evidence for climate change

• Fossils

  pollen records

  historical paintings

  ice cores

  tree rings

  temperature records
• ice cores

  • when scientists drill into ice in the Antarctic and pull out a tube of ice with frozen carbon dioxide in it
  • the deeper they go, more Carbon dioxide
  • shallower = less carbon dioxide - its in the atmosphere
  • shows how carbon dioxide is stored less in the ice (but it is in the atmosphere)
• tree rings

  • inside the tree trunks
  • when a cut tree's stump has layers
  • layers - tree growth (new layer of cell)
  • more layers = older tree
  • rainy + sunny conditions= wider layer
  • layers get thicker - shows how conditions are getting warmer and wetter
• temperature records

  • average temperatures over a range of years - compare
  • compare temperature - increase = climate change
• glacial change - ice caps melting

  Artic Ice sheet has thinned by 65% since 1975
• rising sea levels

  10-20cm higher then 100 years ago
• seasonal changes

  bird migration changes