Climate Change

Question 1

Climate Change

Why does it not make sense that ‘big climate’ is trying to sell us all a lie about climate change?

Answer 1

The following doesn’t make sense to me: The scientists who entered their field to advance our knowledge base and publish new findings are actually just in it for the money (although they went into a profession where they would on average make less than $100K per year).

This does: Wealthy special interest groups like the oil and gas industry are sowing disinformation and exaggerating/inventing dissenting opinons via online and political mediums (just like tobacco corporations did when the science emerged on the dangers of smoking).

Question 2

Climate Change

How hot and/or cold would the earth be if not for the greenhouse effect?

Answer 2

-18°C

(It is a natural phenomenon that is necessary to our survival; we’ve simply ramped it up severely in the case of climate change.)

Question 3

Climate Change

If certain atmospheric compounds (e.g. CO₂) trap light (and resultant heat) and create the greenhouse effect, why didn’t they just reflect the light in the first place?

Answer 3

The light enters as visible light (which can get through the atmosphere);

it loses energy as heat;

it tries to leave as infrared light (which is blocked and retained)

Question 4

Climate Change

How long ago did Joseph Fourier figure out the mechanism of the greenhouse effect and predict an increase in temperatures if these gases were added to the atmosphere?

Answer 4

The 1820s

(We’ve known about the greenhouse effect and its impact on the planet for 200 years.)

Question 5

Climate Change

The earth has only fluctuated in temperature by ~_____°C for the past 10,000 years.

Answer 5

The earth has only fluctuated in temperature by ~ 1 °C for the past 10,000 years.

Question 6

Climate Change

Describe the fluctuations of atmospheric CO₂ over the past 800,000 years.

Answer 6

Question 7

Climate Change

Give an example of what can happen when CO₂ levels change dramatically (specifically, an example that occurred 250 million years ago)?

Answer 7

The Siberian Traps

2 million years of excessive volcanic activity (and drastically increasing CO₂​ levels) in SIberia that resulted in the End-Permian extinctions

Question 8

Climate Change

The earth temperature rises by ~____°C for every doubling in [CO₂].

Answer 8

The earth temperature rises by ~ 3 °C for every doubling in [CO₂​].

Question 9

Climate Change

The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about ____ degrees Fahrenheit since the late ___ century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other ________-produced emissions into the atmosphere.

Answer 9

The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 1.2 °C since the late 19^{<strong>th</strong>} century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-produced emissions into the atmosphere.

Question 10

Climate Change

Human effects have already caused the earth to warm by 1.2 °C.

Small, island nations are severely threatened at ____°C.

Global catastrophe begins at ____°C.

Answer 10

Human effects have already caused the earth to warm by 1.2 °C.

Small, island nations are severely threatened at 1.5 °C.

Global catastrophe begins at 2. °C.

Question 11

Climate Change

Assuming we go on as we are, in what year does Michael Mann (leading climate scientist) predict that we will hit a 2°C increase due to human-produced emissions (and thus, catastrophic outcomes)?

Answer 11

2036

(We are at a warming speed of about 0.25°C per decade and are already 1.2°C up.)

Question 12

Climate Change

According to NASA and the NOAA, the current warming trend is of particular significance because there is a greater than _____% probability that it is the result of human activity since the mid-20^th century and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate.

Answer 12

According to NASA and the NOAA, the current warming trend is of particular significance because there is a greater than 95 % probability that it is the result of human activity since the mid-20^th century and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate.

Question 13

Climate Change

Atomospheric carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than _____ times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

Answer 13

Atomospheric carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.

Question 14

Climate Change

How much of the carbon dioxide produced every year is produced by the richest billion?

Answer 14

50%

Question 15

Climate Change

Which country in the world is the worst offender per capita for carbon emissions?

Answer 15

The U.S.

(Although, think of the potential per capita ramifications as China and India become more industrialized.)

Question 16

Climate Change

List/order the countries that are contributing the most to global climate emissions (bold each over 2%).

Answer 16

1. China (30%)

2. U.S. (15%)

3. European Union (10%)

4. India

5. Russia

6. Japan
7. Germany
8. South Korea
9. Iran
10. Saudi Arabia
11. Canada

Question 17

Climate Change

How much does Michael Mann (a leading climate scientist) predict the Paris Climate Accord will help curb emissions and our nearing of 2°C over where we’d like to be?

Answer 17

It will help with about 50% of the issue

Question 18

Climate Change

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about ____%. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades.

Answer 18

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades.

Question 19

Climate Change

In the past century, ocean levels have risen ~____ inches.

Answer 19

In the past century, ocean levels have risen ~ 8 inches.

Question 20

Climate Change

True/False.

The rate of ocean level rise is accelerating.

Answer 20

True.

Question 21

Climate Change

Name some of the observable physical features of the world that indicate a drastic rise in temperature.

Answer 21

Warming oceans, rising sea levels, ocean acidification;

shrinking Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, glacial retreat, decreased snow cover;

the warmest years on record are all the last several

Question 22

Climate Change

How have the number of extreme weather events changed over the past few decades?

Answer 22

An increase in those due to high temperatures and a decrease in those due to low temperatures

Question 23

Climate Change

A fairly recent meta-analysis shows that of 77 papers from the mid-1960s and 1970s, ____ predicted warming, ____ were neutral, and ____ predicted cooling.

Answer 23

A fairly recent meta-analysis shows that of 77 papers from the mid-1960s and 1970s, 44 predicted warming, 20 were neutral, and 7 predicted cooling.

Question 24

Climate Change

True/False

The scientific community largely agreed in the 1970s that a global cooling was coming.

Answer 24

False.

A handful of scientists made tentative predictions about global cooling due to some aerosol effects, but many more scientists were worried about warming than cooling. Journalists amplified the small handful’s worries. Today, the consensus on global warming has strengthened to be near-completely accepted.

Question 25

Climate Change

Although ocean levels have only risen 8 inches in the past century, they are expected to rise ___________ over the next century.

Answer 25

Although ocean levels have only risen 8 inches in the past century, they are expected to rise three feet over the next century.