CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

One of the reasons for conducting global change research is to inform decision making related to energy policy, since fossil fuel burning is the largest contributor of additional greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Some of the relevant questions being addressed by global change research are: What is the character of natural climate variability? What is the relationship between emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases? How might changes in greenhouse gas concentrations affect climate, i.e., how much, how fast, in what ways, and where is climate likely to change under various scenarios of greenhouse gas concentrations? What impacts are likely to occur and how adaptable are human and natural systems to these changes? This talk will provide an overview of some recent scientific developments related to these questions, drawing from paleoclimatic reconstructions, direct observations, and model-based analyses.