Researchers investigate inter‐hemispheric climate linkages in the Americas and their societal effects

Abstract

Records from the past document natural climate variability on all timescales, from seasons to decades to centuries. Documenting and understanding the nature and cause of past climate variability is the key to predicting future climate change, especially since climate will continue to change in response to humankind's impact on the environment.The International Geosphere‐Biosphere Program on Past Global Change (IGBP‐PAGES) is providing global evidence of natural climate variability and its forcing to establish a framework that will help society and decision‐makers prepare for future change. Because no single record can adequately represent past global climate change, regional paleoclimate evidence from both the ocean and land must be assembled and integrated. Within IGBP‐PAGES, the Pole‐Equator‐Pole Paleoclimate of the Americas (PEP 1) initiative attempts to provide an interhemispheric view by focusing on the integration of paleoclimate data along a longitudinal transect in the western hemisphere [PAGES, 1995].