Describe two different methods that scientists can use to study climate changes for which no historical record

Question

Describe two different methods that scientists can use to study climate changes for which no historical record exists.

Answer 1

Examining the rings of trees can give some information about the climate long ago.  I'm talking about very old trees like the giant Redwoods in Calif.

Burrowing through the ice and snow in Antartica can also give information to what the climate was like centuries ago, as well as sampling the air trapped in the ice.

Air samples from sealed off chambers in caves is another way.

Examining Rocks can give clues to some types of climate changes like flooding and dry spells, etc.

Take your pick.

Answer 2

1) inter-planet warming - by studying temp changes across nearby planets, we can normalize solar activity across planets (what part of any warming/cooling is due to variations in solar output?)

2) Cloud formation - this is not well understood, and it can greatly affect whether warming has a negative or positive feedback mechanism - does warming produce more clouds that counteract warming, thus tending to limit it, or vice versa?  This is one of the major outstanding questions in long term climat science

Answer 3

The best way is through ice cores that are drilled at the Polar regions that can detect relative amounts of CO2 gasses in the air. They are studied to determine tiny fluctuations which can give scientists clues to the relative temperature, co2 content, the presence of other gasses or volcanic ash etc.

Another very effective way is through what are called sediment cores and they can be collected at the bottom of the ocean or land. These drilled cores show the minerals, chemicals and different layers of sediment that changed from millions of years of volcanism, ice ages, warming periods, mass extinction events that deposited ash and debris.

These are the scientific methods you would use to properly defend the notion of climate change. Using a few centuries worth of documented temperatures, rainfall and air pressure is not considered very solid evidence because it's such a small test subject.  

Answer 4

What is this science class, school?  dont remind me that i only have 3 weeks left of summer.  I feel like im on a gameshow. gawd, geek.