PERSPECTIVES ROGER A. PIELKE, JR. What Is Climate Change? Believe it or not, the Framework Convention on Climate Change, focused on international policy, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, focused on scientific assessments in support of the FCCC, use different definitions of climate change. The FCCC defines climate change as "a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over comparable time periods." By contrast, the IPCC defines climate change broadly as "Any change in climate over time whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity." These different definitions have practical implications for decisions about policy responses such as adaptation. For decades, the options available to deal with climate change have been clear: We can act to mitigate the future effects of climate change by addressing the factors that cause changes in climate, and we can adapt to changes in climate by addressing the factors that make society and the environment vulnerable to the effects of climate. In the jargon of the climate science community, identification of climate change resulting from greenhouse gas emissions is called "Detection and attribution." Under the FCCC, without detection and attribution, or an expectation of future detection and attribution, of climate changes that result in "DanISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVES gerous interference" there is no reason to act.

August 2016 EPA 430-F-16-062 What Climate Change Means for Guam In the coming decades, changes in the earth's atmosphere are likely to alter several aspects of life in Guam. The waters around Guam have warmed by more than one degree. During droughts, rising sea level could make fresh water less available- particularly groundwater, which provides 80 percent of Guam's water supply. Most of Guam's fresh water comes from the northern part of the island, which has a "Lens" of fresh groundwater floating on top of the heavier, saltier water.

Variations in the Perception of Climate Change The existence and extent of climate change is a topic of great importance to climate scientists as well as individuals, groups, and organizations with long-term strategic decisions that are crucially affected by climate, projected climate change, and potential climate change mitigation measures. Climate change "Naysayers" perceive climate change as a very low or non-existent danger, and climate change "Alarmists" hold high-risk perceptions and extreme images of catastrophic climate change. Climate scientists often have personal experience with climate change in connection with their research activities that take them to regions of the world where climate change is apparent. Variation in Concern and Action On Climate Change Citizens' perceptions of the importance and severity of climate change do not seem to match those of most climate scientists.

3 , N o. 3 , J uly 2 0 0 8 , x x - x x What Greek secondary school students believe about climate change? Georgia Liarakou, Ilias Athanasiadis, Costas Gavrilakis Received 16 May 2010; Accepted 15 September 2010 The purpose of this study was to investigate what Greek secondary school students believe about the greenhouse effect and climate change. Students' Views of Climate Change 81 In an effort to assess specific learning processes, Mason and Santi investigated how the socio-cognitive interaction that developed in group discussions in an EE curriculum unit helped to change the ideas of 5th graders in Padova, while Pruneau, Gravel, Bourque and Langis experimented with a socio-constructivist and experiential process for climate change education with Canadian students 13-14 years old. In particular, a student who had participated in EE programs was more likely to know that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas as well as the role of renewable energy sources, both in general and particularly solar energy, hydrogen and wind energy, than a student who had never taken part in EE programs. Students' Views of Climate Change 97 Rye, J.A., Rubba, P.A., & Wiesenmayer, R.L. An investigation of middle school students' alternative conceptions of global warming'.

In brief: Rapid population growth acts in tandem with climate change to deplete key natural resources, such as water, fuel and soil fertility; Rapid population growth can cause a significant increase in demand and often mismanagement of natural resources that are compromised and in decline due to environmental variability and climate change; Population growth heightens human vulnerability to climate change in numerous ways and may force people to migrate to areas that are either environmentally marginal or more at risk to the negative impacts of climate change. If the present scenario continues, in which the industrialized North does not radically reduce its carbon emissions, then advocating reduced population growth in the South risks appearing to blame the victim, i.e. blame climate change on population growth in the South, instead of acknowledging that the South will suffer most from climate change caused by consumption in the North. Recent publicity on links between population growth and climate change has tended to polarize the issue, with advocates for significant reductions in carbon emissions identifying population growth as, at best, a distraction from the main issue, and, at worst, an attempt by the 'population control' lobby to attract climate change funding for their work. New challenges for human capital formation and sustainable development , 2004 London Earthscan 10 African Foundation for Population and Development and Population Action International In return of the population growth factor: its impact upon the Millennium Development goals.

The result of combining the climatesensitivity estimates from the seven models with the six illustrative scenarios from the 18 obtained for a possible temperature increase in 2100 are greater than 3.5 7C. For the truncated case in which only the highest and lowest emissions scenarios are used, 39% of these 36 possibilities are for a warming of 3.5 7C or greater. Clearly, a policymaker concerned with "Avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference in the climate system"9 would propose stronger policies and measures if there was a 39% chance of exceeding the 3.5 7C warming 'threshold' than if the figure was 23%. But what do these figures actually represent? Unless probabilities are assigned to individual scenarios and GCM climate sensitivities, their joint distribution will depend on the particular selection of scenarios and models, as Fig. In the probability vacuum that followed its assertion that all scenarios were "Equally sound", we are facing the even more worrying prospect of dozens of users selecting arbitrary scenarios and climate sensitivities to construct frequency charts that, like the histogram of Fig. The scenarios are also grouped into four categories of cumulative CO2 emissions, which indicate that scenarios with different driving forces can lead to similar cumulative emissions, and those with similar driving forces can branch out into different categories of cumulative emissions.

In contrast to the concept of 'carbon literacy' carbon capability is not defined in a narrow individualistic sense of solely knowledge, skills and motivations ; rather, the concept of carbon capability implies an understanding of the limits of individual action and where these encounter wider societal institutions and infrastructure, and so prompt the need for collective action and other governance solutions. Drawing on these literatures on financial capability, scientific literacy, and sustainable consumption, leads us to consider carbon capability as implying a critical understanding of: the causes and consequences of carbon emissions; the role individuals and particular activities play in producing carbon emissions; the scope for adopting a low-­‐carbon lifestyle; what is possible through individual action; which carbon-­‐reduction activities require collective action and infrastructural change; managing a carbon budget; information sources and their reliability for achieving a carbon capable lifestyle; and the broader structural limits to and opportunities for sustainable consumption. In order to prompt links between carbon and climate change, the survey asked 'When you hear statements such as "Carbon emissions are increasing" or "The company is aiming to become carbon-­‐neutral" what do you understand by the word "Carbon"?' The most common response term was 'carbon dioxide' or 'CO2'. Knowledge about emissions-­‐related terminology* 6% 'C02 / Carbon Dioxide emissions' 1% 8% A l ot A fa i r a mount Jus t a l i ttl e 41% 44% 10% 2% Nothi ng - h a ve o nl y hea rd the n a me Nothi ng - h a ve n ever hea rd o f i t 6% 'Carbon footprint' 45% 37% *Respondents were asked 'How much would you say you know about the following terms: CO2 / carbon dioxide emissions; carbon footprint' 37 Supplementary material Table 1.

Although fog is often associated with conditions at which cloud condensation nuclei had been activated at rH > 100% and rapid growth had lead to the formation of fog droplets, this study focusses on urban air masses and conditions when rH is just below 100%. Mie scattering analysis shows that fog can form under such conditions and the reduction of the visual range is mainly caused by submicron aerosol particles which grow to diameters around 1 µm through deliquescence. Can global change cause a global decrease of fog? Fog trends over several decades have been analyzed for over 1000 stations worldwide. Analyzed the development of fog frequency in the metropolitan region São Paulo over the time period 1933- 2005 and detected a strong decrease, although there was an interim phase of increased fog in the late 1970s. Annual number of fog events in São Paulo, annual number of hours of dense fog at Los Angeles International Airport, and average fog frequency of 31 stations mainly in Pakistan and India with a significant trend.

The article discusses a study that examined laypeople's knowledge about the causes and effects of global warming and the efficacy of possible interventions. The study found that the subjects had a poor understanding of the fact that significant global warming is primarily the result of an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere, and that the single most important source of additional carbon dioxide is the combustion of fossil fuels. The subjects' understanding of the climate issue was also encumbered with secondary, irrelevant, and incorrect beliefs, such as confusion with the problems of stratospheric ozone and difficulty in differentiating between causes and actions specific to climate and more general good environmental practice. These findings underscore the need for improved education and communication efforts about the causes and effects of global warming and the likely efficacy of interventions.

Causes of extinction: methods We conducted three searches in the ISI Web of Science database, using the following keywords: 'locally extinct' OR 'local extinction' OR 'extinc*') AND AND ('climate change' OR 'global warming' ; 'locally extinct' OR 'local extinction') AND ('climate change' OR 'global warming' ; and 'extinc*' OR 'extirpat*') AND. We then reduced this to 136 studies which suggested that climate change is associated with local extinctions or declines. Causes of extinction: results Proximate causes of local extinctions Of 136 studies focusing on local extinctions associated with climate change, only seven identified the proximate causes of these extinctions. The link between anthropogenic climate change and local extinction of coral populations through bleaching also remains speculative [79 ]. For example, severe climate anomalies can cause bleaching and coral mortality [80 ], but bleaching itself does not always lead to mass mortality [81 ]. Proximate causes of extinction: synthesis Our review of the proximate causes of population extinctions and declines due to climate change reveals three main results, which are concordant across the three categories of studies. Are there specific conservation and management strategies that can be matched to specific extinction causes? Are there phylogenetic trends or life-history correlates [20 ] of these factors that may allow researchers to predict which factors will be important in a species without having to conduct lengthy studies within that species? Do different factors influence the ability of niche models to accurately predict range shifts and extinctions due to climate change? Can species adapt to some potential causes of extinction and not others? 7.

Key Words: climate change, longitudinal survey, opinion change, motivated reasoning, political ideology 1 The United States lags behind much of the world in support for action to mitigate climate change. Changes tended to come at the two extreme ends of the spectrum: increases in those stating that climate change is not occurring or that climate change is a serious issue warranting action, balanced by small decreases in those stating that more research is needed. The first category summarized those who are not concerned with global climate change: the combination of "Global climate change is not occurring and this is not a real issue" and "Concern about global climate change is exaggerated and no action is necessary." The second category "We don't know enough about global climate change and more research is necessary before we take any actions" remained the middle position. The third category was the combination of those concerned with global climate change: "Global climate change has been established as a serious problem and immediate action is necessary" and "There is enough evidence that climate change is taking place and some action should be taken." Cross-tabulations and chi squared tests compared the six groups off the diagonal to those in the same rows whose views remained the same between 2010 and 2014.