Week 1
Components of the climate system interact, such as hydrological cycle. The key feedback mechanisms that explain the greenhouse (blanket) effect are positive and negative loops (Figure 1).
The most challenging theme this week is the factors determining climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines these complicated ideas in their web pages. However, the complex issues also make this a very interesting subject.
The concepts of weather and climate are a lot easier to understand, with weather being the day to day, localised conditions in e.g. precipitation, wind and temperature, and climate looking at the long term trends.
As I’m interested in plants and animals I hope to relate each week’s key ideas to wildlife. The time of year that daffodils bloom varies each year depending on the temperature and rainfall at that time, so can be widely different on a year to year basis; this relates to weather. However, in the long term studies show that daffodils flower about a month earlier than they did 200 years ago; this is linked to climate change. For example William Wordsworth’s sister kept a diary and noted the day that he was inspired to write his famous poem as 15 April 1802 (BBC, 2013). Nowadays daffodils flower, on average, in mid March (BBC 2013).
Components of the climate system interact, such as hydrological cycle. The key feedback mechanisms that explain the greenhouse (blanket) effect are positive and negative loops (Figure 1).
The most challenging theme this week is the factors determining climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlines these complicated ideas in their web pages. However, the complex issues also make this a very interesting subject.
The concepts of weather and climate are a lot easier to understand, with weather being the day to day, localised conditions in e.g. precipitation, wind and temperature, and climate looking at the long term trends.
As I’m interested in plants and animals I hope to relate each week’s key ideas to wildlife. The time of year that daffodils bloom varies each year depending on the temperature and rainfall at that time, so can be widely different on a year to year basis; this relates to weather. However, in the long term studies show that daffodils flower about a month earlier than they did 200 years ago; this is linked to climate change. For example William Wordsworth’s sister kept a diary and noted the day that he was inspired to write his famous poem as 15 April 1802 (BBC, 2013). Nowadays daffodils flower, on average, in mid March (BBC 2013).
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils. (Wordsworth, 1802)
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils. (Wordsworth, 1802)
![Picture](/uploads/2/5/9/1/25914144/9607685.jpg)