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

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Print Version (90392 bytes) 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. Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union.

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