The IPCC report is the world\u2019s most comprehensive and authoritative source of scientific information on understanding and responding to climate change. The report is based on a review of many thousands of scientific papers and is scrutinized by hundreds of scientists from around the world. Since the Fifth Assessment Report <\/em>was published in 2013, new evidence shows how much humans are influencing the climate system, and how society\u2019s actions to limit greenhouse gas emissions will determine the future of Earth\u2019s climate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contributions of Dr. Kaufman and his team to the IPCC\u2019s Sixth Assessment Report, which is being played out on the world\u2019s stage, speak to NAU\u2019s stature as a research university as well as to the prominence of each of these individual scientists. As we continue to build on our strong legacy of environmental and climate science research, our paleoclimatologists have again proven that the value of this work lies in its global impact on public policy\u2014ultimately affecting the quality of life for all,\u201d NAU President \u00a0Jos\u00e9 Luis Cruz\u00a0Rivera<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n Kaufman is a lead author on the chapter, \u201cThe changing state of the climate system,\u201d which features information about natural climate variability over a wide range of time scales. \u201cMy role in the new report focused on changes in the climate system prior to industrialization, or \u2018paleoclimate\u2019, as context for understanding what\u2019s happening now and what could happen in the future,\u201d Kaufman said.<\/p>\n He also co-authored the report\u2019s FAQs and summary documents, including the \u201cSummary for policy makers,\u201d which was subjected to an intense line-by-line approval process involving dialogue between the authors and delegates from more than 100 countries. \u201cIt was a lot of work, but super gratifying to have the opportunity to carry it through to the approval step. That\u2019s where authors and governments collaborated to craft a summary that\u2019s timely and most helpful for policy decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n The IPCC represents the world\u2019s scientific community by\u00a0periodically reporting<\/a>\u00a0on the state of knowledge about climate change, following an extensive and transparent review process by experts and governments around the world to independently assess all published information and to summarize the most relevant advances in climate science.<\/p>\n Recent publications by Kaufman and other NAU paleoclimate scientists were featured prominently in the report. The paleoclimate team includes professor R. Scott Anderson<\/strong>, associate professor Nicholas McKay<\/strong>, assistant professor of practice John Fegyveresi<\/strong> and assistant research professors Michael Erb<\/strong> and Cody Routson<\/strong>, as well as their postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students. They study how the climate system changes on time scales of decades to many thousands of years, as it responds to both natural and human-caused forcings.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding environmental change and its current trajectory requires a long-term perspective of the natural variability in the Earth system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe conduct our field-oriented research in Arizona, Colorado, Alaska, Antarctica and New Zealand.\u00a0In the lab, we analyze a variety of biological and physical properties of sediment cores that we collect from lakes, and ice cores from polar ice sheets. And in collaboration with our colleagues worldwide, we are developing major global datasets of long-term climate to better quantify past changes and to compare them with the output of Earth system models.<\/p>\n Key NAU studies inform IPCC assessment<\/strong><\/p>\n Several major NAU research projects, funded chiefly through grants from the National Science Foundation, have been aimed at understanding the causes and effects of natural climate variability. The scientists\u2019 recent work clarifies how unusual recent global warming has been compared to natural climate fluctuations of the past.<\/p>\n Evidence from warmer periods that occurred prior to industrialization, generated by NAU studies, was also used in the report to clarify how climate change will play out over multiple centuries and millennia, as polar ice, deep ocean circulation and other slow-moving features of the climate system adjust to a warmer world.<\/p>\n Key NAU studies that contributed to the upcoming IPCC report include the following:<\/p>\n Several other NAU scientists have served on IPCC working groups and\/or contributed research to previous IPCC reports as well, including Regents\u2019 Professor\u00a0Scott Goetz, professor\u00a0Kevin Gurney, Regents\u2019 Professor\u00a0Bruce Hungate, Regents\u2019 Professor\u00a0Yiqi Luo, Regents\u2019 Professor\u00a0Michelle Mack, assistant research professor\u00a0Christina Sch\u00e4del\u00a0<\/b>and Regents\u2019 Professor\u00a0Ted Schuur. All NAU scientists\u2019 efforts for the IPCC are voluntary.<\/p>\n\n
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