The Interplay Between Atmospheric Science and Meteorology

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

In 1998 We published our first estimate and that only went back 600 years Uh, then based on the analysis of other records we found that there were enough longer records to actually Obtain meaningful results a thousand years back. Now scientists have literally extended these sorts of estimates millennia back in time There's one tentative estimate of this sort that now goes back well into the last ice age uh 20,000 years back in time And now we understand that the the spike of warming that we found in our study Which was demonstrated the warming of the the last century to be unprecedented in a thousand years Well, these studies now show that it's unprecedented in tens of thousands of years if not longer.

We had our fun last week, exploring how progress in renewable energy and electric vehicles may help us combat encroaching climate change. This week we’re being a bit more hard-nosed, taking a look at what’s currently happening to our climate. Michael Mann is one of the world’s leading climate scientists, and also a dedicated advocate for improved public understanding of the issues. It was his research with Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes that introduced the “hockey stick” graph, showing how global temperatures have increased rapidly compared to historical averages. We dig a bit into the physics behind the greenhouse effect, the methods that are used to reconstruct temperatures in the past, how the climate has consistently been heating up faster than the average models would have predicted, and the relationship between climate change and extreme weather events. Happily even this conversation is not completely pessimistic — if we take sufficiently strong action now, there’s still time to avert the worst possible future catastrophe.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Michael Mann received his Ph.D. in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Pennsylvania State University, with joint appointments in the Departments of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is the director of Penn State’s Earth System Science Center. He is the author of over 200 scientific publications and four books. His most recent book is The Tantrum that Saved the World, a “carbon-neutral kids’ book.”

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.