Variations in carbon dioxide concentrations in Earth's atmosphere
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/File:Carbon_Dioxide_400kyr_Rev_png
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/File:Carbon_Dioxide_400kyr_Rev_png
Robert A. Rohde, Global Warming Art
Discuss this Resource»
Learn more about Teaching Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness»
Topics
Grade Level
Climate Literacy
About Teaching Climate Literacy
4e 
4e Global warming and especially arctic warming is recorded in natural geological and historic records
Other materials addressing 4e
Observations are the foundation for understanding the climate system
Other materials addressing 5b
Global warming is "very likely" caused by human greenhouse gas emission
Other materials addressing 6a
Benchmarks for Science Literacy
Learn more about the Benchmarks
Scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant data, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected data.
The earth's climates have changed in the past, are currently changing, and are expected to change in the future, primarily due to changes in the amount of light reaching places on the earth and the composition of the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels in the last century has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which has contributed to Earth's warming.
Notes From Our Reviewers
The CLEAN collection is hand-picked and rigorously reviewed for scientific accuracy and classroom effectiveness.
Read what our review team had to say about this resource below or learn more about
how CLEAN reviews teaching materials
Teaching Tips | Science | Pedagogy |
Technical Details
Teaching Tips
- Discussion of this visualization should include information about how ice cores are collected and analyzed as well as the Mauna Loa Observatory data.
- Also link to Milankovitch orbital cycles, which play an important role in climate change over millennial scales: http://serc.carleton.edu/resources/36458.html
About the Science
- This figure was developed from credible data sources, e.g. US Department of Energy, Nature Earth and Planetary Science Letters. While the figure does not contain the most recent data from the Mauna Loa Observatory, available elsewhere, it does illustrate several important ice core records.
- The graph clearly shows that since the Industrial Revolution, circa 1800, the burning of fossil fuels has caused a dramatic increase of CO2 in the atmosphere, reaching levels that are likely unprecedented in the last 20 million years.
- Comment from expert scientist: It points out CO2 has a natural variability, but since the industrial revolution, anthropogenic sources have caused changes to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere beyond the natural variability.
About the Pedagogy
- This visualization illustrates some of the main evidence that the current levels of global carbon dioxide are historically unprecedented. It is central to any discussion of human-induced climate change.
- Discussions around this visualization can include the different sources of CO2 data that scientists validated and merged to produce the graph, including the Vostok Ice Core, EPICA ice core, Law Dome ice core, Siple ice core, and Mauna Loa Observations.
Related URLs These related sites were noted by our reviewers but have not been reviewed by CLEAN
This is some background information at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ccrc/climate-basics/climate-primer.shtml where the same figure appears.Have you used these materials with your students? Do you have insights to share with other educators about their use? Please share with the community by adding a comment below.
Please use this space only for discussion about teaching with these particular materials.
For more general discussion about teaching climate literacy please use our general discussion boards.
To report a problem or direct a comment to the CLEAN project team please use our feedback form (or the
feedback link at the bottom of every page).
Off-topic posts will be deleted.
