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	IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007

Climate Change 2007: Working Group I: The Physical Science Basis

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ 1.1: What Factors Determine Earth’s Climate?

FAQ 1.2: What is the Relationship between Climate Change and Weather?

FAQ 1.3: What is the Greenhouse Effect?

FAQ 2.1: How do Human Activities Contribute to Climate Change and How do They Compare with Natural Influences?

FAQ 3.1: How are Temperatures on Earth Changing?

FAQ 3.2: How is Precipitation Changing?

FAQ 3.3: Has there been a Change in Extreme Events like Heat Waves, Droughts, Floods and Hurricanes?

FAQ 4.1: Is the Amount of Snow and Ice on the Earth Decreasing?

FAQ 5.1: Is Sea Level Rising?

FAQ 6.1: What Caused the Ice Ages and Other Important Climate Changes Before the Industrial Era?

FAQ 6.2: Is the Current Climate Change Unusual Compared to Earlier Changes in Earth’s History?

FAQ 7.1: Are the Increases in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Other Greenhouse Gases During the Industrial Era Caused by Human Activities?

FAQ 8.1: How Reliable Are the Models Used to Make Projections of Future Climate Change?

FAQ 9.1: Can Individual Extreme Events be Explained by Greenhouse Warming?

FAQ 9.2: Can the Warming of the 20th Century be Explained by Natural Variability?

FAQ 10.1: Are Extreme Events, Like Heat Waves, Droughts or Floods, Expected to Change as the Earth’s Climate Changes?

FAQ 10.2: How Likely are Major or Abrupt Climate Changes, such as Loss of Ice Sheets or Changes in Global Ocean Circulation?

FAQ 10.3: If Emissions of Greenhouse Gases are Reduced, How Quickly do Their Concentrations in the Atmosphere Decrease?

FAQ 11.1: Do Projected Changes in Climate Vary from Region to Region?

FAQ Citation:

These Frequently Asked Questions have been taken directly from the chapters of the underlying report and are collected here. When referencing specific FAQs, please reference the corresponding chapter in the report from whence the FAQ originated.

When referencing the group of FAQs, please cite as:

IPCC, 2007: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.