Global temperatures shift over many years.Byline: The Register-Guard While Hollywood is busy leveling cities with tornadoes, tsunamis and hail the size of hedgehogs, researchers such as the University of Oregon's Patrick Bartlein have created charts and maps that offer a more realistic picture of global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. . The graphs show temperature shifts over thousands of years. For instance, an abrupt change 14,600 years ago cooled the planet by about 9 degrees over a period of about a decade. Then, the Earth warmed about 13,000 years ago, a process that took about a century. One of the most dramatic warming shifts occurred 11,600 years ago with the biggest leap to hotter weather coming in a scant three years - a virtual blink of an eye in the context of geologic time geologic time Interval of time occupied by the Earth's geologic history, extending from c. 3.9 billion years ago (corresponding to the age of the oldest known rocks) to the present day. It is, in effect, the part of the Earth's history that is recorded in rock strata. . The temperature spikes take on more meaning when paired with Bartlein's maps showing how the world's flora and fauna morphed as the weather changed. Once upon a time, the Sahara Desert was range land and the Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley (pronounced [wɪˈlæ.mɪt], with the accent on the second syllable) is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its looked as dry as the Columbia basin The Columbia Basin, the drainage basin of the Columbia River, occupies a large area–about 673,396 square kilometres (260,000 square miles)—of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. . Our current century's 2-degree increase has already manifested itself in earlier springs, particularly in the West, Bartlein said. While that may not seem like a bad thing, the overall result for Oregon could be more drought in the summer and more flooding in the winter. Movies that dramatize dram·a·tize v. dram·a·tized, dram·a·tiz·ing, dram·a·tiz·es v.tr. 1. To adapt (a literary work) for dramatic presentation, as in a theater or on television or radio. 2. these changes come few and far between and usually follow the post-apocalyptic view - "Soylent Green" and "The Planet of the Apes," both starring Charlton Heston; and "Waterworld" and "The Postman," both starring Kevin Costner. Meanwhile, for those who want a more accurate look at abrupt weather change, here are some of the Web sites that Bartlein recommends to his students. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and Global Warming Site, good introductory information and tutorials: www .epa.gov/globalwarming/index.html National Climate Data Center, global warming FAQs and another good source of basic information: www.ncdc .noaa.gov/ol/climate/globalwarming.html Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “IPCC” redirects here. For other uses, see IPCC (disambiguation). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by two United Nations organizations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment : www .ipcc.ch/ U.S. Global Change Research Program, umbrella agency that manages general global change research in the United States: www.usgcrp.gov/ Implementing Climate and Global Change Research, a review of the final U.S. Climate Change Research Program Strategic Plan: http://books .nap.edu/catalog/10635.html Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change is a non-profit organization based in Arizona. Its stated purpose is to "disseminate factual reports and sound commentary on new developments in the world-wide scientific quest to determine the climatic and biological , the greenhouse skeptic's favorite Web page: www.co2science.org/ Global Climate Coalition, a voice for business: www .globalclimate.org/index.htm Pew Center on Global Climate Change The Pew Center on Global Climate Change is a non-profit advocacy organization that was established in 1998. Its Board of Directors includes Kenneth Arrow and Klaus Töpfer. [1] It is supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which "is working to create a policy environment , a different, more environmentally oriented voice for business: www.pewclimate .org/ UO current weather and climate page links: http: //geography.uoregon .edu/weather/ UO Department of Geography Environmental Change Research Group: http://geography .uoregon.edu/envchange/index .html |
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