So what's all the fuss about?

Most people have heard of climate change. It seems to be everywhere nowadays. In the newspaper, on the tv. Some might say its just some excuse weather reporters have made to use when they get the forecast wrong (as we all know how much we, me included, like to moan about that). Jokes, aside though there is a growing consensus that our global climate is changing (Crowley, 2000; Oldfield, 2005). Palaeoclimate research using proxies such ice core (GISP II, 1993) and pollen analysis (Seppa and Bennett, 2003; Birks and Birks, 2006) show the Earth's climate exhibits natural variability on both short (intra-annual, inter-annual) and long term (decadal, centinnal) timescales. So what's the problem? Fundamentally, it is the rate and scale of the change in climate compared to historical variability that is the cause of concern (Barry and Chorley, 2010) and this will be assessed further in the ongoing weeks. The IPCC in 2007 estimated that the global mean temperature has risen by approximately 0.74°C.  Estimates of the contribution of natural variability to the current warming trend vary, but tend to range between 25% (Crowley, 2000) and 50% (Lean et al., 1995) depending on the timescale and parameters used for the investigation. Therefore, whilst a significant proportion of the current rise in global temperatrures can be attributed to natural fluctuations, even after accounting for uncertainties and modelling errors, a substantial proportion is still unaccounted for.

And in this lies the main aims for this blog. By reviewing academic journals on climate change and issues being highlighted in the media, this blog firstly aims to evaluate the state of our current climate in the context of past variability during the Holocene period. The blog will then try to cover how these changes may impact our glacial environments and the communities that depend on them.

Why glaciers I here you ask? I'll just let the video speak for itself.

The photos taken by David Breashears are also on display at the Royal Geographical Society, so if you need any more persuading as to severity of this issue then go and have a look for yourself.

'As well all know, the Chinese expression for "crisis" consists of two characters side by side. The first is the symbol for "danger," the second the symbol for "opportunity."' (Al Gore, 2006)

References:
Barry, R.G. and R. J.Chorley (2010) Atmosphere, Weather and Climate, Routledge: London

Birks, H.H. and H.J.B Birks (2006) 'Multiproxy studies in palaeolimnology', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 15: 235-251.

Crowley, T. J. (2000) 'Causes of climate change over the past 1000years', Science, 289: 270-277.

IPCC (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (Eds) S. Solomon, D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Lean, J., J. Beer and R. Bradley (1995) 'Reconstruction of solar irradiance since 1610: Implications for climate change, Geophysical Research Letters, 22: 3195-98.

Oldfield, F (2005) Environmental Change: Key Issues and Alternative Approaches, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Seppa, H. and K.D. Bennett 92003) 'Quaternary pollen analysis: recent progress in palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology', Progress in Physical Geography, 27: 548-579.