Climate Change and its Effect on Temperatures in the United States
Course: Intro to Quantitative Analysis for Geographers
Date: Spring 2021
Type: Statistical analysis paper
Research Question: What effect does climate change have on temperatures in the United States?
Background: Climate change is becoming a bigger issue every year with increased natural disasters along with vast changes in temperatures with areas that are usually warm year-round experiencing snow in the winter. In this project, the aim was to figure out if climate change is having an impact on temperatures in the United States. Another goal of this project was to figure out what the temperatures are expected to be over the next ten years so that people can be more prepared as death from sudden increases or decreases in temperature is not uncommon.
Data and materials: The data that was used in this project was compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database. This database pulled the data from GISTEMP data, which is collected and distributed by NASA for anyone to use. The temperature data in this project is recorded in degrees Celsius.
Methods: This project was broken down into two portions. The first portion was the Descriptive Statistics analysis which was conducted in Excel. In this portion found the average temperature change and the maximum and minimum values of the dataset. I also found the standard deviation of the temperature changes to see how much they were deviating from month to month. The second portion was the Inferential Statistics analysis. In this portion I used a correlation and linear regression within JMP. This helped me to figure out if the temperature values had any relationship with each other and it also helped me to plot the anticipated temperature change over the next ten years.
Results: By using the methods listed in the Descriptive Statistics analysis, I was able to find that the average temperature change within the ten-year span was 1.058. While the maximum temperature change between years was 3.788 and the minimum temperature change between years was -1.04.
Discussion: Through the use of descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, I was able to find that climate change is indeed having an impact on temperatures in the United States because the best proof of climate change is increasing temperatures over the years. It is evident in both the descriptive and inferential statistics analysis that there is a significant increase in temperatures from year to year over the span of ten years. That same increase is expected to continue over the next span of ten years as well. One of the limitations from this statistical analysis was that the temperature change was blanketed across the entire United States. This could be corrected by finding a data set that breaks down a little further into the statewide range so that one could study the temperature changes in a more specified area.
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