Climatology

Question 1

Why does the Earth get seasons?

Answer 1

The Earth is titled at roughly 23 degrees.

Different areas of the Earth receive more or less solar radiation depending on their location.

Question 2

What is the jet stream?

Answer 2

The jetstream is found at 35 000 ft above ground and travels 150km/h. Commercial jets use it to travel in a westerly direction, allowing the pilots to cut back the engines and save on fuel.

Question 3

Explain the impact of the jet stream.

Answer 3

It helps determine the temperature because it is the boundary between cold and warm air.

Question 4

What are the two main principles of precipitation?

Answer 4

a. Water vapour has to be present (clouds)

b. There has to be a cooling effect.

Question 5

What is the first main type of precipitation?

Answer 5

Cyclonic:

temperature change –> wind –> cold air drives under warm air –> warm air holds moisture and rises

Question 6

What is the second main type of precipitation?

Answer 6

Convection:

as the day warms –> heat drives higher into the atmosphere –> clouds develop –> rain

Question 7

What is the third main type of precipitation?

Answer 7

Orographic:

air carrying moisture hits a mountain and is forced to cool and produce condensation

Question 8

What are the main weather characteristics associated with a low and high-pressure system?

Answer 8

low-pressure systems: air is dragged up, it cools and forms clouds
high-pressure systems: dense air is forced down and spreads out over the surface of the Earth

Question 9

What is the impact of humidity on climate?

Answer 9

Humidity is a measure of the amount of water vapour in the air. This is important because the more water vapour that is in the air the greater the opportunity for precipitation.

Question 10

What is the impact of latitude on climate?

Answer 10

The impact of latitude is simple in that the further one moves away from the equator generally the colder the climate in this goes for both northern and southern locations.

Question 11

What is the impact of altitude on climate?

Answer 11

The higher the altitude, the colder the temperature. This is because of the lack of oxygen or air at higher altitudes and explains why higher mountains have snow-capped peaks.

Question 12

What is the impact of water bodies on climate?

Answer 12

Water takes longer to heat up than the air but holds heat for longer. Important to this process is the Coriolis effect (Chicago’s weather today is Toronto’s weather tomorrow).

Question 13

How is wind formed?

Answer 13

The wind is formed when there is an air pressure change as in going from a high to low-pressure or vice versa. Hence, the wind usually kicks up before a storm or major weather event.

Question 14

How would climate change if the Earth were a cube?

Answer 14

If the Earth were shaped in a cube, the result is that there would be no difference in temperature where latitude was concerned because the areas facing the Sun would receive the same level of radiation. The areas on top of the cube, however, would be uninhabitable because they would receive no solar radiation.

Question 15

Explain the phenomena of the Earth as one big continent.

Answer 15

If the earth existed as it once did, as one large continent, the interior of that continent would likely be uninhabitable because it would suffer from great temperature extremes due to the fact that it was not near any major bodies of water.

Question 16

What are Canadian strategies for dealing with winter?

Answer 16

Canadians increasingly try to escape winter:

• We hibernate
• We take trips
• We go to underground malls, parking, walkways, etc
• We are sure to clean the roads of every snowflake.

Question 17

How do Russians deal with winter?

Answer 17

Russians embrace winter.

• They dunk themselves in ice-water in the middle of January
• They see it as a patriotically
• It is a part of their literature and poetry.

Question 18

How do Scandanavians deal with winter?

Answer 18

Like Russians. They hold outdoor festivals and have a sauna culture that involves rolling in the snow before going into the sauna.

Question 19

What is the science of climate change?

Answer 19

In the 1860s, John Tyndall discovered that the gas that was being retained in the Earth’s atmosphere was known as carbon dioxide.

Question 20

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (1)

Answer 20

Synthetic trees, these work but we would need over 60 million of them to solve the problem, they could be put on the top of buildings, otherwise, we will need a lot of space, and you cannot necessarily get rid of the tree afterwards because it is needed to store the carbon permanently.

Question 21

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (2)

Answer 21

Sequestering carbon is done by pumping CO2 deep underground and holding it into rock, the problem is it is a costly operation and really can only be done by industrial giants.

Question 22

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (3)

Answer 22

Fertilizing the ocean with iron to promote algae blooms, would take a lot of money and a lot of effort since the oceans are massive, it would also destroy the marine ecosystem given that aquatic life would be deprived of oxygen

Question 23

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (4)

Answer 23

Chicken poop gives off greenhouse gases and by cooking the poop you can supply energy and produce what is known as bio char which is useful as a fertilizer, this is a winning proposal but it only solves one part of the problem.

Question 24

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (5)

Answer 24

Mirrors in space is a crazy plan that would require 16 trillion mirrors being put into space, which would be costly and difficult to do as well as put all scientific exploration of space at an end.

Question 25

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (6)

Answer 25

Producing more clouds could be done by pouring more salt into the atmosphere using catamarans, but it would also result in more dark and gloomy days and disrupt the natural balance of the atmosphere.

Question 26

What is a strategy for dealing with CO2 and climate change? (7)

Answer 26

Shooting sulphur into the atmosphere is a crazy plan because it would mean shooting over 1,000,000 shells a day at great cost and potential danger

Question 27

What are Bill Gates’s thoughts on saving the planet?

Answer 27

Gates believes that our primary focus should be on building technologies, including making nuclear safer since the problem cannot be dealt with alone by changing merely consumer habits tastes.

Question 28

How do the power outages in Texas, Carbon County, and Wyoming affect climate change?

Answer 28

It was caused by the jet stream being forced far south and scientists believe that jet stream is likely to weaken as a result of the melting of the polar ice caps, leaving places like Texas vulnerable to such extreme weather events.

Question 29

Explain the importance of carbon taxes.

Answer 29

Canada has adopted a carbon tax as a way of combating climate change period this is a sensible policy from the perspective that it determines the use of carbon and gives incentive for people to adopt sustainable technologies such as electric cars.

Question 30

What is the Dutch solution to climate control?

Answer 30

Half of the Netherlands was pumped out of the sea using windmills several centuries ago. As a result, the country has a long tradition of dealing with water and with employing sustainable technologies, including the most popular form of transportation in the country: the bicycle

Question 31

How do the Dutch and Americans compare in terms of their climate control?

Answer 31

Like the Americans, the Dutch live in freedom, which despite some of its downsides allows for the development of new ideas and new technologies.

Question 32

Name 3 innovations that the Dutch have put in place to better climate control.

Answer 32

• Repurposing school houses for people to live in,
• Employing solar panels on rooftops,
• Developing mini school buses there are electric for transporting children to school,
• Developing walkways that light up on their own and without the use of electric lights,
• Powering their entire train system with wind power,
• Striving to make their entire car fleet electric by 2025,
• Developing a smog tower from which diamonds are produced.

Question 33

What is Brazil’s key success to their environmental impact?

Answer 33

a. transportation system
b. downtown core
c. builders given tax breaks for building green spaces
d. tree planting campaign

Question 34

What is Sweden’s key success to their environmental impact?

Answer 34

a. the carbon footprint is only 1/6 of Americans
b. high taxes but high standard of living
c. uses biofuels (electricity from the waste products from local wood mills, ethanol from wood chips)
d. gasoline cars forced to pay parking fees

Question 35

Is Toronto a GREEN CITY?

Answer 35

One of the greenest cities in North America (city buried in a forest)
Cut greenhouse emissions by 40 percent over the last decade

Question 36

Explain the problem of modern energy dependence.

Answer 36

the problem is that there’s a cost to that energy and part of that cost is at the expense of the planet’s climate, the climate on which all life depends

Question 37

Explain how coal is used as energy.

Answer 37

• coal accounts for half of the energy supply of the United States
• the problem is coal is a heavy polluter and a major contributor to climate change
• it also contributes to the development of barren wastelands is the coal is simply scooped out of the earth

Question 38

Explain how natural gas is used as energy.

Answer 38

• natural gas supplies have become abundant due to fracking
• natural gas has less of a carbon footprint than other fossil fuels
• transporting it to market, however, can be problematic (cause of explosion)

Question 39

Explain how fracking is used as energy.

Answer 39

Fracking has helped make the United States energy self-sufficient, but it uses hydraulic pressure and potentially harmful chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and has been linked to the death of livestock and being able to lite tap water on fire

Question 40

Explain how nuclear energy is used as common energy.

Answer 40

• nuclear offers the potential for boundless energy that is carbon neutral
• however, it has become more expensive to construct nuclear plants and there is always the possibility of an accident

Question 41

Explain how sustainable energy sources don’t work such as wind and solar.

Answer 41

The problem with wind is that it is unpredictable and requires a sweet spot in which the wind is not blowing too hard or not at all. What is really required to solve the problem of both wind and solar is the creation of better batteries.