climate change Flashcards
weather
The atmospheric conditions including temperature, humidity precipitation and wind in a particular location over a short period of time 
climate
The average weather in a region over a long period of time
components of earths climate system
 atmosphere hydrosphere, lithosphere, living things
what is the air we breathe in mostly made up of
Nitrogen gas
how is the ozone in the troposphere different than ozone in the stratosphere?
- ozone in troposphere: toxic and offers no UV protection
- ozone in stratosphere: naturally occurring, serves as protective function, absorbs high energy UV radiation
what is the region of the atmosphere where weather happens
Troposphere
layers of the atmosphere from lowest to highest altitude
troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
Atmosphere
Made of layers of gases surrounding earth
hydrosphere
Includes liquid water and lakes, oceans, water vapor, and atmosphere and ice glaciers
Lithosphere
Earths rock crust, including land surfaces
Living things
all living things on earth are part of the climate system 
greenhouse, gas effect
Processes whereby gases and clouds absorb Infared radiation, emitted from earths surface and radiate it, heading to the atmosphere and earths surface
carbon sink
A Reservoir that absorb carbon dioxide from the environment and stores in another form
Plants, soil, ocean
impact of carbon dioxide
Causes up to 25% of greenhouse effect
Impact of water vapour
2/3 of greenhouse effect is caused by this
impact of methane
23x more powerful than greenhouse effect
impact of nitrous oxide
300x more effective as greenhouse than carbon dioxide
impact of ozone
toxic in troposphere
anthropogenic
Trapping of lower energy Infared, radiation by atmosphere, as a result of human activity
Carbon dioxide, methane
Anthropogenic sources
carbon dioxide - burning fossil fuels
Nitrous oxide - agriculture
Methane - fertilizer
CFCs - refrigeration methods
albedo effect
A measure of how much of the suns radiation is reflected by surface
Why are photosynthesis and cellular respiration important to the carbon cycle?
photosynthesis removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and cellular respiration, adds it to the atmosphere
Heat sink
A reservoir, such as the ocean that absorbs in stores, thermal energy 
Proxy records
Stores of information in a tree rings, ice, cores, and fossils that can be measured to give clues to what the climate was like in the past
Plate tectonics
The theory explaining the slow moving of large plates in the earths crust
Continental drift
The theory that earths continents used to be one big supercontinent called PANGAEA
Eccentricity
The earth is not perfectly circular
Tilt
Earth tilt back and forth
Procession of tilt
The earth wobbles
what is IPCC
intergovernmental panel on climate change
Group of scientist summarize the latest research on climate change
actions, government, industries, or businesses can take to reduce greenhouse, gas emissions
Transportation - drive less
Energy production - improve energy, efficiency, through new technologies
Waste management - compost all organic waste, so it doesn’t go to landfills
Changes in the Arctic affecting the rest of the world
albedo effect
Release of carbon dioxide
Sea levels rising
Ocean currents
What is clean energy?
Energy coming from generation systems that do not produce any pollution
Solar energy, and wind energy 
convection current
A circular current in air, that other fluids caused by the rising of warm fluid as cold fluid sinks
how do prevailing winds relate to precipitation
as prevailing wins, pass over the ocean, it picks up water vapour and condenses bringing rain
thermohaline circulation
The continuous flow of water around the world, oceans driven by differences in water temperatures in salinity
problems caused by melting ice glaciers
Rising sea levels
Increase in the coastal erosion
