 2007. YouTube link posted April 18, 2008
John Holdren on the late Show with David Letterman - video clip. April 18, 2008
Former Vice President Al Gore testified to a Joint House Science and Commerce Subcommittee meetiing at 10:00 am March 21, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee at 2:30 pm. New York Times account of Gore testimony. A video archive is available on the C-SPAN3 web page. March 21, 2007
- House Hearing on Climate Change with Fmr. V.P. Al Gore
- Former V.P. Al Gore at Senate Environment & Public Works Cmte. Climate Change Hearing
AAAS President John P. Holdren Urges Swift Action to Build a Sustainable Future at AAAS Annual Meeting on Sustainability. Holdren Power Point Vgs - February 18, 2007
IPCC 2007 Report Blames Humans for Climate Change -BBC News - Global climate change is "very likely" to have a human cause, an influential group of scientists has concluded. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Summary Report) said temperatures were probably going to increase by 1.8-4C (3.2-7.2F) by the end of the century. It also projected that sea levels were most likely to rise by 28-43cm, and global warming was likely to influence the intensity of tropical storms. February 2, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth - the case for action now - Al Gore Posted February , 2007
China-US Climate Change Forum held May 23-24, 2006, at UC Berkeley many good presentations available as pdf or webcasts Posted February , 2007
Climate Change Simulations of the 20th and 21st Century: W. Washington, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) April, 2006 - excellent overview presentation. Posted April 30, 2014
Blair Says G-8 Leaders Need to Move Past Kyoto Debate (Update2)(Bloomberg) "I recognize that greenhouse gases are an issue and that we've got to deal with it,'' Bush said. "I also strongly believe that technology and the proper use of technology will enable the world to grow our economies and at the same time be wiser about how we protect the environment.'' July 7, 2005
RealClimate is a commentary site on climate science by working climate scientists for the interested public and journalists. We aim to provide a quick response to developing stories and provide the context sometimes missing in mainstream commentary.New, December 23, 2004
Programs Identified by the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability New, November 24, 2004
U.S. Climate Change Technology Program A multi-agency research and development program for the development of climate change technology. New, April 8, 2004
Sir David King's Plenary Lecture Slides (final version) and Transcript at the AAAS 2004 Annual meeting calls for actions to mitigate Global Warming including development of fusion energy (1.4 MB, pdf). Climate Change Science: Adapt, Mitigate, or Ignore? Sir David King in Science January 9, 2004. United Kingdom Global Climate modeling activities can be found at Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research New, February 14, 2004
Global Warming-The Science, the Impacts and the Politics Sir John Houghton is Co-chair of the Scientific Assessment Working Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. New, March 10, 2004
Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and related material. The plan was issued by the Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research: (posted 15 September 2003)
Energy Options and Paths to Climate Stabilization, Aspen Global Change Institute, July 6-11, 2003
Opportunities for Fundamental Research and Breakthrough in Nuclear Fusion - As part of its evaluation of the area of Advanced Nuclear Technologies, the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University held a one-and-a-half-day workshop May 1–2, 2006 at Princeton, NJ on fusion energy. This workshop focused on some fundamental scientific research in the fields of magnetically confined plasmas and materials for fusion. May 3, 2006
Strategic Plan for the Climate Change Science Program Review draft, November 2002
US Global Change Research Program
US Global Climate Change Science Program
The Great Global Experiment including The Problem with the Kyoto Protocol by Jonathan Shaw, Harvard Alumni Magazine November 27, 2002
President Bush Announces Clear Skies & Global Climate Change Initiatives February 18, 2002
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) finished the COP 7 meeting at Marrakech on November 9, 2001. Preliminary Marrakech Accords
Carlo Rubbia, the Future of Energy Opening remarks at the 18th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference, Sorrento, Italy, October, 2000.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) finished their COP 6 meeting at Bonn on July 19, 2001. See also UNFCCC web site .
Senior Bush Official Outlines Administration's Approach to Global Warming. The Keynote Address (22 kB, pdf)at the May 1-3, 2001 AAAS Colloquium on Science and Technology Policy was delivered by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. See also AAAS Colloquium on Science and Technology policy .
In reports, Anthropogenic Warming of Earth's Climate System, by Levitus et. al and Detection of Anthropogenic Climate Change in the World's Oceans by Barnett (442kB, pdf) published in Science April 13, 2001, groups from the National Oceanographic Data Center and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found a direct connection between emissions of greenhouse gases and warming of the oceans. Science reporter Richard Kerr described the articles Rising Global Temperature, Rising Uncertainty (36kB, html) and Greenhouse Warming Passes One More Test (36kB, html)
A draft report IPCC, Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (142kB, pdf) has just been issued February 19, 2001 . See also Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Fusion as an Energy Source

The Coming Energy Winter Brendan McNamara, Leabrook Computing, Seminar to Culham Fusion Group, March 1, 2004.New, March 10, 2004
Fusion in the Future Energy Mix Marc Beurskens, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics, Seminar to JET Fusion Group, February 5, 2004. New, March 10, 2004
Will fusion be welcome in the world of the mid 21st century? Global trends and energy sustainability considerations for the 21st century. Ed Frieman Maxwell Prize Speech to the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics, November 14, 2002.

Starting Point

A good collection of general information can be found at the New Scientist website on Global Warming Issues.
The Coming Climate , an article in Scientific American, 1997

Web Links

Aspen Global Change Institute
Carbon Cycle Modeling Group LLNL
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center Columbia University
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Global Energy Strategy Program
World Meteorological Organization UN
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
- Official COP 6 Website
- Official COP 7, Marrakesh Website
Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Global Climate Change Modeling at Princeton
United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP documents on Climate Change
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Global Warming
Meteorological Office UK (update URL-6/20/15)
Extreme Weather
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace
Worldwatch Institute
WWF-UK Climate Change Campaign
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
Natural Resources Defence Council
World Climate Report (skeptic's view)

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