Page 79 - DLIS402_INFORMATION_ANALYSIS_AND_REPACKAGING

Information Analysis and Repackaging

Notes unequivocally to burning of fossil fuels, and the corresponding increase in average global
temperature. Risks associated with these large-scale perturbations of the Earth’s fundamental life-
support systems include rising sea level, harmful shifts in the acid balance of the oceans and long-
term changes in local and regional climate and extreme weather events.
GSA therefore recommends…strong action be taken at all levels, including government, industry,
and individuals to substantially reduce the current levels of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate
the likely social and environmental effects of increasing atmospheric CO .
2
Geological Society of London

In November 2010, the Geological Society of London issued the position statement Climate change:
evidence from the geological record:
The last century has seen a rapidly growing global population and much more intensive use of
resources, leading to greatly increased emissions of gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane,
from the burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal), and from agriculture, cement production and
deforestation. Evidence from the geological record is consistent with the physics that shows that
adding large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere warms the world and may lead to:
higher sea levels and flooding of low-lying coasts; greatly changed patterns of rainfall; increased
acidity of the oceans; and decreased oxygen levels in seawater.
There is now widespread concern that the Earth’s climate will warm further, not only because of
the lingering effects of the added carbon already in the system, but also because of further additions
as human population continues to grow. Life on Earth has survived large climate changes in the
past, but extinctions and major redistribution of species have been associated with many of them.
When the human population was small and nomadic, a rise in sea level of a few metres would have
had very little effect on Homo sapiens. With the current and growing global population, much of
which is concentrated in coastal cities, such a rise in sea level would have a drastic effect on our
complex society, especially if the climate were to change as suddenly as it has at times in the past.
Equally, it seems likely that as warming continues some areas may experience less precipitation
leading to drought. With both rising seas and increasing drought, pressure for human migration
could result on a large scale.

International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
In July 2007, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) adopted a resolution titled
“The Urgency of Addressing Climate Change”. In it, the IUGG concurs with the “comprehensive and
widely accepted and endorsed scientific assessments carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change and regional and national bodies, which have firmly established, on the basis of
scientific evidence, that human activities are the primary cause of recent climate change.” They state
further that the “continuing reliance on combustion of fossil fuels as the world’s primary source of
energy will lead to much higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gasses, which will, in
turn, cause significant increases in surface temperature, sea level, ocean acidification, and their related
consequences to the environment and society.”

National Association of Geoscience Teachers
In July 2009, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) adopted a position statement
on climate change in which they assert that “Earth’s climate is changing [and] “that present warming
trends are largely the result of human activities”:
NAGT strongly supports and will work to promote education in the science of climate change, the
causes and effects of current global warming, and the immediate need for policies and actions that
reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

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