Solving the Puzzle: Researching the Impacts of Climate Change Around the World

摘要

To explain the difference between weather and climate, scientists often say, Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get. Climate is the weather of a particular region, averaged over a long period of time. Climate is a fundamental factor in ecosystem healthwhile most species can survive a sudden change in the weather, such as a heat wave, flood, or cold snap they often cannot survive a long-term change in climate. Global climate is the average of all regional trends, and researchers have concluded that Earths climate, as a whole, is warming. Researchers know that human activities including fossil fuel use, agriculture, and land use have been the dominant causes of increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the past 250 years. In addition, aerosols and land surface changes are altering Earths climate, making it extremely likely that human activities have had a net warming effects since 1750. These human-caused changes to the climate system, and their consequences, provide much of the impetus for the National Science Foundations (NSF) climate change research. Researchers funded by NSF have discovered signs of a changing climate in nearly every corner of the globe, from the icy expanses of the polar regions of Earth to its equatorial ecosystems. Our planets climate affects and is affected by the sky, land, ice, sea, life, and the people found on Earth. To piece together the entire puzzle of climate change what we know, what we still have to learn and what humankind can do to prepare for the future we must study all of the physical, natural, and human systems that contribute to, and interact with, Earths climate system. As researchers work together to solve the climate puzzle, they are revolutionizing the way we understand the Earth system as a whole.