Many of us find it easier to accept the reality of some feature of nature when we have a personal understanding of how it occurs. With this in mind, this briefing paper from Geoff Fishpool seeks to share the surprisingly straightforward explanation of the increase in global temperature witnessed in the last few decades, in an
accessible way.
The well-established physical principles used are routinely applied in other areas of physics and engineering, but are not familiar to everyone. Their application to recent global temperature rise shows that it is humanity’s activities that are the dominant factor. That means that we can choose to change the rate of temperature rise, by changing our activities. This is set against the reality that most of us don’t want to be told to change our ways, and some may benefit materially from maintaining the status quo, so it is natural to want the interpretation to be wrong. However, the link between human activity and global temperature rise is strikingly clear.
Geoff’s paper aims to provide a firm foundation from which to engage in discussions of climate change. You can read it here: Personally Understanding Earth’s Recent Warming.