1.3 Global Climate Change Flashcards
What is the atmosphere?
Th atmosphere is a layer of gases above the Earth’s surface.
What is the greenhouse effect?
The greenhouse effect is the way that gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun. The gases act like the glass in a greenhouse. They let heat in, but prevent most of it from getting out.
What are the main factors that have led to the enhanced greenhouse effect?
Agriculture
Energy
Transport
Industry
Explain how agriculture has is a factor of the enhanced greenhouse effect (2)
Increase in population causes a higher demand in food production.
Farming of livestock produces a lot of methane.
Rice paddies emit methane when the fields are flooded.
Trees are being cut down for agricultural land, stopping the absorption of CO2
Explain how energy is a factor of natural climate change.
Increasing population causing a higher demand.
Most of our energy comes from burning fossil fuels which emmit mass amounts of greenhouse gases
Explain how transport is a factor for climate change.
Cars are becoming more affordable in rapidly developing countries - so more CO2 is emmited
More people are going on flights over long distances - large quantities of fuel is used
What are sources of transport that contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect? (3)
Jet aircrafts
Cars and lorries
Fertillisers
Sewage farms
Explain how industry is a factor in the enhanced greenhouse effect (2)
Disposable income rising causing an increasing demand of consumer goods.
More factories are being built resulting in more fossil fuels being burnt.
Industrial proccess also release greenhouse gasses (e.g. cement made from limestone which contains CO2).
Explain how global temperature rise is evidence for climate change
Temperatures have increased by nearly 1 °C since 1880 and are expected to rise by 0.3-4.8 °C between 2005 and 2100. The top ten warmest years since records began have all been since the year 2000.
Explain how declining Arctic ice is evidence for climate change
Sea ice forms around the poles in winter when ocean temperatures fall below - 1.8 °C and melts during the summer when it’s warmer. The extent of arctic sea ice in winter has decreased by more than 3% each decade over the past 35 years.
Explain how sea level rise and warming oceans is evidence for cliamte change.
Since 1901 sea levels have risen by almost 0.2 m. Scientists have highlighted two factors behind this rise: Eustatic sea level rise and Thermal expanision
Explain what eustatic sea level rise is.
Warmer temperatures are causing glaciers to shrink and ice sheets to melt. The melting of ice on land, especially from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, means that water stored on land as ice returns to the oceans. This causes sea levels to rise.
Explain what thermal expansion is.
Water in the oceans expands as it gets warmer - this is called thermal expansion. Scientists think this accounts for about half of the measured rise in sea levels.
How is climate change having impacts on people. Give (3).
- Deaths due to heat have increased
- Areas becoming hot and dry making it difficult or impossible to inhabit
- Low lying coastal areas could be lost to the sea
- Globally some crops have suffered from climate change
- High altitude countries benifit from the warmer conditions
- Lower crops yields causing malnutrition and starvation
Why is it difficult to give precise predictions for the possible consequences of climate change?
It is difficult to give preccise predictions for possible outcomes of climate change because we do not know how many factors affecting climate change will increase. E.g. population change - increase in energy.
