An
AAPG poster titled "What Makes Climate Change," showing climate
change drivers and scale of climate change, has been made available
to selected U.S. teachers and community leaders. About 3,000 posters
were printed.
Created
and written by members William E. Harrison and Lee C. Gerhard, the
poster offers an eye-catching design by Patricia Acker of the Kansas
Geological Survey and highlights explanations of the climate drivers.
They include Earth's position, ocean currents, polar wobbling, variable
sun intensity, long ocean tide and current cycles, volcanoes, weathering,
mountain building, solar flares, El Niño, meteorite impact and human
intervention.
In a letter
accompanying the poster, AAPG President Patrick J.F. Gratton notes:
"The science
of climate change has progressed rapidly in the past few years as
more research demonstrates the effects of solar and orbital drivers.
As geologists, we are obliged to take the larger view of the universe,
and place change into the longer perspective of geologic time. In
doing so, it became apparent that there is a relationship between
drivers and the amount of change that occurs. The enclosed chart
and the accompanying text reprint is sent to you in the hope that
it will assist you in your teaching of the science of climate change
on Planet Earth."
Also made
available to teachers was the introductory text from the AAPG Studies
in Geology #47, Geological Perspectives of Global Climate Change,
edited by Gerhard, Harrison and Bernold "Bruno" Hanson, from which
the poster was derived.
Gerhard
and Harrison, both past presidents of AAPG's Division of Environmental
Geosciences, said the chart attempts to bring the latest in science
to discussion of climate change, particularly including the role
of solar and orbital variability.
The project
was funded by both AAPG and the AAPG Foundation.