In June and early July 2019, a heat wave in Alaska broke temperature records, as seen in this July 8 air temperature map (left). The image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument shows smoke from lightening-triggered wildfires. NASA link
Our study sites in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California burned in the intense crown fires of 2020. In 2021, they burned again. These stands are adapted to surface fire, but they will not recover from these intense crown fires.
Just within the last year, catastrophic wildfires in Australia (December 2020) and then California have highlighted connectections between climate change and extreme events. The big questions now concern where these trends will lead.
For today
Today we will first discuss questions and issues that arose with computation. We will follow with internet research for science and attitudes behind extreme events. Organize your search strategy within your groups.
Slow changes attributed to human-caused climate change include increasing air temperatures, melting alpine glaciers and polar ice caps, disappearing sea ice, rising sea level, and acidifying oceans. Extreme events include heat waves, drought, flooding, and extreme low temperatures.
- How are slow changes linked to extreme events?
- Can we anticipate them? If not, why not?
- There has been substantial discussion in the media on whether or not a given event is “caused by global warming”. Is this a question worth asking? Why or why not?
A few other resources to consider:
The Drought Monitor. National maps are updated weekly to monthly, intergrating many sources of information. From the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Climate Central Translates scientific findings for a general audience.
Effects of Drought on Forests and Rangelands in the United States: A Comprehensive Science Synthesis. An interagency synthesis of the effects happening now and where they are taking us.
Assignment for next time
A summary of your research before next meeting will be the basis for a group report on how global warming is linked to extreme events. You may consider all types of extreme events, including those that were covered in the Hsiang et al. article. You can use this class meeting to organize your research within the group.
Submit your summary to Sakai for your working group to access at our next class meeting. You will be using the internet to address the questions above:
Review the site on Extreme weather and climate change, other sources listed above, or identified by your own search.
Also by internet search, find evidence for and against the notion that global warming is contributing to extreme climate events. Summarize four scientific articles, including citations, with several sentences summarizing the evidence from each. Include with these summaries definitions for the terms weather and climate.
Find evidence for changes in public attitudes on human caused climate change. Briefly summarize the role of extreme events in changing attitudes.