Climate Change Flashcards
Alternative energy production (renewable energy)
-main aim is to produce energy without fossil fuels and co2 emissions
-tidal, solar, wind, nuclear (renewable energy)
-may be expensive to implement in the short term, but are sustainable and reduce long term costs
-expensive upfront costs often mean that they are limited to HICs
-Have relitively small scale and local impacts on atmospheric carbon
-Require large amounts of space (eg wind and solar) so cannot be implemented in urban areas.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS)
-Capture carbon production from power station, transport in liquid form, bury underground (form of geological sequestration)
-Eg. Boundary Dam Power station in Canada- largest and most effective example of CCS in world
-Creates sustainable and high value jobs, if invested in it is highly effective
-expensive in short run, cheaper long run
-relitively localised and small scale impacts on carbon stores
-high upfront costs mean it is limited to HICs
-there are environmental risks- potential leakage of liquid carbon in underground stores.
Warming of the arctic (arctic amplification)
-Warmer temperatures in the Arctic cause more permafrost to thaw, which releases the stored Co2 and methane
-This leads to more greenhouse gases, contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect, more rising temperatures and causing more permafrost to thaw
Albedo effect in the artic and climate change
-Glaciers and ice sheets are melting with increased temperatures, this reduces the albedo effect, allowing more solar radiation to be absorbed by the earth and resulting in greater temperature increase
-The change in habitat is devastating for the ecosystem dependent on it: the native Arctic Fox must now compete for food and territory with the red fox (from Alaska) which has migrated North into now habitable land so climate change has widespread impacts down the food chain.
Impact of deforestation on the carbon cycle
Deforestation has major impacts on terrestrial carbon stores by reducing photosynthesis which absorb co2, meaning less carbon in terrestrial stores, so increased atmospheric carbon.
Impacts of deforestation on the water cycle
-Deforestation leads to a reduction in interception and infiltration, increasing surface runoff and soil erosion, leading to increased flood risk.
-Without the vegetation returning the water to the atmosphere by evaportranspiration, a reduction in the annual rainfall can be seen.
What is afforestation?
-The planting of trees on land which has been previously deforested, counteracts negative effects of deforestation
-Promotes infiltration and percolation in order to reglate the water cycle.
-Afforestation also helps to promote a reduction in co2 due to increased terrestrial carbon storage and sequestreing and a reduction in atmospheric carbon
What are the issues with global agreements such as the Paris Agreement?
-The challanges has been around obtaining agreement in what is clearly not an equal situation. The richest countries such as some in Europe and the USA, make a disproportionately high contribution to global warming- this is combined with the fact that USA sought to pull out of the Paris agreement.
Climate change from 2000 - 2100
-Anthropogenic climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing our world in the 21st century. There are many reasons for this- importantly excess carbon emissions into the atmosphere has led to the enhanced greenhouse effect and global warming
- currently predicted between 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius from 2000 to 2100 levels
How will climate change affect precipitation and resultantly- drought?
-One of the impacts of temperature rise is changes to precipitation- which can be rain/snow/sleet etc. in different areas of the world.
-Broadly, more land will be exposed to severe drought and water deficit- increasing levels of water insecurity/scarcity which impacts nearly 4bn people and can cause significant impacts to both human activity as well as natural habitats and ecosystems which we rely on.
How has the rate of forest loss changed from the 1990s to 2010-15
-The rate of forest loss has decreased from 9.5 million hectares a year in the 1990s to 5.5 million hectares a year from 2010-2015.
