Chapter 1

Question 1

System

Answer 1

arbitrary portion of the universe with fixed or movable boundaries or walls, which may contain matter, energy, or both

Question 2

Climate

Answer 2

journey of the sun’s energy received on earth as it is deflected, stored, transformed, put to work, and eventually emitted back to space

Question 3

Mitigation

Answer 3

Our action to reduce sources of gas which contributes to the Earth’s warming or to enhance the mechanism to remove them

Question 4

Greenhouse gases

Answer 4

contribute to the warming in the climate system

Question 5

Climate Vulnerability

Answer 5

physical, biological, socio-economical systems are susceptible to the impacts of a variation in climate

Question 6

Climate Variability

Answer 6

change in the average state of the climate

Question 7

Climate Change

Answer 7

change in the state of the climate system, that persiste for an extended period of time

Question 8

Sustainability

Answer 8

capacity to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Question 9

Sustainability

Answer 9

capacity to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Question 10

peer review process

Answer 10

evaluations by objective reviewers

Question 11

Climatology

Answer 11

investigates earth’s climate system, how it functions, what drives its changes, and how it varies in both space and time

Question 12

open or closed systems

Answer 12

both exchange energy with their environment but only an open system can exchange mass

Question 13

Troposphere

Answer 13

lowest layer of the atmosphere

Question 14

ozone

Answer 14

3 oxygen atoms

Question 15

stratosphere

Answer 15

region above the troposphere where all the ozone is concentrated

Question 16

mesosphere

Answer 16

above stratosphere; next layer where temperatures decrease

Question 17

thermosphere

Answer 17

above the mesosphere where the average temperature increases with altitude

Question 18

hydrosphere

Answer 18

all water on earth in all forms

Question 19

cryosphere

Answer 19

portion of hydrosphere in solid form (i.e. glaciers, ice, snow)

Question 20

lithosphere

Answer 20

cool, crusty, outer layer encompassing earth’s surface to the deeper hotter portions

Question 21

asthenosphere

Answer 21

below the the lithosphere

Question 22

pedosphere

Answer 22

portion of lithosphere which form the worlds soil

Question 23

biosphere

Answer 23

entire collection of earth’s ecosystem

Question 24

food web

Answer 24

all the food changes in a single ecosystem

Question 25

Carbon Cycle

Answer 25

non living entities

Question 26

fossil fuels

Answer 26

burning of coal, oil, and natural gas