By Kelly Calagna –
Every autumn climate scientists from diverse disciplines gather at the Comer Climate Conference on a farm in rural Wisconsin. They focus on the latest research to predict the on-going pace of sea level rise, the retreat of the glaciers past and present and the profound threat to our planet as human communities force climate change.
Some influential scientists in attendance included Richard Alley, George Denton, Klaus Lackner and Wallace Broecker, known as one of the grandfathers of climate change research.
Photo at top: Atmospheric carbon dioxide acts as the thermostat for Earth. Rising levels of this greenhouse gas, resulting primarily from fossil fuel use and emissions, are driving global warming. “The visualization highlights the advances scientists are making in understanding the processes that control how much emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere and how long it stays there — questions that ultimately will determine Earth’s future climate,” according to NASA. “Using observations from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, scientists have developed a new model of carbon behavior in our atmosphere from Sept. 1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2015. Such models can be used to better understand and predict where carbon dioxide concentrations could be especially high or low. (Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/K. Mersmann, M. Radcliff, producers)
