CHAPTER 7: CLIMATE CHANGE

Question 1

a change in the state of the climate that can be identified by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer’.

Answer 1

Climate Change

Question 2

defines climate change as ‘change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods’ (UN 1992).

Answer 2

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Question 3

The greenhouse gases with the greatest influence on warming of the atmosphere are (5)

Answer 3

water vapor
carbon dioxide
nitrous oxide
methane
ozone

Question 4

Impacts of Climate Change (8)

Answer 4

The complexity of impact assessment

Sea-level rise

Fresh water resources

Agriculture and food supply

Ecosystems

Human health

Adaptation and mitigation

Costing the impacts

Question 5

The assessment of climate change impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities draws on a wide range of physical, biological and social science disciplines and consequently employs a large variety of methods and tools.

Answer 5

The complexity of impact assessment

Question 6

The largest contribution to sea-level rise in the 21st century is expected to be from the thermal expansion of ocean water as it warms. The other main contribution is expected to come from melting of glaciers. Substantial glacier retreat has occurred in recent decades adding an estimated 2–4 cm to the sea-level rise of between 10 and 20 cm in the 20th century

Answer 6

Sea-level rise

Question 7

With global warming, there will be substantial changes in water availability, quality and flow. On average, some areas will become wetter and others drier.

Answer 7

Fresh water resources

Question 8

Climate change would affect agriculture and food supply through its impact on crops, soils, insects, weeds, diseases and livestock.

Answer 8

Agriculture and food supply

Question 9

A further concern about natural ecosystems relates to the species diversity and the unprecedented loss of species and hence of biodiversity due to the impact of climate change— especially when that impact is added to other stresses on ecological systems due to human activities

Answer 9

Ecosystems

Question 10

will be affected by many of the impacts described in previous paragraphs such as deteriorating water availability, food shortages and more intense and more frequent floods and droughts. Increased spread of insect-borne diseases, such as malaria, is also likely in a warmer world.

Answer 10

Human health

Question 11

It shows two kinds of action that can be taken—adaptation to reduce the impacts of climate change as it occurs and mitigation to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that in turn will reduce the amount of climate change.

Answer 11

Adaptation and mitigation

Question 12

Probably the largest impact of climate change will be that of the increased number and intensity of extreme events. any assessment of impacts has to take into account the cost in human terms and the large social and political disruption some of the impacts will bring.

Answer 12

Costing the impacts

Question 13

is a phrase that refers to the effect on the climate of human activities, in particular the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) and large-scale deforestation, which cause emissions to the atmosphere of large amounts of ‘greenhouse gases’, of which the most important is carbon dioxide.

Answer 13

Global warming

Question 14

is defined as “the increase in the surface average temperature of the earth” because of the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as water vapor, methane, ozone, carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and nitrous oxide.

Answer 14

Global warming

Question 15

The balance can be restored through an increase in the Earth’s surface temperature. The effect was first recognized by the French scientist

Answer 15

Jean-Baptiste Fourier in 1827

Question 16

A British scientist measured the absorption of infrared radiation by carbon dioxide and water vapor and suggested that a cause of the ice ages might be a decrease in the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.

Answer 16

John Tyndall around 1860

Question 17

It was a Swedish chemist, who first calculated the effect of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases; he estimated that doubling the concentration of carbon dioxide would increase the global average temperature by 5–6˚C. As we shall see later this estimate is not too far from our present understanding.

Answer 17

Svante Arrhenius in 1896

Question 18

is an example of global pollution

Answer 18

Global warming

Question 19

Effects of Global warming (2)

Answer 19

Temperature Rise

Extreme Weather Events Storms and Hurricanes

Question 20

Earth’s average surface temperature will continue to rise as humankind continues his environmentally harmful activities specially burning fossil fuel.

Answer 20

Temperature Rise

Question 21

The temperature difference between the equator and the poles fuels the formation of mid-latitude storms and the decrease in this temperature difference by the global warming could affect the formation of the storms.

Answer 21

Extreme Weather Events Storms and Hurricanes

Question 22

Global warming is responsible for these changes where the increase in the atmospheric temperature increased the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture. (3)

Answer 22

Precipitations
Droughts
Floods

Question 23

Sources of Green House Gases.
Gas Natural (8)

Answer 23

Carbon dioxide
Methane
Nitrous oxide
HFC
Sulphur hexafluoride
Water vapour
CFCs and HCFCs
Tropospheric ozone

Question 24

Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) source (6)

Answer 24

Energy generation

Transportation

Buildings

Industry

Agriculture

Waste
management