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EOS, TRANSACTIONS AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, VOL. 90, NO. 45, doi:10.1029/2009EO450008, 2009

Climate Change: The Need to Consider Human Forcings Besides Greenhouse Gases

Roger Pielke Sr.

University of Colorado, Boulder, USA


Keith Beven

Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK


Guy Brasseur

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., USA


Jack Calvert

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., USA


Moustafa Chahine

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA


Russell R. Dickerson

University of Maryland, College Park, USA


Dara Entekhabi

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA


Efi Foufoula-Georgiou

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA


Hoshin Gupta

University of Arizona, Tucson, USA


Vijay Gupta

University of Colorado, Boulder, USA


Witold Krajewski

University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA


E. Philip Krider

University of Arizona, Tucson, USA


William K. M. Lau

NASA, Greenbelt, Md., USA


Jeff McDonnell

Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA


William Rossow

City College of New York, New York, USA


John Schaake

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Md., USA


James Smith

Princeton University, Princeton, N. J., USA


Soroosh Sorooshian

University of California, Irvine, USA


Eric Wood

Princeton University, Princeton, N. J., USA


Abstract

Humans are recognized as having a major role in influencing environmental variability and change, including their influence on the climate system. To advance scientists' understanding of the role of humans within the climate system, there remains a need to resolve which of the following three hypotheses is correct: Hypothesis 1: Human influence on climate variability and change is of minimal importance, and natural causes dominate climate variations and changes on all time scales. In coming decades, the human influence will continue to be minimal.

Published 10 November 2009.

Keywords: climate change; human climate forcings; climate system; climate variability.

Index Terms: 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (0429, 3309); 1616 Global Change: Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513); 1622 Global Change: Earth system modeling (1225); 1637 Global Change: Regional climate change; 1655 Global Change: Water cycles (1836).


Print Version (90392 bytes)

Citation: Pielke, R., Sr., et al. (2009), Climate Change: The Need to Consider Human Forcings Besides Greenhouse Gases, Eos Trans. AGU, 90(45), doi:10.1029/2009EO450008.