Chapter 19 - Climate Change Flashcards
Climate forcing
When conditions change to give the climate a nudge in one direction or the other
Feedback
Second part of climate change - when “climate forcing” changes the climate, environmental changes take place. These are positive and negative feedbacks.
Positive Feedback
Exaggerates the initial change
Negative Feedback
Suppresses the change
Name the 3 major Greenhouse Gases (GHG’s)
- H2O (water vapor)
- CO2 (carbon dioxide)
- CH4 (methane)
What is the Gaia Hypothesis?
The theory that organisms evolve in ways that contribute to ensuring that their environment remains habitable.E
Eccentricity
Measures how much the shape of Earth’s orbit departs from a perfect circular orbit.
Obliquity
The angle of Earth’s tilt (not to be confused with the orbit/eccentricity).
Precession
The slow change in the direction of Earth’s axis.
Milankovitch Cycles
Yugoslavian engineer proposed the importance of the eccentricity, tilt, and precession to Earth’s climate cycle.
Insolation
Light energy from the sun
Albedo
The measure of reflectivity of a surface.
More albedo = more reflective.
Permafrost
Mixture of soil and ice that contains significant amount of trapped carbon that releases as CO2 and CH4 when melting.
Climate vs. Weather
Climate is an average of weather over time, or long-term conditions.
Weather is today’s conditions such as temperature, precipitation, pressure, humidity, cloud cover and wind speed/direction.
Ozone
Oxygen molecule with 3 atoms. Absorbs UV radiation from the sun.
