Author Question: What evidence from glaciers and sea-level measurements corroborates global warming? What will be ... (Read 80 times)

debasdf

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What evidence from glaciers and sea-level measurements corroborates global warming?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What is a proxy? Describe some of the proxies of ancient climate conditions.
 
  What will be an ideal response?



smrerig

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Answer to Question 1

Glacial-ice melting should cause glaciers to retreat when temperatures rise. The average length of 169 glaciers from around the world has been decreasing since about 1850, and so has global temperature. The most rapid decreases in glacier length were between about 1925 and 1950 and since 1980, which are also the time of greater warming.
Sea level should rise when temperature rises because (a) warming melts glaciers to add water to the oceans, and (b) water expands as it warms up. Sea level has been rising for more than a century, as has global temperature, and the rate of rise has increased since 1970, which is also a period of faster temperature rise.

Answer to Question 2

A proxy is a substitute measurement, usually referring to a measurement of a property of rocks or organisms that also reveals something about climate, such as temperature. Examples include tree-ring widths, chemical compositions of microorganisms and glacial ice, and features in rocks that reveal the past presence of glaciers (a complete answer would explain one or more of these in some depth to demonstrate comprehension).



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