Climate Change Flashcards
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather: conditions of atmosphere over short time periods.
Climate: average of weather conditions over long time period.
Preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth’s history.
Climate proxies.
Proxy data consists of two elements. Define both.
Span: range of time for which data from a given type of proxy exists.
Resolution: how much detail is to be found in a given type of proxy data.
What is palynology?
Study of pollen.
What are two ways we can know past temperatures?
Ice cores; sediment cores.
Lighter water _____ preferentially. Heavy water _____ preferentially.
Evaporates.
Precipitates.
What are the climate and sea level proxies for the Eocene (~55Ma)?
Marine sediments.
Describe the greenhouse effect.
Ultraviolet (UV) energy absorbed by the Earth’s surface; at night, radiated as infrared (IR) energy. IR prevented from leaving the atmosphere by certain gasses.
Which two gasses contribute most to the greenhouse effect?
Carbon dioxide; methane.
What is albedo?
Measure of how much light that hits surface is reflected without being absorbed.
How is carbon stored? What is the process for it?
Photosynthesis.
Water + Carbon Dioxide + Nutrients + Sunlight ➔ Oxygen + Organic material.
How is carbon released back into the atmosphere?
Decomposition.
Between 2007-2017 the ocean absorbed what?
25% of anthropogenic CO2.
Increased CO2 decreases what? Why is this important?
pH.
Warm water holds less gas.
Increased CO2 in the ocean = increased _____.
Acidification.
List eight climate concerns.
Food security.
Increase in extreme weather events.
Drought/forest fires.
Access to water.
Flooding.
Melting of the permafrost.
Displacement of vulnerable peoples.
Sea level rise.
Why does sea level rise occur?
Glacial ice melting, expansion of water with heat.
What is the risk of permafrost melting?
Release of methane; ancient viruses.
Agricultural lands contribute 20% of greenhouse gasses. Why is this?
Methane from soil.
North Americans waste _____% of the food they buy.
30-50.
Decreasing food waste would be beneficial for what three reasons?
Decreases use of pesticides/fertilizers runoff into water.
Decrease release of methane.
Decrease soil degradation.
One method of geoengineering is solar radiation management. What does this entail? What are four problems with it?
Artificially increasing albedo.
Doesn’t decrease CO2.
Sudden spikes in temperatures if technology fails.
Ocean acidification is not mitigated.
Effectiveness depends on latitude.
Which is more potent: methane or carbon dioxide?
Methane.
