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Climate scientists play a critical role in bringing us vital information about the fast-paced changes happening on our planet, along with strategies to mitigate the most devastating effects of vanishing ice caps, rising sea levels, and the accelerating global temperature increase. But what exactly does it mean to be a climate scientist, and how do they decode the intricate systems that govern life on this fragile Earth? What advice can they offer to help us prepare for a threatened future?
1. THE CLIMATE IS INTRICATE, SO THEY REQUIRE A BROAD RANGE OF EXPERTISE.
When climate scientists refer to the climate, they’re actually talking about several interconnected systems: the Earth’s atmosphere; landmasses (lithosphere); bodies of water (hydrosphere); ice and snow (cryosphere); and the biosphere—the area where life exists. Understanding climate demands experts with backgrounds in physics, mathematics, chemistry, geology, biology, and more, in order to analyze all these systems and how they interact. While they may specialize in one specific area, climate scientists often collaborate in interdisciplinary teams and typically have a well-rounded knowledge of these various fields.
“Up until 20 years ago, there was no such thing as a climate scientist—people were simply meteorologists, oceanographers, ecologists, geologists, biologists, or chemists,” says Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “The emergence of climate scientists came about because we realized that all these fields are interconnected. What occurs in the ocean is linked to weather patterns, and both are tied to what’s happening in forests.”
2. THEY WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS THAT CLIMATE AND WEATHER ARE DISTINCT.
If Minneapolis is experiencing a warm stretch of February days perfect for flip-flops and t-shirts, it's tempting to attribute it to climate change. But that’s weather, not climate. However, if the average temperatures in Minneapolis remain elevated over the course of several years, then we’re talking about climate change.
What climate scientists focus on is whether long-term trends in average temperatures and other factors are shifting over decades, and if these changes fit into broader regional or global patterns. And this trend is evident: The last three years have been the hottest since record-keeping began in the 1880s, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001, according to NASA.
However, temperature is only one aspect of the immense climate puzzle. Climate science involves piecing together a vast amount of data to solve complex questions: How does tropical ocean warming trigger a series of effects that lead to sea ice loss in the Arctic? How fast is melting permafrost in Siberia releasing methane into the atmosphere? How much is climate change contributing to more extreme droughts and larger hurricanes? These are just a few of the many questions that climate scientists work to answer.
3. CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT A NEW PHENOMENON, BUT WE’RE IN UNCHARTED TERRITORY.
The climate system has always been in flux, shifting between ice ages and warmer interglacial periods over thousands of years. However, what’s happening on Earth right now is unprecedented.
Data shows that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than they’ve been for at least 800,000 years, largely due to human activities such as emissions from power plants, cars, and deforestation. (Forests and plants act as carbon "sinks"—they absorb massive amounts of carbon that is released into the atmosphere as CO2 when trees are cut down and burned.) At the same time, the warming rate in the last century has been 10 times faster than during the periods between past ice ages.
Scientists know that elevated levels of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) in the past have led to significant changes on Earth. But there’s no historical comparison for the rapid pace at which humans are now emitting these gases. Global temperatures are already rising, ice sheets are shrinking, seas are rising and acidifying, and species are disappearing. The central questions climate scientists are urgently trying to answer are: How much faster might these processes unfold in the future, and what will this mean for life on Earth as we know it?
“The climate has always fluctuated, but what we're witnessing now is a rapid change, happening very quickly, and that’s something species struggle to adapt to,” says Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “We’re now talking about something massive occurring in less than a century.”
4. NOT ALL CARBON DIOXIDE ENDS UP IN THE AIR—A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT GOES INTO THE OCEAN, TOO.
At least a quarter of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by the oceans. While this might initially seem beneficial—like the oceans acting as a “sink” that captures carbon, much like forests and soils—it’s not without consequences. Scientists have found that carbon dioxide is altering ocean chemistry and making it more acidic.
Sarah Cooley spent seven years studying ocean acidification at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s chemistry lab, researching the impact of highly acidic waters on shellfish. Now, as the director of the ocean acidification program at the environmental organization Ocean Conservancy, she uses her expertise to push for scientifically sound policies at the state, national, and international levels, while also educating coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy oceans.
Cooley has ample evidence to show how acidification affects marine life: spiny sea urchins struggle to grow; mollusks are unable to form sturdy shells; oyster populations in the Pacific Northwest decrease during periods of upwelling (when more acidic waters rise to the surface). Acidification is also becoming a major concern for fisheries, as it severely impacts coral reef ecosystems, which many commercial fish rely on.
“Ocean acidification is happening at a rate far faster than anything ocean life has encountered in its evolutionary history,” Cooley explains. “The changes are occurring much faster than species can evolve to cope with them.”
5. FIELDWORK CAN BE DANGEROUS (AND SOMETIMES ROMANTIC).
Sure, many climate scientists spend a lot of time at a desk, glued to their computer screens, tackling tasks like reviewing data, responding to emails, and drafting grant proposals. But the idea of an office takes on a whole new meaning when they venture into the field for research.
Fieldwork might mean squeezing into a cramped spot on a small, rocky research boat tossed about by stormy seas, or enduring the heat and swarms of mosquitoes in a tent deep within the rainforest. Getting to the research site could involve traveling by snowmobile, bush plane, or even mule. Researchers face risks such as hungry polar bears, violent storms at sea, venomous snakes, and increasingly precarious thin ice.
Serreze recalls some close calls during his research in the Canadian Arctic. On one occasion, he and his team had to make a swift getaway from an aggressive muskox family. As the ice thins due to rising temperatures, researchers must also be wary of melt ponds hidden beneath the snow.
“You might drive a snowmobile and suddenly find yourself waist-deep in icy water,” he says. “You have to stay cautious, but it’s so much fun too. It’s all about the group’s attitude.”
Cooley knows firsthand how great teamwork can build strong bonds. She met her husband on a research vessel that sailed from Florida to the central North Atlantic and then to the northern coast of South America. She says that spending months in close quarters with colleagues removes any pretense. “If you can still stand someone after seeing the worst of them and enduring the smell of their seawater-soaked shoes for 50 days, you've likely got a solid foundation for a relationship.”
6. SUPERCOMPUTERS ASSIST SCIENTISTS IN PIECEING TOGETHER THE BIG PICTURE.
Climate modeling, a branch of climate science, may not carry the same sense of adventure as, say, retrieving tree ring samples in the Amazon while dodging poisonous snakes. Yet, the work of modelers is indispensable. They use mathematical equations rooted in the laws of physics and chemistry, processing vast amounts of complex data through supercomputers to understand how Earth's systems interact to shape climate.
Over the last fifty years, climate models have grown increasingly sophisticated. They now account for specific physical and chemical processes—like how ice reflects sunlight, how clouds form, or how water moves through leaves—to mimic real-world outcomes. These models can even predict the effects of major external forces, such as volcanic eruptions, on temperature, rainfall, and wind. Recently, models have indicated that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could melt far faster than previously expected, leading to potentially catastrophic sea level rise by the century's end.
However, even the most advanced models cannot capture everything. “No model can match the complexity of the real world,” says Schmidt, a climate modeler himself. What truly matters, he adds, is that models are increasingly accurate: They bring us closer to understanding what is really happening in the system.
7. SCIENTISTS HAVE SUSPECTED GREENHOUSE GASES FOR OVER A CENTURY.
In the 19th century, the world was just beginning to understand the phenomenon of past ice ages, and scientists were exploring the causes of these long periods of cooling and warming. Industrial pollution from coal fires was becoming an increasingly alarming issue, yet the true impact of fossil fuels on the atmosphere was still largely unknown. In 1861, Irish physicist John Tyndall demonstrated how water vapor and gases like methane and carbon dioxide trapped heat in Earth's atmosphere. By century’s end, other scientists, including Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius, began to identify the burning of fossil fuels as a contributor to the “greenhouse effect.”
However, it was an amateur, British steam engineer Guy Stewart Callendar, who in the 1930s began systematically recording the rise in global temperatures and linking it to the growing levels of greenhouse gases.
Initially, Callendar’s findings were largely dismissed. But the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent Cold War resulted in increased government funding for atmospheric science and technology, with early computer models supporting his conclusions. In the late 1950s, official measurements from Antarctica and Mauna Loa in Hawaii began showing definitive evidence that concentrations of carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas, were steadily rising.
8. PALEOCLIMATOLOGISTS CAN LOOK BACK IN TIME.
Hannes Grobe/AWI via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 3.0
To comprehend climate patterns spanning thousands or even millions of years, scientists need more than just modern technology like satellites or high-tech instruments, which only provide data from recent decades. Weather logs from ships help fill in some gaps going back another century, and historical records offer a peek further into the past. However, for a truly long-term perspective, paleoclimatology is essential. This branch of climate science deciphers natural clues—such as coral, tree rings, ice cores, and fossils—to reconstruct the Earth's climate history over eons.
A key tool for paleoclimatologists is the sediment core, taken from the ocean floor or lake beds. These sediment samples are packed with layers of dust, pollen, minerals, shells, and other particles, preserving details about air and water temperature, ocean currents, winds, and the chemical makeup of sea water at various stages of geological time.
A vast amount of data is also preserved in ice, including air bubbles, dust, volcanic ash, and soot from wildfires. By extracting ice cores from polar regions, scientists can retrieve annual snapshots of atmospheric gases, air and water temperatures, and significant ice sheet melt events from the past. Trends in this data—like higher sea levels or global temperatures during times when Earth's atmosphere had carbon dioxide levels similar to today—can offer valuable insights into what our rapidly warming world might face in the near future.
9. SCIENCE AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH IS NO WALK IN THE PARK, BUT IT COMES WITH SOME REWARDS.
Jim White, who leads the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, has spent much of his career traveling to Greenland as a paleoclimatologist. Reflecting on the past, he recalls that in the 1950s and ’60s (before his own research days), scientific expeditions to Greenland were conducted by ship. "They’d be dropped off and told, 'We’ll see you in two months.'"
As transportation options like airplanes and helicopters became more accessible, travel and communication improved. However, scientific teams are still often at the mercy of the weather. Even during summer, supply flights may face delays of days or weeks due to severe weather conditions.
“We always have to have multiple backup plans,” says White. “The summer I was getting married, I told my wife-to-be that I might get stuck up there. She thought I was joking. Later, she realized it was a very real possibility.”
But there are perks to spending weeks in freezing conditions while extracting ice cores from a glacier a mile and a half deep: “It’s almost impossible to gain weight,” White says. “You're breathing air at negative 30 degrees, your body works hard to stay warm, burning calories, so you can eat as much as you want without putting on weight.”
10. THEY VIEW TIME IN A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LIGHT.
Teaching university students about climate, White often reflects on how his perspective on time differs from that of most people. "When I discuss timelines with my students, they might be thinking about Thursday night. But because of my work, I think on a much broader scale. I’m trained to think in terms of tens of thousands of years, and I often consider what the next 50, 100, or 200 years will bring," he says.
White explains that during research expeditions, he and his international colleagues often discuss their children and grandchildren, contemplating how humanity can move past short-term thinking to better prepare for the significant global changes that will shape future generations.
“Humans can change the planet long before we fully grasp the consequences of those changes," he says. "We claim to love our children, but do we truly act on that love? We will never tackle climate change until we learn to value our children and grandchildren on a 50-year timeline.”
All photos via iStock except where noted.
