Faculty Statement on Climate Change
The faculty of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences of Texas A&M University has extensive knowledge about the Earth’s climate. As employees of a state university, it is our responsibility to offer our expertise on scientific issues that are important to the citizens of Texas, including whether and why the climate is changing.
We agree with the following conclusions based on current evidence:
- The Earth’s climate is warming, meaning that the temperatures of the lower atmosphere and ocean have been increasing over many decades. Average global surface air temperatures warmed by about 2°F between 1880 and 2022.
- Our best estimate is that humans are responsible for most or all of this warming. Natural factors, such as solar variability, unforced variability, or volcanic activity, have likely had little cumulative effect over this period.
- On our current trajectory, the increase in global average temperature this century will exceed the Paris Agreement’s goal of staying well below 3.6°F.
Continued increases of atmospheric and oceanic temperatures present the risk of serious challenges to human society and ecosystems. It is difficult to quantify such challenges, except to say that the potential magnitudes of impacts increase rapidly as the magnitude of global warming increases.
This statement was unanimously adopted by the faculty in February 2023. It is in effect until next IPCC report or until revised.
Additional Resources
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch
The American Geophysical Union statement on climate change: https://www.agu.org/Share-and-Advocate/Share/Policymakers/Position-Statements/Position_Climate
The American Meteorological Society statement on climate change: https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/about-ams/ams-statements/statements-of-the-ams-in-force/climate-change1/
