Geologists Find Strong Evidence of Climate Change

How severe is global warming?

Jason P. Briner, PhD, is looking for answers below the surface of lakes in the frigid Canadian Arctic.

Every spring, the assistant professor of geology at the University at Buffalo (with his team, right), travels to the region to sample lake sediments and glaciers, analyzing them to reconstruct past climates.

“If we look at the temperature graphs that we’ve generated for the past 1,000 years for this region, the temperatures wiggle back and forth, so there is a little variability in there,” Dr. Briner says. “However, in the past 100 years, both the magnitude and the rate of temperature increase exceed all the variations of the past 1,000 years.

“The beauty of lake sediments is that they’re being deposited continuously right up until yesterday,” he adds. “By looking at them, we get clues into past climates, which we can then overlap with records from weather stations, which only cover the past 50 to 75 years. Generally, the more organic matter in sediments, the warmer the climate.”

As Dr. Briner and his team review their data, they can develop a more precise view of how past changes in climate have affected the planet. Their research can then be used, he notes, to “predict the future.”

Note: OrganicAuthority.com publishes science news so organic consumers have access to the latest studies on climate change and threats to our environment.

Suggested Reading

• Climate Pushed Out of Balance
• “An Inconvenient Truth” for Kids
• Global Warming Threatens Louisiana Coastline
• The Big Chill
• Global Warming Endangers Yet Another Species
• The Last Century of Wild Seafood?
• Got Bugs?
• Splitting on Top of the World

Photo courtesy of the University at Buffalo

Tags: climate change, environment, global warming

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 at 8:43 am and is filed under The Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.