- How old is the discussion of anthropogenesis with regards to climate change? What were the earliest concerns?
- Other than anthropogenic causes, what other phenomena are contributors to global climate change?
- Who was the first person to hypothesize that fossil fuels could raise the Earth’s temperature? What did this concept eventually come to be called, and how does it work?
- In the 1930s, Guy Stewart Callendar argued that global warming was happening and that it would be beneficial. How could global warming be a “good thing”?
- What is C02? What does it do in the atmosphere? In what year were there first accurate measurements of CO2 made?
- Why were the 1970s such an important decade for discussions of global warming? What were the major concerns at the time?
- What was the initial confusion between CO2 levels and the increase in dust and smog particles?
- What consensus did the US National Academy of Sciences come to in 1979?
- What is “chaos theory” How does it relate to climate? How does it factor into the climate change discussion?
- What was 1985 and important year for climate science?
- Who is James Hansen and why were his findings so significant in 1985?
- How did corporations and anti-government regulation parties react to Hansen’s testimony? How did they attempt to effect the discussion?
- What was the argument regarding the Sun causing global warming? Why did it eventually become discredited?
- How does prediction help to validate scientific hypotheses? How did Hansen’s prediction impact the view of modeling as a tool for prediction? And what event provided additional confirmation?
- What role have ice cores and tree rings played in helping to generate more evidence for climate change?
- What is the IPCC and what is its role in the climate change discussion? What consensus did the panel arrive at in 2001?
- What is the Kyoto treaty (aka the Kyoto Protocols)? Why would developing nations refuse to sign on to the treaty?
- What predicted impacts began to be witnessed by 2010?
- A world-wide consensus had been reached by the second decade of the 21st century… except in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Russia. What do these four countries have in common that might suggest why they’d not enter the consensus as well?
- Why did the Kyoto agreement ultimately fail? Why does action on anthropogenic global climate change require a commitment from all countries?