ABSTRACT
The study of global climate change is an exciting and gloomy enterprise. The excitement comes from discoveries being made in the uncharted realm of a changing global climate. Climate change is when weather and climate average values shift and variability increases over at least a 30 year period, breaking records, exceeding upper and lower values, or varying in new ways from past observations: earlier or later higher highs, or lower lows, more frequent or less frequent weather events. The link among increased use of fossil fuels, rapidly rising CO2 levels, and major changes in the global climate system constitute "anthropogenic" climate change. Scientific concerns about the nature and extent of climate change underway around the planet led to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The IPCC provides the world with the most current and accurate available scientific information about climate change's potential environmental and socio-economic impacts to assist in formulating realistic response strategies.
