The science of climate change : what do we know?

Abstract

The natural process by which the earth is kept at a temperature making it a livable planet is the called the greenhouse effect. Credible scientific assessments on climate change have been made possible by the recording of increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, the changes in the climate that were observed, and the experiments involving the modeling of climate change. Climate change has appeared as an issue on policy agendas as a result of these assessments. Increasingly advanced computer models have managed to successfully convince the scientific community that climate change will bring with it higher temperatures, more intense precipitation as well as magnified warming in countries at high latitudes, such as Canada, despite remaining uncertainties concerning how human activities will affect the climate. Response strategies cannot be refined until these uncertainties are reduced considerably. For example, in the case of extreme events, the spatial and temporal variations in climate change must be clearly understood before the response strategies are developed. refs., 2 tabs., 5 figs.