ATMO 336 Lecture 14: Historical Temperature Changes
24 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are increasing due to the activities of man. It is difficult to make precise predictions of how much warming will occur and the associated climate changes that will follow. 18,000 years ago, the earth was in an ice age, but today glaciers only cover about 10% of the earth"s la(cid:374)d surfa(cid:272)e. To give us some idea about the magnitude and speed of natural climate changes throughout the history of the earth. To help us understand present-day climate and how it might change in the future. To test hypotheses about the causes of climate change. The polar regions did not have ice and the global average temperature was 8-15 c warmer. Long before humanity existed, the global climate was much warmer than it is now. The warm conditions were interrupted by several periods of glaciation. The pleistocene epoch the most recent glacial period began about 2 million years before present.
