Climate change and pollution Flashcards
What are major causes of climate change?
Human activity is the main cause of climate change. People burn fossil fuels and convert land from forests to agriculture. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, people have burned more and more fossil fuels and changed vast areas of land from forests to farmland.
What are the main threats of climate change?
The main threats of climate change, stemming from the rising temperature of Earth’s atmosphere include rising sea levels, ecosystem collapse and more frequent and severe weather. Rising temperatures from human-caused greenhouse gas emissions affects planet-wide systems in various ways.
When was climate change started?
The instrumental temperature record shows the signal of rising temperatures emerged in the tropical ocean in about the 1950s. Today’s study uses the extra information captured in the proxy record to trace the start of the warming back a full 120 years, to the 1830s.
Causes of climate change
The greenhouse effect is essential to life on Earth, but human-made emissions in the atmosphere are trapping and slowing heat loss to space.
Five key greenhouse gases are CO2, nitrous oxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and water vapor.
While the Sun has played a role in past climate changes, the evidence shows the current warming cannot be explained by the Sun.
What causes damage to ecosystems?
Direct actions that damage and threaten species and their ecosystems are: Conversion of ecosystems into agricultural zones, pasture for livestock, dams, urban areas and roads. Excessive exploitation of species, including illegal trafficking. Introduction of species from other countries that become invader
Did global warming decreased between the 2000’s and early 2010’s?
For example, the period of slower warming during the 2000s and early 2010s has ended with a
dramatic jump to warmer temperatures between 2014 and 2015.
How much have greenhouse gases increased?
Since 1970, CO2 emissions have increased by about 90%, with emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes contributing about 78% of the total greenhouse gas emissions increase from 1970 to 2011. Agriculture, deforestation, and other land-use changes have been the second-largest contributors.
How much has greenhouse gases increase?
From 1990 to 2019, the total warming effect from greenhouse gases added by humans to the Earth’s atmosphere increased by 45 percent. The warming effect associated with carbon dioxide alone increased by 36 percent.
How many degrees has the Earth warmed?
1.9° Fahrenheit
According to an ongoing temperature analysis led by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by at least 1.1° Celsius (1.9° Fahrenheit) since 1880.
When did global energy consumption accelerated?
The CO2 level in 2019 was more than 40% higher than it was in the 19th century. Most of this CO2 increase
has taken place since 1970, about the time when global energy consumption accelerated.
How long does methane and CO2 stay in the atmosphere?
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around.
how much has flooding increased
At more than half of the locations shown, floods are now at least five times more common than they were in the 1950s.
How much does flooding cost?
Flooding, with an average cost of $4.8 billion per event. Winter storms, with an average cost of $4.2 billion per event. Freezes, with an average cost of $3.8 billion per event.
What is the evidence that climate change is manmade?
It is now known that the observed pattern of tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling over the past 40 years is broadly consistent with computer model simulations that include increases in CO2 and decreases in stratospheric ozone, each caused by human activities.
How much has the temperature increased since the last ice age?
Recent estimates of the increase in global average temperature since the end of the last ice age are 4 to
5 °C (7 to 9 °F). That change occurred over a period of about 7,000 years, starting 18,000 years ago. This speed of warming is more than ten times that at the end of an ice age, the fastest known natural sustained change on a global scale.
Causes of decrease temperature periods during climate change?
Large volcanic eruptions increase the number of small particles in the stratosphere. These particles reflect sunlight, leading to short-term surface cooling lasting typically two to three years, followed by a slow recovery. Ocean circulation and mixing vary naturally on many time scales, causing variations in sea surface temperatures as well as changes in the rate at which heat is transported to greater depths. For example, the tropical Pacific swings between warm El Niño and cooler La Niña events on timescales of two to seven years.
What do the Milankovitch cycles explain?
Milankovitch cycles include the shape of Earth’s orbit (its eccentricity), the angle that Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to Earth’s orbital plane (its obliquity), and the direction that Earth’s spin axis is pointed (its precession).
How much carbon is in the air ppm?
421 ppm
This number tells how many parts of carbon dioxide there are in one million parts of air. So, if carbon dioxide is at 421 ppm parts per million (or ppm), that means in one million particles of air there are 421 ppm particles of carbon dioxide.
how much does climate change cost?
Deloitte’s analysis shows that insufficient action on climate change could cost the U.S. economy $14.5 trillion in the next 50 years. A loss of this scale is equivalent to nearly 4% of GDP or $1.5 trillion in 2070 alone. And over the next 50 years, nearly 900,000 jobs could disappear each year due to climate damage.
Renewable resources include biomass energy (such as ethanol), hydropower, geothermal power, wind energy, and solar energy. Biomass refers to organic material from plants or animals. This includes wood, sewage, and ethanol (which comes from corn or other plants).
In 2016 the fossil fuel industry was subsidized three hundred and sixty billion dollars by governments to keep it on the path it’s on vs. renewable which was given a hundred and forty billion dollars renewable energy was subsidized less than half for fossil fuels even though in America renewables are by far the fastest growing energy resource
How many big companies contributed to climate change?
Just 100 companies have been the source of more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988, according to a new report
