The study of weather conditions and patterns as averaged over a given period of time.
Questions tagged [climatology]
35 questions
153
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Do human activities contribute to climate change?
There is lots of evidence that I have seen showing correlation between human activities and climate change but what evidence is there to support causation?
david4dev
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Does the logarithmic nature of global warming invalidate climate change claims?
NOTE
It is rather unfortunate that I initially omitted the crucial part of the article I linked below (because the wording was stilted and confusing), and I was rather imprecise in my own claims. What I am specifically asking about is the two…
Robert Harvey
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31
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Does this graph show climate-change predictions don't meet observations?
Dr. Roy Spencer, a climate change contrarian, posted this graph on his blog claiming that observed temperature trends are much lower than what climate models predict:
Is Spencer misrepresenting what the mainstream models predict? If so, how?
Is…
James Christopher
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Is it accurate to say that 97% of experts agree that global warming is anthropogenic?
A recent spate of newspaper headlines reported that 97% of scientists agreed with the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). The UK's Daily telegraph reported:
A review of 12,000 scientific papers has found the consensus among scientists…
matt_black
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Did we have a "global cooling" 40 years ago?
I was reading Superfreakanomics and the book argues that we had a global cooling period 40 years ago? Is that claim accurate?
Vinoth Kumar C M
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Is climate close to a "tipping point"?
James Hansen has long used the idea of a climate tipping point in his public arguments for urgent and drastic action to combat climate change (For an extended exposition of his idea, see a pdf of one of his papers here.)
Note: in response to some…
matt_black
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20
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Have global surface temperatures not shown significant warming since the late 1990s?
Those skeptical about the science of global warming have frequently alleged that the surface temperature record has "paused" since about 1998 and showed no significant warming trend (see this recent wattsupwiththat post as a representative…
matt_black
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19
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Is there existing technology to make it rain or to dissipate clouds?
I heard (example article) that the Chinese government caused it to rain before and during the Olympics to reduce pollution levels.
Does reliable technology currently exist that could trigger rain within a reasonable area and does technology exist…
going
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Could Global Warming be good for life?
A paper from Nature Geoscience (reported by the BBC here) claims that the carbon dioxide humanity has pumped into the atmosphere is holding off a new Ice Age.
This has revived an old idea best described by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe in 1999 (full…
matt_black
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15
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Does the Mount Washington wind speed record have scientific validity?
A record wind gust of 231 miles/hour was recorded in 1934, according to http://www.mountwashington.org/about/visitor/recordwind.php
Wind speeds of this magnitude are commonly known to damage or destroy structures as well as most mechanical…
Paul
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What are the greatest successes of long term climate prediction?
Seth Roberts claims that the field of climate modelling hasn't produced models that have effectively predicted future climate events. According to him the models are only validated on past data.
Is this charge valid or did climate models make…
Christian
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14
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Are global temperatures cooler in 2017 than 2007?
The Global Warming Policy Forum claimed (9-Aug-2017):
An inconvenient truth: Global temps were warmer when Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Prize than today, even after the 2015/16 super El Nino.
This is further discussed at Climate…
Jacob Blaustein
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Are the IPCC climate change models overestimating sensitivity to carbon dioxide?
A recent report in The Register suggests that we might be currently overestimating the degree to which the world will warm with increasing carbon dioxide.
Climate sensitivity is, crudely, the slope of the relationship between CO2 levels and average…
matt_black
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12
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Do McKitrick's criticisms of the IPCC accurately represent their processes?
Whatever your position on climate change the most significant results about the scientific consensus are supposed to emerge from the International Panel on Climate Change (the IPCC). It is an international UN overseen body with the intent, at least,…
matt_black
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12
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Could global warming lead to an oxygen shortage by 2100?
In this report of a mathematical model (original paper here) about the response of ocean plankton to climate change, its author claims the following:
By 2100, the earth at sea level could have atmospheric oxygen levels comparable to the top of…
matt_black
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