Understanding Climate's Influence on Human Evolution. Overview Authors Committee on the Earth system Context for Hominin Evolution; National Research Council Description The hominin fossil record documents a history of critical evolutionary events that have ultimately shaped and defined what it means to be human, including the origins of bipedalism; the emergence of our genus Homo; the first use of stone tools; increases in brain size; and the emergence of Homo sapiens, tools, and culture. The Earth's geological record suggests that some evolutionary events were coincident with substantial changes in African and Eurasian climate, raising the possibility that critical junctures in human evolution and behavioral development may have been affected by the environmental characteristics of the areas where hominins [read less] Suggested Citation National Research Council.
Import this citation to: The Way Scientists Try to Convince People Is Hopeless | Planet3.0. Cities Affect Global Weather Currents. The heat emanating from large metropolitan areas may be changing weather patterns thousands of miles away. A composite image of Earth at night, compiled from over 400 satellite images, shows the locations of major cities, which new research suggests can have far-reaching effects on temperature. NASA AND NOAAEscaped heat from buildings, cars, and other sources can change the weather in other parts of the country, say the authors of a study published yesterday (January 27) in Nature Climate Change.
According to the climate models, city-generated heat may be causing warming by 1 degree Celsius in North America and northern Asia mostly over the winter and fall months, by warming the jet stream currents flowing over cities. On the other hand, parts of Europe may experience decreases in temperature by the same amount, due to changes in atmospheric circulation caused by the warmed currents. La Biodiversité menacée : quelles solutions pour demain ? - Extrait 1/3 - videos.arte.tv. 7. Watch 131 Years of Global Warming in 26 Seconds. Don't Have Flash? Watch this video on your iPad or iPhone here While temperatures soared for many this summer, this video takes the longer historical view. It comes to us from our friends at NASA and is an amazing 26-second animation depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880.
That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide and clean air laws reduced emissions of pollutants that had a cooling effect on the climate, and thus were masking some of the global warming signal. The data come from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. As NASA notes, “in this animation, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.”
A Christian Ponders Climate and the Morality of Population Control. The carbon map: making sense of climate change responsibility and vulnerability. Norton Shores library screening 'Carbon Nation' (videos) Carbonnation - The Movie. The carbon map: making sense of climate change responsibility and vulnerability via kwout. Organograph, a Climate Clock for San Jose, CA. Ancient DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation. (PhysOrg.com) -- Thirty-thousand-year-old bison bones discovered in permafrost at a Canadian goldmine are helping scientists unravel the mystery about how animals adapt to rapid environmental change. The bones play a key role in a world-first study, led by University of Adelaide researchers, which analyses special genetic modifications that turn genes on and off, without altering the DNA sequence itself. These 'epigenetic' changes can occur rapidly between generations - without requiring the time for standard evolutionary processes.
Such epigenetic modifications could explain how animal species are able to respond to rapid climate change. In a collaboration between the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) and Sydney's Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, researchers have shown that it is possible to accurately measure epigenetic modifications in extinct animals and populations. (define) Definition of Global Warming. Definition of Global Warming: A gradual increase in the earth's average surface temperature.
Common-usage definition: Warming caused by human activity. Technical term for this: Anthropogenic global warming. Definition of Greenhouse Gas: A gas, like CO2, which traps the sun's heat. The debate: Is the observed global warming natural or man made? Human causes: Carbon dioxide (CO2), e.g. exhaust from cars and power plants. Natural causes: Some claim the sun is getting hotter (it's not). It's virtually impossible that none of it is caused by people, because we know we have increased CO2 in the air from 280 to 400 ppm, and we know CO2 (sometimes called "carbon'}has a warming effect. U.S. History: In 1896 Svante Arrhenius (1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry) predicted thedecrease in CO2 needed to cause past ice ages.
What's to be done? Ocean acidification: Connecting science, ...
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