2.1 - The Causes Of Climate Change

Question 1

Define adaption

Answer 1

Initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability of human and natural systems to climate change

Question 2

Define albeado

Answer 2

The amount of incoming solar energy reflected back into the atmosphere by the earths surface

Question 3

Define anthropogenic

Answer 3

Human relate processes and impacts

Question 4

Define the enhanced greenhouse effect

Answer 4

The increasing amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as a result of human activities and their impact on atmosphere is systems, including global warming

Question 5

Define global warming

Answer 5

The increase in temperatures around the world that hace been noticed since the 1960s, and particular in the 1980s

Question 6

Define the greenhouse effect

Answer 6

The process by which certain gases (water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)] allow short-wave radiation from the sun to pass through the atmosphere and heat up the Earth, but trap an increasing proportion of long-wave radiation from the Earth. This radiation leads to a warming of the atmosphere.

Question 7

Define mitigation

Answer 7

Attempts to reduce the causes of climate change.

Question 8

Define resilience

Answer 8

The ability of a population or a human or natural system to absorb change without having to make a fundamental change.

Question 9

Define vulnerability

Answer 9

The degree to which a human or natural system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, the adverse impacts of climate

Question 10

What is the atmosphere

Answer 10

The atmosphere is an envelope of mixed gases which is held in place by gravitational attraction

Question 11

What makes up the atmosphere

Answer 11

It consists of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), and 1% trace gases

Question 12

What are the 4 layers of the atmosphere

Answer 12

1. Thermopylae
2. Mesopause
3. Stratopause
4. Tropopause

Question 13

What is the atmospheric layers

Answer 13

The atmosphere is 10,000 km in height
But gravity compresses 99% of the atmosphere to within 40 km of the Earth’s surface
50% of the atmosphere is in the first 5.6 km

Question 14

What is the atmosphere heat budget

Answer 14

The Sun is Earth’s primary source of energy
It provides more energy in an hour than humans use in a year
Energy is received as short-wave radiation - insolation

Question 15

What does the atmospheric heat budget depend on

Answer 15

The balance between isolation and outgoing long wave radiation

Question 16

Where is energy lost when its passing through the atmosphere

Answer 16

Some energy is lost passing through the atmosphere, but there is an overall net gain of energy at the surface

Question 17

Do polar regions have a net gain or deficit of energy and what causes it

Answer 17

Polar regions have a net deficit (they receive about 24% of insolation) due to absorption, reflection and scattering – albedo effect

Question 18

Does the overall atmosphere have a net deficit or gain of energy

Answer 18

The atmosphere itself has an overall net deficit of energy

Question 19

What is the neutral greenhouse affect and how does it reflect the atmospheres net deficit of energy

Answer 19

To compensate, heat is moved from the surface to the atmosphere by radiation, conduction and release of latent heat – the natural greenhouse effect

Question 20

Define climate chnage

Answer 20

Any long term trend or movement in climate detected by a sustained shift in the average value for any climatic element (for example: rainfall, drought, hurricanes, temperature etc…)

Question 21

What are the 2 main reasons for climate chnage

Answer 21

• changing concentrations of green house gases
• various kinds of external forces

Question 22

Define green house gases

Answer 22

The atmospheric gases that absorb infrared radiation and cause world temperatures to be higher than they would otherwise be.

Question 23

Define external forces

Answer 23

A term used to describe the Earth’s climate system, which originate from outside of the climate system itself, such as variations in solar output.

Question 24

What are the 6 stages of the natural greenhouse effect

Answer 24

1.Incoming solar radiation (insolation) comes in through the Earth’s atmosphere in short-wave radiation.
2. As this short-wave energy passes through the atmosphere it might hit dust particles or water droplets and be scattered or reflected.
3. Only a little short-wave radiation is absorbed in the atmosphere.
4. Solar energy hits the Earth’s surface ,which then absorbs the short-wave radiation and re-emits
long-wave radiation into the atmosphere.
5. Long wave radiation is quite easily absorbed by naturally occurring greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. Of these, carbon dioxide is by far the most abundant.
6. Some long wave radiation escapes in to space

Question 25

What is the human enhanced greenhouse effect

Answer 25

This is the negative aspect of the greenhouse effect which is the cause of climate change. It is caused by an increased amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which mean that the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs increasingly more heat.

Question 26

What are the mian causes of the enhanced human greenhouse effect

Answer 26

Some main causes include the burning of fossil fuels, intensive farming, deforestation and the release of methane from permafrost. There are many severe effects linked to this phenomenon, including increasing natural disasters, changing ocean currents and sea levels and rising temperatures.

Question 27

What country’s contribute most to the human enhanced greenhouse effect

Answer 27

• Countries that are in an industrial stage of development, tend to produce more emissions.
• More developed countries tend to have a decrease in levels of emissions as they import
  many of their products.

Question 28

What does IPCC stand for

Answer 28

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Dedicated to providing our world with an objective to fight Climate change.

Question 29

What does the IPCC report of 2013 state about the human enhanced greenhouse effect

Answer 29

• It is ‘virtually certain’ that humans are to blame for ‘unequivocal’ global warming.
• Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous
  oxide are at levels ‘unprecedented in the last 800’000 years’.

Question 30

What is ÉPICA core

Answer 30

The European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica. It is a multinational European for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica. Its main goal is to obtain full documentation climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts.

Question 31

How far back are we able to collect data of climate change

Answer 31

800’000 years of climate evidence: 800’000 years, is how far back we are able to collect data and analyse the climate of our planet. This is doable due to Antarctic ice-core, capturing the CO2 between layers that date back to 800’000 years ago.

Question 32

What is the structure of the atmosphere

Answer 32

• Up to a height of around 80 km, the atmosphere consists of nitrogen (78 per cent), oxygen (21 per cent), argon (0.9 per cent) and a variety of other trace gases such as carbon dioxide, helium and ozone.
• In addition, there is water vapour and solids (in the form of aerosols) such as dust, ash and soot.

Question 33

What is the ozone layer

Answer 33

A layer of Ozone (O3) found mostly in the stratosphere, that absorbs harmful UV rays. CFCs unfortunately react with the ozone layer and can create ‘holes’. These CFCs last in the atmosphere for 100+ years. They were previously used in sprays but are now banned, the only current use of CFCs is in refrigerators and freezers. CFCs also act as a greenhouse gas.

Question 34

What is the slip, slap, slop campaign

Answer 34

The campaign used when there was a hole in the ozone layer over Australian and the government wanted more people to be aware and put on sunscreen. This is where you slip on a shirt slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat. This was used to raise awareness for skin cancer. It was absorbed well by the Australian public.

Question 35

What is global dimming

Answer 35

Suspended particulate matter in the atmosphere can reflect solar energy back into space and so have a net cooling effect.

Question 36

How does a volcano eruption create global dimming

Answer 36

When a volcano erupts, a large amount of ash can be released into the atmosphere. This ash in the atmosphere blocks energy from the sun and therefore cools the Earth’s lower atmosphere.
○ Mount Tambora erupted in 1815 and ejected 160km2 of ejecta into the atmosphere. This caused what was known as “the year without summer” in 1816.
○ The more orange a sunset, the ‘dirtier’ the atmosphere. After a volcanic eruption it is likely there will be some beautiful sunsets.
This can also be caused by human pollution and is one of the possibilities being considered for geo-engineering.

Question 37

What is a sun spot

Answer 37

• Sunspots are dark areas on the sun where intense magnetic storms are happening, these increase solar output and hence provide greater energy to the earth and heat the atmosphere more.

Question 38

When is there usually an increase in sun spots

Answer 38

Every 11 years

Question 39

What is the Maunder minimum

Answer 39

A long period of time with almost no sun spots, lasting
from 1645 to 1715. It led to extremely cold conditions where the river Thames was frozen over. → Some people believe it may happen again and it has the potential to cause mass famine as there are many more people living on Earth now compared to Medieval times.

Question 40

What is the Milankovitch cycle

Answer 40

• There are known cycles of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun which affect warming and cooling over long periods of time as incoming levels of solar radiation change.
• Every 100’000 years the Earth’s orbit changes from spherical to elliptical (approximately), changing the solar input.
• Over a 41’000 year cycle the Earth’s axis is tilted between 22 and 24.5 degrees, also affecting solar input.
• Earth’s axis wobbles, changing over a 22’000 year period.
• When these factors align, leading to less insolation in the northern hemisphere, an ice age can be started (This is estimated to be a cause of alignment between the 22’000 year and 41’000 year cycle rather than the 100’000 year cycle).
• Ice ages occur approximately once every 100’000 years.

Question 41

What is a cosmic collisions

Answer 41

Large asteroids colliding with the Earth may have caused dramatic, though short-lived, climate change in the past. The mass extinction of dinosaurs is thought to have been caused by a large meteor strike 65 million years ago. It’s explosive impact would have thrown up an enormous volume of debris which caused global dimming to such extreme levels that plants would not have been able to photosynthesise for up to 10 years.

Question 42

What is methane

Answer 42

• Methane is a highly powerful greenhouse gas, estimated to be 30x more potent than carbon dioxide.
• Enormous volumes of methane gas are stored in the Earth’s permafrost regions → The are of which accounts for approximately 1⁄4 of the Earth’s surface.

Question 43

What is permafrost

Answer 43

Ground (soil or rock and included ice) that remains at or below 0oC for at least two consecutive years. The thickness of permafrost varies from less than 1m to more than 1.5km.

Question 44

How does the rise in temperature affect the atmosphere in regards to permafrost

Answer 44

Unfortunately due to rising temperatures, more of these permafrost areas are melting and hence releasing more methane.
○ One estimate shows that the tundra climate zone has shrunk by about 20% since 1980.
○ According to scientists at NASA, temperatures in Newtok, Alaska, have risen by 4oC
since the 1960’s and by as much as 10oC in winter months.
- This melting can be shown by a positive feedback loop.

Question 45

What is a positive feedback loop

Answer 45

Knock on effects in natural systems, which act to accelerate and amplify any changes that have already started to occur. When one element of a system changes, it upsets the overall equilibrium, or state of balance, thereby leading to changes in other elements that reinforce what is happening.

Question 46

What is the albedo effect

Answer 46

Lighter colours reflect insolation better than dark colours. This effect helps to keep the earth cool. As the atmosphere warms up, the ice in the poles melts, which means that less sunlight will be reflected, more heat will be absorbed and therefore the ice will melt more. This is an example of a positive feedback loop.

Question 47

What is a terrestrial albedo

Answer 47

A measure of the earths albedo, ideally we want high values for this

Question 48

What is the negative feedback loop in terms of the albedo affect

Answer 48

When a system adjusts itself in ways that lessen or counteract as the effects of the originals chnage. In this case, feedback has triggered changes in other elements, which act in the oposite directs from the initial chnage. As a result, equilibrium or balance is restored

Question 49

Who are the highest polluters in terms of carbon

Answer 49

The highest polluters in terms of carbon output are high and middle-income countries with large populations, including China, the USA, India, Russia, Japan and Germany.

Question 50

Who has the highest data for per capita carbon footprint

Answer 50

Data showing per capita carbon footprints reveal a very different pattern, with the highest figures belonging to oil-rich Middle Eastern States, including Qatar and Kuwait.

Question 51

What does the data show about the anthropogenic carbon flow and stock

Answer 51

Current data showing the
anthropogenic carbon flow vastly
differs from the anthropogenic carbon stock already in the atmosphere. Germany, for example, may be to blame for 6.9% of all anthropogenic carbon stock, however only accounted for 2.3% of current carbon flow in 2015.

Question 52

How does globalisations and trade need to be considered when talking about carbon emisiones

Answer 52

Globalization and trade needs to be considered, many HIC’s claim to have reduced their carbon emissions in recent years, however, falling domestic emissions mask the fact that many developed countries now import much of their food and consumer goods from other countries since deindustrialization and globalization took place. → Some people believe Globalization and trade needs to be considered, many HIC’s claim to have reduced their carbon emissions in recent years, however, falling domestic emissions mask the fact that many developed countries now import much of their food and consumer goods from other countries since deindustrialization and globalization took place. → Some people believe

Question 53

What are Japan’s and germanys carbon emisiones

Answer 53

Japan’s emissions have increased significantly as a result of a substantial increase in the use of fossil fuels in power generation following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Germany is also phasing out nuclear power but aims to restrict emission rises by adopting renewable energy sources.

Question 54

What is the USAs carbon emisiones

Answer 54

The world’s second biggest emitter, generating just under 1⁄5 of all anthropogenic GHGs, despite the population size being less than 5% of the global total. On a per capita basis, the USA still has a carbon footprint 5x higher than China.

Question 55

What are chinas carbon emissions

Answer 55

The world’s largest carbon emitter on account of widespread industrialization since the 1970s. A massive programme of poverty alleviation (requiring more, not less, energy) remains the country’s priority. → However China’s leaders want to reduce the rate at which their carbon emissions rise and have made a (non-binding) pledge to reduce the carbon intensity of the country’s growth by adopting more renewable energy into the mix.

Question 56

What is anthropogenic carbon flows

Answer 56

The current amount of carbon emission released annually by a country, produced in each nation.

Question 57

What is anthropogenic carbon stock

Answer 57

The total size of the store of anthropogenic carbon emissions released into the atmosphere since industrialization began around 1750.

Question 58

What is deindustrilization

Answer 58

The loss of traditional manufacturing industries in some high-income countries due to their closure or relocation elsewhere. Since the 1960s, many industries have all but vanished from Europe and North America. Instead they thrive in Asia, South America and, increasingly, Africa.

Question 59

What is a wicked problem

Answer 59

A wicked problem is a challenge that cannot be dealt with easily, owing to its scale and/or complexity. Wicked problems arise from the interactions of many different places, people, things, ideas and perspectives within complex and interconnected systems.

Question 60

How does climate chnage present us with a wicked problem

Answer 60

Climate change presents us with a wicked problem which - because of its complexity - defies attempts to establish exactly what its effects would be. Unfortunately, this uncertainty is siezed upon by climate change skeptics as a reason to avoid taking any action to reduce GHG emissions.

Question 61

What factors bring greater complexity into climate chnage models

Answer 61

• Other factors can also bring greater complexity to climate chane models, such as ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). → These are independent phenomena that operate naturally on shorter scale, decade-long timeframes. Both phenomena can temporarily bring colder conditions to places that are predicted to get warmer on account of long-term climate change.

Question 62

LOOK AT THE NEGATIVE FEEBACK IN GREENLAND