An inadvertent, great, global experiment
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, people have been adding greenhouse gases to our planet's atmosphere. Thomas Knutson believes that humanity is essentially running an "experiment" with Earth's climate. Scientists are now monitoring this "experiment," trying to predict climate change in the century ahead.
JB: This is Earth & Sky. As humans enter the 21st century, virtually all climate scientists predict changes ahead.
DB: Thomas Knutson is a research meteorologist with NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey. Knutson helped develop one of the world’s leading computer models that simulates how hurricanes respond to climate. He told Earth & Sky that what he’s about to express are his views, and don’t necessarily reflect those of his agency, NOAA.
Thomas Knutson: Well, the big picture is that, as I see it, humanity is running an inadvertent, great, global experiment on climate, where we’re adding greenhouse gases … to the climate system. And we’re expecting that there are going to be pronounced impacts on the climate system, some of which we’re already beginning to see, and more of which we’re expecting over the course of the next century.
JB: Impacts to Earth’s climate, Knutson said, are likely to be rising sea level, heat waves, and more intense hurricanes as tropical oceans get warmer.
Thomas Knutson: And what I think our role is as scientists is to try and use the tools that we have – a combination of data analysis, models, and theory – to try to understand where it is that we’re headed with this experiment before we actually get there.
DB: More at earthsky.org. Thanks today to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
Earth Is Melting at Both Ends, from ABC News.
Climate Change, a special report from New Scientist.
Global Change, from the National Academies.
World Wildlife Fund Global Change
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Pew Center on Global Climate Change
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Our thanks to:
Thomas Knutson
Research Meteorologist
NOAA?s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
Princeton, New Jersey
Additional Teacher Resources
EPA: Climate Change
EPA’s Climate Change Site offers comprehensive information on the issue of climate change in a way that is accessible and meaningful to all parts of society ? communities, individuals, business, states and localities, and governments.
NASA: Global Change Master Directory
This site provides a comprehensive directory to all NASA’s earth science data and services that relate to global climate change.
