Climate Proxy Data

Articles on climate change will often talk about carbon dioxide levels being higher than they've been in thousands, or even millions, of years. You may also hear things about temperature moving in cycles, or about how different the climate of a certain area used to be. But how do scientists know all of this information before we started taking measurements? That's where proxy data comes in. On this episode, we discuss a few different types of proxy data, learn some new words, and find out just what crystalized rat urine can tell us about climate.

Resources for this episode:

NASA: Carbon Dioxide Vital Signs

NASA: The Raw Truth on Global Temperature Records

NOAA: What are Proxy Data

MIT: How are Gases in the Atmosphere Measured?

British Antarctic Survey: Ice Cores and Climate Change

Scientific American: How are Past Temperatures Determined from Ice Cores?

Texas A&M: Ancient Deepsea Shells Reveal 66 Million Years of Carbon Dioxide Levels

NOAA's Paleoclimatology Data Map

Carbon Brief: How Proxy Data Reveals the Climate of Earth's Distant Past (with alternative access to NOAA's Paleoclimatology Data Map)