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IGBP launches Climate-Change Index
News of a new index bringing together key indicators of climate change.
At the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen (Dec 2009), the International Geosphere-Biosphere programme launched the IGBP Climate-Change Index.
The index brings together key indicators of global change: carbon dioxide, temperature, sea level and sea ice to give an annual snapshot of how the planet's complex systems - the ice, the oceans, the atmosphere - are responding to the changing climate.
Some people still question whether Earth's climate is changing as rapidly and profoundly as the majority of climate scientists suggest. But, what if the complexity of the Earth's climate were distilled down to one number, in the same way that the Dow Jones Index condenses volumes of data into a single figure? What, then, would be the general trend?
The IGBP Climate-Change Index is a first attempt to do just that. It brings together key indicators of global change: carbon dioxide, temperature, sea level and sea ice. The index gives an annual snapshot of how the planet's complex systems - the ice, the oceans, the land surface and the atmosphere - are responding to the changing climate. The index rises steadily from 1980 - the earliest date the index has been calculated. The change is unequivocal, it is global, and, significantly, it is in one direction. The reason for concern becomes clear: in just 30 years we are witnessing major planetary-scale changes.
The index dips in just three years, 1982, 1992 and 1996 and looks effective at capturing major natural events that affect climate, and their knock-on effect on the planet. The dip in the curve in 1992 may have been caused by the massive Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption in the Philippines in 1991. The eruption was large enough to affect temperature and sea level on a planetary scale. The other falls coincide with the El Chichon volcanic eruption in Mexico in 1982 and the volcanic eruption on the Caribbean island of Montserrat in 1996. If this link proves robust, the index is an excellent visual tool to show how external events can have rapid planetary-scale effects. Of course, the overall direction of change - a climbing cumulative index - highlights the extent human activities are having on the planet's climate system.
Read more about the IGBP Climate-Change Index on the IGBP website.
[Note: The content of this article was adapted from a news item on the IGBP website released on 9 Dec 2009.]
