Premium
Our evolving climate: communicating the effects of climate variability
Author(s) -
Hawkins Ed
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.467
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1477-8696
pISSN - 0043-1656
DOI - 10.1002/wea.761
Subject(s) - climate science , citation , library science , global warming , climate change , reading (process) , meteorology , history , climatology , computer science , geography , political science , geology , oceanography , law
It is very likely that humans have caused most of the warming of the Earth’s climate since the mid-twentieth century: this was a key conclusion of the 4th Assessment Report (AR4; Solomon et al., 2007) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). For the UK, 2006 was the warmest year recorded to date, however 1998 remains the warmest year on record for the global average.1 This has led many to question whether the climate really is changing as projected by the IPCC. This article aims to portray and communicate the important role played by natural variability in our evolving climate. Understanding and acknowledging these variations is important for society and policymakers. Much of this variability is chaotic and unpredictable but some significant fraction is potentially predictable, providing an opportunity to narrow the uncertainty in climate predictions of the coming decade.