Chapter 11

Question 1

What are the risk of people living by areas most affected by climate change?

Answer 1

rising premiums & increasing risk

Question 2

Kiribati, a nation of islands in the Pacific Ocean may have to resettle, why?

Answer 2

rising seas levels that are regularly flooding their homes, contaminating their water & devastating their crops

Question 3

Off the coast of Louisiana & coastal communities in Alaska are seeking govt aid to

Answer 3

resettle their populations because their lands have become uninhabitable due to the effects of climate change

Question 4

Climate is

Answer 4

the average weather conditions for a region of Earth

Question 5

Global climate

Answer 5

is the average weather conditions over a significant period of time for the planet as a whole.

Question 6

Inventor of the thermometer Daniel Fahrenheit produced

Answer 6

a seal mercury thermometer that enabled weather stations to report & record the temperature acc to a standard numerical scale

Question 7

What is the instrumental period?

Answer 7

the current era in which we have temperature records for Earths surface air temperature that are based on readings taken directly with instruments such as thermometers
The instrumental period encompasses records of temperature measurement made on land, in the ocean, and even in space. These are all used to examine long-term changes in the climate of the planet.

Question 8

How do we measure the temperatures of the various layers in the atmosphere?

Answer 8

Weather satellites orbiting Earth have been estimating & recording temps of the various layers of the atmosphere by measuring infrared radiation that emanates from vibrating gas molecules in the air

Question 9

What is SAT?

Answer 9

Surface Air Temperature

Question 10

MAT?

Answer 10

MARINE AIR TEMP.

Question 11

SST? WHAT DEVICE MEASURES THIS?

Answer 11

SEA-SURFACE WATER TEMP. ARGO FLOATS

Question 12

what was one way they used to measure and analyze surface temperature b4 the instrumental period?

Answer 12

is to drill bore holes deep into Earth’s crust

Question 13

What is geothermal gradient?

Answer 13

due to decaying radioactive elements that release energy and heat the crust

Question 14

What is a proxy?

Answer 14

observable and measurable phenomenon that serves as an indirect indicator of changes in climate

Question 15

What are two examples of proxies?

Answer 15

tree rings and coral skeleton

Question 16

what can proxies help us understand?

Answer 16

ancient climates, or paleoclimates

Question 17

What is paleoclimates?

Answer 17

ancient climate conditions understood through use of proxies

Question 18

how do we know that During the Cretaceous Period

Answer 18

Polar regions were warm enough to be forested and free of ice
by the fossil evidence of plants and animals

Question 19

snowball earth?

Answer 19

glacial sediments near the equator suggest that Earth was almost completely iced over

Question 20

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

Answer 20

any system where a barrier causes the inflow of energy. to outpace the outflow in a way that warms the interior. Specifically, the warming effect on Earth due to atmospheric greenhouse gases that prevent radiant heat emitted from the surface from escaping into space

Question 21

What is albedo?

Answer 21

a term scientist use to describe the reflectivity of a surface

Question 22

examples of greenhouses

Answer 22

a) a car parked in sunlight will heat up as the sunlight penetrates the windows and the heat can only escape slowly from the inside
b) a greenhouse creates a warm environment for plants, as sunlight passes through the glass it warms the interior. much of the heat that is reradiated from the ground, plants and soil inside reflected back by the glass and trapped inside

Question 23

What are greenhouse gases?

Answer 23

a gas in the atmosphere that redirects heat rising from Earth’s surface back toward the surface, cause a warming effect

Question 24

Ocean Currents

Answer 24

can alter the distribution of heat throughout the ocean

Question 25

Continental Drift

Answer 25

can cause large landmasses to form, creating regions where cold temperatures can develop in the winter

Question 26

Earths Orbit

Answer 26

can affect climate by altering the amount of radiation reaching Earth and distribution of energy at various latitudes