Climate Change Flashcards
What is climate change?
Any significant change in the Earth’s climate over a long period.
What is the Quaternary period?
Is the most recent geological time period spanning from about 2.6 million years ago to the present day.
What has happened during the Quaternary period in terms of tempreture?
It has shifted between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacial periods.
What is global warning?
Term used to describe a sharp rise in global temperatures over the last century.
How are ice and sediment cores used to get evidence for Climate change?
Ice and sediment cores - ice sheets are made up of layers of ice, and when you drill the, you get long cores. By analyzing the gases trapped in the layers they can tell what the temperature was each year.
How are tree rings used to get evidence for Climate change?
By counting the rings each year to fins the age of the tree. The thicker the rings shows warm, wet conditions so they can distinguish the climate in those years,
Pollen Analysis to find evidence for climate change?
Pollen from plants get preserved in sediment, at the bottom of lakes. Scientists can identify and date preserved pollen to show which species were living at that time. Scientists know the conditions that plants live in now, so preserved pollen from similar plants shows that climate conditions were similar.
Temperature records to find evidence for climate change?
Since the 1850’s global temperatures have been measured accurately using thermometers. This gives a reliable but short term record of temperature change.
What are three natural factors that are possible causes of climate change?
- Volcanic activity - particles reflect the suns rays back to space
- orbital changes - solar radiation
- solar output - reduced solar output, cooler
How are orbital changes possible causes for climate change?
The natural factors such as orbital changes affect how much solar radiation the Earth receives. The more energy means more warming.
How are volcanic activity possible causes for climate change?
Volcanic activity are natural factors that can cause climate change. Major volcanic eruptions eject large quantities of materials to the atmosphere. Some of these particles reflect the sun’s rays back out to space so the earth’s surface cools.
How are solar outputs possible causes for Climate change?
The natural factor, Solar output is not constant. It changes in short cycles of about 11 years and possibly cycles hundreds of years. Reduced solar output means the earth’s climate may become cooler.
What are four human activities that are possible causes of climate change and explain?
- deforestation - plants remove co2 from atmosphere, but when you cut trees down they stop taking c02. Co2 is released into atmosphere when trees are burnt as fuel. (makes earth warmer)
- burning fossil fuels - Co2 is released to the surroundings when fossil fuels are burnt. (makes earth warmer)
- cement production - cement is made from limestone which contains carbon. When cement is produced c02 is released ( making earth warmer)
- farming - farming livestock produces a lot of methane from farts.
How does climate change affect the environment -
- warmer temps are causing glaciers to shrink and ice sheets to melt. means water stored on land is returning to oceans, causing sea levels to rise.
- sea ice is also shrinking leading to the loss of polar habitats
- rising sea levels mean low lying land and coastal areas being flooded.
- precipitation patterns are changing
- damaged habitats and species may become extinct.
How does climate change affect people?
deaths due to heat, Maldives could be lost to the sea, cause migration in other areas, no water availability caused by changing rainfall, crops suffered decreasing food exportation. more money spent on predicting extreme weather events and reducing impacts.
