From local perception to global perspective

Lehner, F., Stocker, T.. (2015). From local perception to global perspective. Nature Climate Change, doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2660

Title From local perception to global perspective
Genre Article
Author(s) Flavio Lehner, T. Stocker
Abstract Recent sociological studies show that over short time periods the large day-to-day, month-to-month or year-to-year variations in weather at a specific location can influence and potentially bias our perception of climate change, a more long-term and global phenomenon. By weighting local temperature anomalies with the number of people that experience them and considering longer time periods, we illustrate that the share of the world population exposed to warmer-than-normal temperatures has steadily increased during the past few decades. Therefore, warming is experienced by an increasing number of individuals, counter to what might be simply inferred from global mean temperature anomalies. This behaviour is well-captured by current climate models, offering an opportunity to increase confidence in future projections of climate change irrespective of the personal local perception of weather.
Publication Title Nature Climate Change
Publication Date Aug 1, 2015
Publisher's Version of Record https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2660
OpenSky Citable URL https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d70r9qmw
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