From ocean heat waves to melting glaciers, climate research is making a real impact on people. It is the science behind everything from rising global temperatures to changing weather patterns, and from the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes to expanding ranges for invasive plants and animals.
Although scientific understanding of the climate system has been growing since French mathematician Joseph Fourier first speculated that water vapor, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation emitted by Earth’s surface in the 1820s and Irish chemist John Tyndall’s discovery of the greenhouse effect in the 1850s, it was not until the late 1900s that scientists began to connect fossil fuel use and rising temperatures. By 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen was testifying before a congressional committee that the greenhouse effect from human activities was already making the Earth warmer and that climate change was already affecting weather patterns.
PNNL’s research supports solutions for the nexus of climate, people and nature, from providing information to help communities adapt to the effects of changing climate conditions to conducting science that can guide policies and actions at a local level. Climate research delivers critical data on temperature trends and atmospheric changes, and informs models used to predict the future. But it is important to remember that while these models are valuable tools for predicting how the climate will respond, they cannot predict exact outcomes or when they will occur.
By bringing together diverse values, worldviews and knowledges to identify and foster climate-resilient development, we support the creation of sustainable, equitable and climate-responsible societies around the globe.