POSOH – ForCLIMATEResearch “Retreat!”

Jun 2013

Prof. Ankur Desai

University of Wisconsin-Madison

• FORest and Climate Leaders In Menominee and The Environment!

Where are we?

Three Big Ideas

• Our burning of almost 10 billion tons of carbon in fossil fuels every year allows us to support a world with 7 billion people

Three Big Ideas

• Our burning of almost 10 billion tons of carbon in fossil fuels every year allows us to support a world with 7 billion people

• However, this act is changing the climate by 3-9 degrees F through doubling or tripling greenhouse gases in the air such as carbon dioxide

Three Big Ideas

• Our burning of almost 10 billion tons of carbon in fossil fuels every year allows us to support a world with 7 billion people

• However, this act is changing the climate by 3-9 degrees F through doubling or tripling greenhouse gases in the air such as carbon dioxide

• Ecosystems and its constituents play a big and complicated role through the global carbon cycle and currently absorb half of our fossil fuel emissions

The Plan

• Introductions

• Schedule and Logistics

• Big Ideas!

Introductions

• Name• Where are you from? • What do you do/what year are you in

school?• What did you want to be when you were

10?• What will you be doing 10 years from

now?

Logistics

• Goal is to provide exposure to research methods in global change science and ecosystem ecology

• We will study atmosphere, soils, lakes, and vegetation

• Be prepared for field conditions (bugs, rain)!

• Food! Sleeping! Fun!

Schedule

• Weekend 1– Friday

• Welcome / Team Building• Dinner!• Bonfire

– Saturday• Morning: Activity block 1• Afternoon: Activity block 2• Evening: Dinner out + Medicine Wheel teachings

– Sunday• Morning: Activity block 3• Afternoon: Activity block 4• Evening: Dinner out + Climate change policy discussion

– Monday• Reflections• Lunch and clean up

Activity blocks

• Here at Kemp:– Lakes– Satellites and meteorology

• At Willow Creek:– Soils– Vegetation and carbon

• What makes our current era unique?

• What will we be remembered for 1,000 years from now?

Three Big Ideas

• Our burning of almost 10 billion tons of carbon in fossil fuels every year allows us to support a world with 7 billion people

http://www.100people.org/

http://www.iceuls.com/_photo/b.jpg

Total Global Emissions

Total global emissions: 10.4±0.7PgC in 2011, 37% over 1990

Percentage land-use change: 36% in 1960, 18% in 1990, 9% in 2011

Land-use change black line: Includes management-climate interactions

Source: Le Quéré et al. 2012; Global Carbon Project 2012

Three Big Ideas

• Our burning of almost 10 billion tons of carbon in fossil fuels every year allows us to support a world with 7 billion people

• However, this act is changing the climate by 3-9 degrees F through doubling or tripling greenhouse gases in the air such as carbon dioxide

Do you believe in global warming?

• What is climate?

• Why is the earth like a greenhouse?

• What is electromagnetic radiation?

• What is a greenhouse gas?

Do you believe in global warming?

• What is climate?– The average weather in some area over a

long length of time like 30 years

IPCC

Do you believe in global warming?

• What is climate?

• Why is the earth like a greenhouse?– Earth’s surface absorbs energy from the

sun and heats the air above, which absorbs and emits electromagnetic radiation, which further heats the surface

Do you believe in global warming?

• What is climate?

• Why is the earth like a greenhouse?

• What is electromagnetic radiation?– All objects in the universe emit radiation

(light), whose amount and type depend on temperature and its structure. The sun emits visible light, the earth mostly emits infrared light

Do you believe in global warming?

• What is climate?• Why is the earth like a greenhouse?• What is electromagnetic radiation?• What is a greenhouse gas?

– Most of air is oxygen and nitrogen, which does not absorb much infrared radiation, but water vapor and carbon dioxide can absorb quite a bit. Gases that absorb infrared radiation efficiently are greenhouse gases

IPCC

Born19 February 1859(1859-02-19)Vik, Sweden

Died2 October 1927(1927-10-02) (aged 68)Stockholm, Sweden

Nationality Swedish

Fields Physics, chemistry

Institutions Royal Institute of Technology

Alma materUppsala UniversityStockholm University

Doctoral advisorPer Teodor Cleve, Erik Edlund

Doctoral students Oskar Benjamin Klein

Known for

Arrhenius equationTheory of ionic dissociationAcid-base theory

Notable awardsNobel Prize for Chemistry (1903)Franklin Medal (1920

Svante Arrhenius

To explain the ice age, Arrhenius estimated that halving of CO2 would decrease temperatures by 4 - 5 °C (Celsius) and a doubling of CO2 would cause a temperature rise of 5 - 6 °C. In his 1906 publication, Arrhenius adjusted the value downwards to 1.6 °C (including water vapour feedback: 2.1 °C). Recent (2007) estimates from IPCC say this value (the Climate sensitivity) is likely to be between 2 and 4.5 °C. Arrhenius expected CO2 doubling to take about 3000 years; it is now estimated in most scenarios to take about a century.

IPCC

Time for a break?