Write an essay of approximately 800 words on each topic. Draw from the course lectures and the textbook in your essay. Each essay should have a format. Your writing should be organized, factual, concise, and professional. It should be complete in so far as using as many of the pertinent facts and examples from the class as appropriate to the topic. Each essay should contain the following: 1. A short Title and Introduction, 2. A section on Arguments and Evidence, and 3. A very short Conclusions section.
Here are the 2 questions. that should be answered:
Imagine you are a top level administrator at NOAA and have to explain to a skeptical congressional committee how important the acquisition and analysis of marine sediment cores has been in understanding long-term climate change. For your argument to the committee, describe the evidence and conclusions drawn from marine cores for determining the first start of Quaternary continental glaciation, and the timing and causes of the subsequent Pleistocene ice ages.
Imagine you are a staff member in a political campaign and your candidate’s opponent says “Climate change, glaciers melting and sea level rise in the 21st century is no different from the natural climate changes at the end of the last ice age and is caused by the same natural factors that ended the ice age.”. Prepare a rebuttal briefing paper that describes the factors that caused the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Holocene, and the general speed of warming, and overall changes in global ice cover, and changes in sea-level that occurred. Contrast that with the cause, and the magnitude and speed of warming, ice melting and sea level rise expected in the 21st century due to human induced climate change.
