Climate Change

Question 1

what is climate change?

Answer 1

• Warming of the global temperatures
• It occurs as a result of natural events (e.g. volcanic eruptions etc)
• Current issues are primarily due to human related activity
• There’s and increase in greenhouse gases
• warming climate leads to changes in:
  sea level change
  mass ice melting and reduction in pole ice
  causes more catastrophic natural event (earthquakes, floods, excessive/ reduced rain

Question 2

what are the key indicators of climate change?

Answer 2

• sea level rising
• ice/glacier melt in the poles (causing sea level rise)
• flash flooding
• land temperature rise
• humidity increase
• drought
• volcanic/earthquake activity
  the list could go on!

Question 3

what greenhouse gases are increasing due to climate change?

Answer 3

CO2
CH4 (methane - bigger issue than CO2)
N2O (Nitrous oxide)
some water vapour

fluorinated industrial gases

• hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFC’s)
• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

Question 4

when is it happening?

Answer 4

NOW

• we are experiencing it now!
• in the last decade we have an increase in global temperature, flood, fires, sea level rise ice melting and more globally.
• many specie have already gone extinct and many more are on their way out

Question 5

Has global warming occurred in the past?

Answer 5

• Climate change has been a regular occurrence in the earth’s past.
• it is not an unnatural occurrence

Question 6

why is climate change such a big issue today if its already occurred in the past?

Answer 6

• climate change today is the result of human activity, not natural causes
• As its human activity it is occurring quicker
• Even if we prevent all CO2 emissions now, the emissions would still linger for another 150 years.

Question 7

What is the IPCC? what do they do?

Answer 7

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

• assesses the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change.

Question 8

What did the IPCC say about the human influence on Climate Change in their 2013 report?

Answer 8

• there is a 95% certainty that humans induced Climate Change.
• an increase in the global temperature will increase by about 1.4-5.4 degrees C in this century

Question 9

What was said on the ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (2006) video?

Answer 9

• they demonstrated that climate change had increase significantly in the last couple of decades since 1880’s
• provided a graph which showed the increase.
• established that humans have influenced Climate Change

Question 10

what is a good way of remembering why Climate Change is occuring?

Answer 10

Analogy:
Climate Change is like…
1. A small amount of salt in a human diet is essential
2. Slightly more makes the food taste nicer
3. Too much salt in diet is harmful to our healthy

Question 11

Who is most at risk from Climate Change?

Answer 11

• Polar species

- other species in other areas of the earth can move around more easily.

Question 12

What is Monarch and what do they do?

Answer 12

Modelling Natural Resources Response to Climate Change

• cooperation designed to assess the impacts of climate change on every species of wildlife in the UK and if they can adapt
• Have gaps in their knowledge about climate changes

- they used...
soil
water availability
temperature indices
... to define the current suitability of climate change space for each species

• “Climate Change is a threat for some species and an oppotunity for others”

Question 13

how important is Climate Change?

Answer 13

Its the most important issue in the short/medium future

Question 14

how is the media important for the science of Climate Change?

Answer 14

the media play an important role in the public understanding of science (Stamm, Clark & Eblacas, 2000)

• Improving the Science to media communication will lead to a better public understanding

Question 15

how good was the film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ at portraying Climate Change and the future of its effects?

Answer 15

very good!

• They got the facts right
• The only slip up was the time scale at which the events took place.

Question 16

What did Weber and Stern (2011) say about communicating science to the public?

Answer 16

That the public understanding of Climate Change as a physical phenomenon is is highly complex

Question 17

What about climate Change in the Future?

Answer 17

If we continue in the same manner than we do now, then there will be an increase in:
sea level rise, 
volcanic eruptions, 
earthquakes, 
flash floods, 
droughts, 
fires 
and tsunamis.

To prevent this, we need to:

• eliminate CO2 emissions
• Use Green Energy (solar panels, wind turbines and water power etc)
• educate the public (especially children as they’re the next generation to deal with the issue)

Question 18

Has the government taken action?

Answer 18

Not much so far

• Due to recent floods, there has been a disturbance in the government.
• They’re finally coming round tot he idea of climate change despite 20 years of scientists telling them its happening
• They need to up THEIR DAMN GAME

Question 19

How do the public perceive climate change

Answer 19

• There is an increase in people who believe that it is occurring and that something should be done about it
• this is due to the media and campaigns from scientists, and others who know about it