[Vision2020] 10 Indicators of a Human Fingerprint on Climate Change

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.skepticalscience.com/10-Indicators-of-a-Human-Fingerprint-on-Climate-Change.html

10 Indicators of a Human Fingerprint on Climate Change
Posted on 30 July 2010 by John Cook

The NOAA State of the Climate 2009 report is an excellent summary of
the many lines of evidence that global warming is happening.
Acknowledging the fact that the planet is warming leads to the all
important question - what's causing global warming? To answer this,
here is a summary of the empirical evidence that answer this question.
Many different observations find a distinct human fingerprint on
climate change:

To get a closer look, click on the pic above to get a high-rez
1024x768 version (you're all welcome to use this graphic in your
Powerpoint presentations). Or to dig even deeper, here's more info on
each indicator (including links to the original data or peer-reviewed
research):

Humans are currently emitting around 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the
atmosphere every year (CDIAC). Of course, it could be coincidence that
CO2 levels are rising so sharply at the same time so let's look at
more evidence that we're responsible for the rise in CO2 levels.

When we measure the type of carbon accumulating in the atmosphere, we
observe more of the type of carbon that comes from fossil fuels
(Manning 2006).

This is corroborated by measurements of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Oxygen levels are falling in line with the amount of carbon dioxide
rising, just as you'd expect from fossil fuel burning which takes
oxygen out of the air to create carbon dioxide (Manning 2006).

Further independent evidence that humans are raising CO2 levels comes
from measurements of carbon found in coral records going back several
centuries. These find a recent sharp rise in the type of carbon that
comes from fossil fuels (Pelejero 2005).

So we know humans are raising CO2 levels. What's the effect?
Satellites measure less heat escaping out to space, at the particular
wavelengths that CO2 absorbs heat, thus finding "direct experimental
evidence for a significant increase in the Earth's greenhouse effect".
(Harries 2001, Griggs 2004, Chen 2007).

If less heat is escaping to space, where is it going? Back to the
Earth's surface. Surface measurements confirm this, observing more
downward infrared radiation (Philipona 2004, Wang 2009).  A closer
look at the downward radiation finds more heat returning at CO2
wavelengths, leading to the conclusion that "this experimental data
should effectively end the argument by skeptics that no experimental
evidence exists for the connection between greenhouse gas increases in
the atmosphere and global warming." (Evans 2006).

If an increased greenhouse effect is causing global warming, we should
see certain patterns in the warming. For example, the planet should
warm faster at night than during the day. This is indeed being
observed (Braganza 2004, Alexander 2006).

Another distinctive pattern of greenhouse warming is cooling in the
upper atmosphere, otherwise known as the stratosphere. This is exactly
what's happening (Jones 2003).

With the lower atmosphere (the troposphere) warming and the upper
atmosphere (the stratosphere) cooling, another consequence is the
boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere, otherwise known as
the tropopause, should rise as a consequence of greenhouse warming.
This has been observed (Santer 2003).

An even higher layer of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, is expected to
cool and contract in response to greenhouse warming. This has been
observed by satellites (Laštovi?ka 2006).

Science isn't a house of cards, ready to topple if you remove one line
of evidence. Instead, it's like a jigsaw puzzle. As the body of
evidence builds, we get a clearer picture of what's driving our
climate. We now have many lines of evidence all pointing to a single,
consistent answer - the main driver of global warming is rising carbon
dioxide levels from our fossil fuel burning.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett