The number of individuals that believe climate change doesn’t exist is decreasing. It is widely accepted that the average temperatures across the world are increasing. There are people who still feel like the only people that will be affected by this change are individuals along the coastal areas. There is new research rising saying that the daily and nightly difference in temperature is changing at a faster rate than the difference in seasonal temperatures.

In this article, George Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Germany, explores the daily and nightly differences in temperatures and how those differences will affect the world in the long run.

Along with his partner, Michael Dillon, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming, Wang gathered over one billion temperature measurements from 7906 weather stations that collected samples from January 1, 1926 to December 31, 2009. With this data they used a new mathematical technique to determine the difference in temperatures from winter to summer and from day to night as well as computer clusters on two continents, the majority at MPI for Developmental Biology. This allowed them to characterize the variability in temperatures. This evidence is both based in a lot of estimation through data collection. They used this extensive data to estimate the global changes in the annual and diurnal temperature cycles from 1975-2013. The problem is these mathematical techniques weren’t described in the article, which makes the reader wonder how these estimations were made and how valid they are.

Wang and Dillon were able to conclude that the most intense changes in the differences in temperatures take place in the poles and far from the oceans. In these locations, the difference in the temperatures during summer and winter are increasing while the temperatures between day and night are increasing. Essentially, the areas that aren’t tropical are becoming more tropical. These conclusions go against the public assumption of climate change solely affecting those living in coastal areas.

If these conclusions were proven to be true, the consequences would be drastic in the long run. Bugs might live longer in non-tropical regions which could increase the spread of disease and crop damage. If the diurnal temperature difference continues to increase, plants in temperate climates would find it difficult to react correctly to the season and might end up flowering too early or too late, causing some seasons to pass by with these plants not bearing any fruit.

Wang and Dillon are trying to guide readers to their conclusion, but their using data collected to persuade readers. There is a bias towards the conclusion that they made in their study, but this is also based in the data they collected. However, there is room to continue collecting data and seeing if the estimations made could be solidified into concrete conclusions. As for if this article should be considered science, there is a lot of basis in science, but it should go into further detail of the processes used to generate these estimations to add more concrete evidence to the conclusions made.

Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141009100928.htm