Climate Change Flashcards
Global warming and climate change are not the same thing explain what both are
Global warming is natural or human induced increase in the average global temperature of the atmosphere. Climate change is the change long-term weather patterns.
Global warming is one of many things that drive climate change.
What causes changes in climate. Tell me some natural causes and some human induced ones
. A – the sun’s output. Incoming solar radiation is the main climate driver. B- earths orbit can shift and tilt. C- Volcanic eruptions.
d- Carbon dioxide, produced from burning carbon-based fuels, volcanic eruptions, respiration of organic matter, natural fires. E – methane produced by the decay of organic material landfills, burning of fossil fuels. F- Nitrous oxide produced by fertilizer use, animal waste, fossil fuel burning.
Is the warming natural?
We do know that the earth is getting warmer, around 1°C over the Past century and temperature has been well above normal for 25 years. It’s worse Overland and in high latitudes. The warmest eight years on record since 1880 have all been after 2001. The warmest were in 2005 and 2010
Are people in denial
34% of people don’t think that there is evidence of warming. 58% do, and about 36 % of them think it’s caused by human activity the rest thinks it’s natural.
So is there more greenhouse gas in the atmosphere than there was before
Yes more than in the past 800,000 years. CO2 makes up about 80% of the greenhouse gases, CH4 13%, NO2 7%, HFC’s, PCF’s, SF5 1%.
What is the us versus them fuels debate
Who is producing the omissions? It’s easy to say that something has to be done and to blame it on the oil and gas companies for destroying the global environment. But really majority of the emissions come from transportation, Then oil and gas, then electricity, and buildings and agriculture and other things.
Where are a lot of emissions going to come from in the future
Developing nations. Emerging economies like China and India are doing development with fossil energy.
What is the IPCC
Intergovernmental panel on climate change. It’s set up to assess the latest science on climate change, compare different models, assess the evidence and uncertainties. Hundred and 40 countries are part of it. The global average temperatures expected to increase 1 to 7°C by the end of the century. This is based on scenarios. A set of specific parameters. They aren’t predictions, the scenarios are planning tools. They are likely outcomes depending on her actions.
What we don’t know fuels a lot of debate. But do we know enough in order to act. To me what we don’t know and what we do know about climate change
What we don’t know is how it went fossil fuel will change, will it yet to be discovered reduce the problem, we don’t know how economies population political processes will change. But we do know that the warming of the climate is occurring. We know that human caused warming over the past 30 years is cause a visible change on Earth systems. We also know that greenhouse gas emissions at or above what they are now will cause climate changes in the 21st century will be greater than what we see now.
