Climate Impacts Flashcards
What are the 5 physical impacts of climate change?
Permafrost Weather extremes Ice mass lost Sea level rise Ocean acidification
What are we confident about regarding ice shelves?
High confidence that Antarctica ice shelves have a long term trend of retreat and collapse
Medium confidence that the ice shelf is thinning due to heat flux
Do ice shelves being removed cause sea level rise?
No
Where is most affected by ice mass being lost?
Arctic
What happens to the thermocline if ice mass lost?
The thermocline circulation will not work
What happens to small developing countries when sea level rises?
Increase in intensity of cyclones
Flooding in low coastal areas
(Despite them having minimal contribution)
What are we still uncertain about when it comes to sea level rise?
How it will affect nuclear power
What are the RCPs when it comes to sea level rise?
- 6- 0.26 to 0.55m
- 5- 0.45 to 0.82m
BOTH VERY BAD
How much anthropogenic CO2 does the ocean absorb?
30%
What happens to the reefs since ocean acidified?
Less diverse reef communities as the carbonate structure of the corals fail
What is permafrost?
Frozen wetland that holds lots of methane (which is released when they’re thawed)
What is happening to Russian permafrost?
Medium confidence that Russian permafrost has thawed us to 15m
What’s happening to the permafrost temperature?
High confidence that the temperature is increasing.
What are we confident about regarding weather extremes?
Medium to high confidence that the precipitation in the northern hemisphere is increasing
Low confidence in other trends due to lack of data
What is happening to hurricane intensity now?
It is increasing; making Europe vulnerable
