Climate Change Flashcards
What’s the difference between weather and climate?
Weather - describes conditions of the atmosphere at a given time and place
Climate – the long term average of weather
What is climate change?
A rise in global temperature over the last 100 years (global warming)
How much has average global temperature changed since 1900?
0.1 C per decade (1 C in total)
What is a greenhouse gas?
Gases whose chemical structure allows them to have the capacity to trap heat – e.g. carbon dioxide!
What is the greenhouse effect
The heating of the Earth’s atmosphere that results from the absorption of infrared radiation (heat) from the Earth’s surface by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
When did human induced emissions start to dramatically increase?
0.1°C increase per decade since 1900
0.15°C increase per decade in the last 25 years!
In 2016 the CO2 in the atmosphere passed 400 ppm and is increasing at 2 ppm per year
What are the heat-trapping greenhouse gases in our atmosphere?
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide – ozone - chlorofluorocarbons
Which greenhouse gas has the largest natural greenhouse effect?
Water Vapor
What is responsible for the largest anthropogenic-induced change in the greenhouse effect?
Carbon Dioxide
What is the Keeling Curve and what does it show?
It is a graph that shows the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere since 1958
How can we study the atmosphere in the past?
Ice cores from antarctica preserves ancient atmosphere in tiny bubbles formed during snow compaction in glaciers
Describe and provide an example of a positive and negative feedback loop
Positive – Enhance the initial change, ex. Sea levels rise cause more glaciers to melt
Negative – Counteracts initial change, ex. Higher rainfall from more moisture in the atmosphere
What affects the natural glacial/interglacial cycles in earth?
Milankovitch cycles – natural changes in the Earth’s orbit that cause the Earth to favor glacial or interglacial periods
Are we in a “cooling” or “warming” phase of the interglacial cycle?
The “cooling” phase
Describe the 4 skeptics arguments discussed in class against climate change
Climate changes naturally, this isn’t anything new
Solar output is increasing and causing increased warming
Volcanic release of CO2 is causing the change, not people
Scientists don’t believe in climate change