Climate change

I've copied and pasted this because I've just finished preparing a reading summary about this year's Reith Lecturer, Dr Jeffrey Sachs, who is from this Earth Institute at Columbia University, New York.

http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/crosscutting/climate.html

Climate and Society
Cross-Cutting Initiatives Cross-Cutting Initiative Seminar Series
Intro to Climate ChangeIntro to Climate ChangeHow You Can HelpEarth Institute Climate ScienceTake the Climate Change Quiz


Warmer surface temperatures over just a few months in the Antarctic can splinter an ice shelf and prime it for a major collapse, NASA and university scientists have reported. The process can be expected to become more widespread if Antarctic summer temperatures increase. Above: The Larsen B ice shelf, which collapsed in 2000. Photo credit: NASA
Scientists agree the Earth's climate is being directly affected by human activity, and for many people around the world, these changes are having negative effects. Records show that 11 of the last 12 years were among the 12 warmest on record worldwide.
The just-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policy Makers — the first volume of the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report — states that scientists are more than 90% confident that human industrial activity is driving global temperature rises. (add your thoughts on the report at RealClimate.org)
Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution, based on records extending back 650,000 years.
According to NASA, the polar ice cap is now melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s.
The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating.
The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. The IPCC 4th Assessment Report said that this trend would likely continue.
Droughts in the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s were found to be caused by warmer sea surface temperatures, and the current drought in the Amazon is suspected to be a result of rising ocean temperatures.
Poverty and food insecurity has also been tied to climate variability.

Purpose of the blog

I'm hoping the blogs will be very individual, creative and thought-provoking.

I see my job as being to correct and improve the students' English grammar, punctuation and syntax, but to do so without stifling their individual creativity.

CUE is a group of very distinctive individuals and I'm looking forward to reading their input over the coming weeks.

Global Warming

My CUE students are creating blogs containing not only their own personal details but also their views on climate change and global warming.

The starting point is Al Gore's movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth'. The main thesis presented, it must be admitted very impressively, at the outset of the film is that climate change and global warming are inextricably linked to human activity. Gore presents a mass of statistical evidence, backed by impressive graphic displays and photographic evidence, to back up his argument. The film footage is colourful, dramatic and well-matched to Gore's commentary. The movie is well directed and very thought-provoking, whether or not one accepts all of Gore's arguments.

Over the coming weeks the students will post blog entries on their views of the movie, definitions of global warming, its causes and possible solutions.

My personal profile

Name:
Hedley Maurice Friend Butterfield.

Nationality:
British.

Date of Birth:
1st April, 1949.

Marital status:
Married with two daughters, Katherine Mary, d.o.b. 11.9.70, and Emma Anne, d.o.b. 16.8.81.