[Note From Editor: This is the concluding part of the 3-part series by Erik Larson. Don't miss Part 1 and Part 2]
To investigate the climate, I run sophisticated computer models and analyze their output.
A climate model is a set of math equations that describe atmospheric properties like temperature and winds.
Computers calculate answers to these equations similar to a calculator and use the answers to predict the change in weather or climate. For example, if it is hot at your house today and the wind is blowing from the west, then that hot air will be carried to the east. If we know the speed of the wind, we can calculate how long it will take that hot air to reach the next state.
Learning About Earth's Climate
Climate models are great tools that let you run experiments that are difficult or impossible to run in the real world. For example, we can investigate questions such as, "What would the Earth be like without the greenhouse gasses that humans have emitted over the last 150 years?" or "What will the Earth be like in 100 years if we keep emitting greenhouse gasses at the current rate?".
Greenhouse gases such as CO2 trap energy from the sun and cause the climate to change. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is the highest in hundreds of thousands of years and going up faster than ever due to burning coal, oil, and natural gas.
Climate models also predict changes to rainfall in the future. Changes in temperature and rainfall mean that crops grown in your area may not be able to grow there anymore if it gets too hot or dry.
What Do I Do?
You have seen the weatherman on TV. Well, I am like the climate man! Instead of predicting for the weekend, I am predicting what the earth will be like at your 50th birthday party.
I am currently using many different climate models to track where all of the extra energy from greenhouse gases goes. Some of this extra energy warms the surface causing global warming. Some of the energy melts glaciers. A lot of the extra energy goes into the ocean both warming it and causing the ocean to expand. The melting glaciers and warming oceans cause sea levels to rise. Some scientists predict that much of Florida will be underwater in the next 100 years.
Computer models are amazing tools for understanding Earth's climate and I have the privilege of analyzing them for a living. My job as an atmospheric scientist is to run some of these experiments and convey the results to other scientists through formal papers and to the general public.
When it comes to climate change, we are all in this together and an informed public will be better prepared to make important decisions regarding the future of Earth. Check this link for more information on climate and climate change.
