Climate Science Glossary

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All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

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	Climate's changed before
	It's the sun
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	There is no consensus
	It's cooling
	Models are unreliable
	Temp record is unreliable
	Animals and plants can adapt
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Greenhouse understanding

Probability distribution functions (PDFs) of climate forcings from man-made pollution, including greenhouse gases (red), direct and indirect effects of aerosols (blue), and the total man-made forcing (black dashed). The width of each distribution indicates the range of uncertainty in the forcing, so the amount of climate forcing from greenhouse gases is known much more accurately than the amount of forcing from aerosols. The total man-made climate forcing in Watts per square meter is positive and leads to warming. Note that surface albedo, contrails and stratospheric water vapour forcings are included in the total forcing but not in the others, and natural forcings (solar and volcanic) are not included in these three PDFs. (Source: IPCC AR4 Figure 2.20b)