Global Warming

Steve Scher
12/21/2001 at 9:00 a.m.

A United Nations agency says the Earth's temperature for 2001 is expected to be the second highest in the 140 years that meteorologists have been keeping records. What does this mean for the Earth's climate? And what about the Northwest's climate?

Temperatures are getting hotter, and they are getting hotter faster now than at any time in the past. Nine of the 10 warmest years since 1860 have occurred since 1990, and temperatures are rising three times as fast as in the early 1900's. Scientists now say global warming could trigger "large, abrupt and unwelcome" climatic changes that could severely affect ecosystems and human society. As the science gets clear, understanding the social implications of climate change on Weekday.

Guests:
Peter Rhines, Professor of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington
Philip Mote, atmospheric scientist with the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group and a member of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans