Changing Climates Key Words And Concepts Flashcards
What is climate change ?
Any significant change in the earths climate over a long period of time
What is the Quaternary period?
The most recent geological time period
How long did it last?
About 2.6 million years until the now
What was the climate like before the quaternary ?
Warm and stable
What happened to the climate during the quaternary ?
Global temperatures shifted between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacial periods
How long do the cold glacial periods last ?
100,000 years
How long are the interglacial years ?
10,000
When did the last glacial period end ?
15,000 years ago
What had happened to the climate since ?
It has been warming up
What is Global warming ?
The term used to describe the sharp rise in global temperature over the last century
What is an ice core?
A long cylinder drilled out of the ice layers
How is it reliable evidence of climate change
By analysing the gases trapped in the layers of ice scientist can tell what temperatures were like
What does more co2 in ice cores show ?
A warmer period
How does sea ice position around the poles help scientist prove that climate is changing ?
By observing the maximum extent of the sea ice in the winter months which is getting smaller
What is the problem with this data ?
It has only been collected since the 195Os
Name two other sources of evidence for climate change
Diaries and paintings and temperature data from weather stations
What are the Milankovitch cycles ?
Variations in the way the earth moves around the sun
Name the three variations
Stretch , wobble and tilt
How do these cycles affect climate ?
Because they effect how far the earth is from the sun and the angle the suns rays hit the earth so will affect temperature
Stretch also know as orbital changes was probably responsible for what ?
Glacial and interglacial periods
What is a sunspot ?
A cooler area of the sun’s surface
What do they do and how does this affect climate ?
Increase the suns output/energy the more sunspots the warmer it will be
How do volcanoes effect climate ?
The ash and dust they eject into the environment reflect the suns rays and the earth cools
What is the greenhouse effect ?
Gases in the atmosphere trap some of the heat escaping from earth helping to keep the temperatures up ( like a greenhouse)
What is the enhanced greenhouse effect ?
Humans have put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than occur naturally, this makes the layer of greenhouse gases thicker and means more of the suns energy is trapped increasing the Earth’s temperature and causing climate change
Human activities have made the greenhouse effect stronger by creating to many greenhouse gases manly by burning fossil fuels, what is this known as ?
The harness greenhouse effect
Name four processes that are contributing to global farming
Farming , cement production, burning fossil fuels and deforestation
How does farming contribute to global warming?
Cows produce methane which is a greenhouse gase cows lone to fart !
