ENVS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: General Circulation Model
1 May 2015
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Document Summary
Human activities are contributing to climate change, primarily by releasing billions of carbon dioxide and other heat trapping gases. Buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is causing changing precipitation patterns, increasing ocean temperatures, sea level and acidity. Glaciers and sea ice is also melting rapidly. Weather: conditions of the atmosphere over a short period of time and typically for a local area. A global climate model is a mathematical representation of the interactions between and within the ocean, land, ice and atmosphere. Models try to capture the complex interactions between earth"s components. Mitigate: refers to reducing the scale of climate change, through reductions in ghg. Adaptation: refers to coping with and taking advantage of climate change through location and impact specific strategies. Changes in sun"s energy, shifts in ocean currents and others affect the earth"s climate (but they do not explain the significant warming that has taken place)
