Date: March 1, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INSIGHTS TO FUTURE CLIMATE TRENDS CONTAINED IN EARTH'S ROCKS AND SEDIMENTS
Earth has had two fundamentally different climate states -- an "icehouse" state with periods of growth and depletion of continental ice sheets and a "greenhouse" state characterized by much higher temperatures globally and small or no ice sheets. Although Earth has been in an increasingly cool icehouse state for the past 30 million years, a warmer greenhouse state was more common for most of the past 600 million years.
"Ancient rocks and sediments hold the only records of major, and at times rapid, transitions across climate states and offer the potential for a much better understanding of the long-term impact of climate change on atmosphere and ocean circulation, ice sheets, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and the health of Earth's ecosystems," said Isabel Montañez, chair of the committee that wrote the report and a professor in the department of geology at the University of California, Davis. "Analyzing the planet's deep-time climate past will provide important insights into various climate processes that have not operated or have operated quite differently during our existing icehouse state."
The committee identified several elements needed for an integrated, deep-time climate research program that would study how climate responded over Earth's different climate states. With the potential to produce important results over the next decade, this program would examine how climate responds to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and it would clarify the processes that lead to anomalously warm polar and tropical regions and the impact on marine and terrestrial life. In addition, the program would focus on the stability of sea level and ice sheets, changing regional climates, tipping points and abrupt transitions, and ecosystem thresholds and resilience -- all in warm world environments.
The report was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, and Chevron Corp. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering,
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Pre-publication copies of Understanding Earth's Deep Past: Lessons for Our Climate Future are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).
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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
and
Board on Earth Sciences and Resources
Committee on the Importance of Deep-Time Geologic Records for Understanding Climate Change Impacts
Isabel P. Montanez (chair)
Professor
Department of Geology
Professor
Department of Geology
Mark A. Chandler
Associate Research Scientist
Center for Climate Systems Research
Kirk R. Johnson
Vice President of Research and Collections, and
Chief Curator
Professor
The
Dennis V. Kent *
Board of Governors Professor
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Jeffrey T. Kiehl
Senior Scientist
Climate Change Research Section
Lee R. Kump
Professor
Department of Geosciences
The
Richard D. Norris
Professor of Paleobiology
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
A. Christina Ravelo
Professor of Ocean Studies
Department of Ocean Sciences
Sterling Professor
Department of Geology and Geophysics
RESEARCH COUNCIL STAFF
David Feary
Study Director
* Member,