Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
1
18
Projected Climate Change and
the Canadian Rocky Mountains
Kaz Higuchi
1,
*
and
Fiona Joncas
2
INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL TRENDS IN CLIMATEȅEARTH IS
GETTING WARMER
Climate has changed in the historical past, sometimes very dramatically
(like the Little Ice Age), and will continue to change in the future. However,
since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s, we have been
conducting (unwittingly or not) a global geophysical experiment by emitting
into the atmosphere an exponentially increasing amount of greenhouse
gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO
2
) originating from fossil fuel combustion
(coal, oil, natural gas, etc.), short circuiting the natural global carbon cycle.
Another major anthropogenic source of CO
2
is the deforestation activities,
mainly in the tropical regions. Based on the basic understanding of the
radiative physics, the addition of these greenhouse gases has resulted
in an overall increase in the global surface temperature, amplifi ed by
an increase in atmospheric water vapour through positive hydrological
feedback. “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth's lower atmosphere,
ocean, and land surface are warming; sea level is rising; and snow cover,
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