Climate Change: The Evidence and Our Options - Perspectives on Ocean Science

In this Second Annual Keeling Lecture from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Lonnie G. Thompson, distinguished professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University and recipient of both the National Medal of Science and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, provides insight into the convincing evidence of climate change provided by glaciers and polar ice-caps, and the implications that inaction in the face of this rapid change will have on societies on a global scale. [6/2011] [Show ID: 20913]

More from: Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series

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[MrZimzim]

The melting from underneath the ice in east antarctica is also decelerated due to more snowfall which disrupts the circulation of warmer water from below.

So ice in west antarctica is decreasing, east is probably increasing but nobody really knows the net effect on the ice in antarctica. And that the east is increasing is due to warmer temperatures.

[robertpoen]

Eight years later we're still having the same debates. Last 5 years have all been warmest on record. Pleiocene bearing down on us, faster and faster. We're now at 410 ppm, still accelerating. Won't be long now.. Bye!

[grindupBaker]

Pictorial 4:29 shows more warming in the upper and middle troposphere than in the lower troposphere but measurements plots at 5:02 to 5:20 show more warming in the lower troposphere than in the upper troposphere. This should be explained in this talk.

[therepublicof]

Lonnie Thompson - you make Ohio proud! Great video.

[Woltato]

Much of Einsteins theory of special relativity was not physically tested. For example the idea that relative time changes for a body traveling at close to light speed. As far as I know there was no spaceship built that could travel that fast to test this back in the 1920's. Maybe you know otherwise. The majority of his theory was based on abstract calculation and the extrapolation of observable phenomena.

[MrZimzim]

There has been extensive studies of how much crop yields will increase with higher CO2 levels and the consensus is that, the yield will increase, but very very marginally and it will absolutly not balance out the atropogenic CO2. CO2 does not increase rain, it will increase in some places and decrease in some places, unfortunately the decrease will mainly be in places where there today is extensive agricultural land and the increase will mainly be in places where you can't grow anything anyway.

[peterhartman]

Both sides can present evidence that it is changing or its not changing, the debate will never end until the changes become really bad.

[zacsamuel]

question? how did CO2 come into the equation before the conclusion ... asking to understand

[jcl]

I vote for you. People like 1000frolly should just stop this denial nonsense. The science is very clear on this now. It would also probably make his life easier too - as admitting ones own faults is the first step to enlightenment. There really is no time to argue on the physical facts of CO2 and its heat trapping properties - we really should focus on finding solutions to avoid complete disaster.

[RicksPoker]

Rather than just doing your propaganda bit and posting a link to a denier site, why not watch this video and actually comment on what the scientist says? Too much trouble? Might learn something?

I thought so.

[MrZimzim]

What do you even mean by 10 times cooler?

There is no consensus on the ice on Antarctica. It is very hard to measure the amount of ice and different studies have used different methods and arrived at different results, some that the ice is increasing, some that the ice is decreasing. The ice of west antarctica is for sure decreasing and the east is probably growing somewhat because of increased snowfall due to higher moister content in the air due to higher temperatures.

[xbrown]

I have. Which is why I know that the Met office did not say that nor could from their data.

[grindupBaker]

It's all about the oceans. If ocean surface warms from present 16.1 to 18.9 over next hundred years or so, there's no reason why the deep ocean wouldn't keep grabbing that and warm from its present 4 degrees to 7 degrees, and 7 is way more above the water melt point than 4 and it all laps Antarctic & Greenland over the centuries.

[Loki_]

Really good lecture, lots of info in there.

[goanywhere]

It is now 2019 and nothing like the sea level rise Dr Thompson has foreshadowed has occurred, therefore less than 2% of the world's terrestrial ice has been lost, even with the loss of glacial ice that has been shown in this video. So is a readjustment rather than a net melting occurring?

[subotai]

Throwing up dozens of graphs for a few seconds without explaining them is not convincing. Feel like I just watched an infomercial for a time share in Florida.

[grindupBaker]

I did. Liua, Judith Curry, Wangb, Songb & Hortonc say that "the Arctic region has been warming strongly in recent decades" and that's "played a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters". They say AGW is causing some snowier winters some places.

[rosshill]

If climate change is caused by natural changes not man made effects and I think natural causes are far more likely given 
the minute effect of man made pollution and also the fact that man made pollution is still miniscule and was almost non existent before the 20th century, then we shall simple have to adapt as they did in the mini ice age of the 14-18 centuries.

[xbrown]

Where did you get that bit? It was not the Met office they give no such findings.

[andyme]

37:24 ~ "...FWG (Furtwangler Glacier) glacier should disappear before 2018." I'm happy to report it's 2020 and you can clearly see FWG on google maps with an imagery date of @2020. It is slightly smaller but doesn't appear to be disappearing in the next few years. I'm glad you can recalculate your models now for a slower warming for this climate change. Please post results so people will stop using this old data.
38:07 ~ based on the full picture of Kilimonjaro, the current photo in 2020 actually shows more snow and ice that this one. Although FWG has receded some have others not grown?