Criteria 6 Flashcards
What is weather?
Atmospheric conditions occur locally over short periods of time.
Minutes to hours or days.
Rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods, thunderstorms.
Weather is local and short-term.
What is climate?
Refers to long-term regional or even global average of temperature, humidity, and rainfall patterns over seasons, years, or decades.
Climate is global and long-term.
Climate Change
Refers to a broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gasses to the earth’s atmosphere.
Increased temperatures, and raises in sea level height.
What is global warming
Refers to the upward temperature trend across the entire earth since the early 20th century, and most notably since the 1970s.
Due to the increase in fossil fuel emissions since the industrial revolution.
An example of climate change.
What are fossil fuels (Non renewables)
Oil, Natural gas, Coal, and Nuclear energy.
Fossil Fuel alternatives (Renewable energy sources)
Solar, hydroelectric, biofuels, and wind energy.
Ozone depletion in Tasmania
People putting fridges outside during the 1920s to avoid being killed by the gasses inside the fridge.
1928 Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) is produced and is said to be super safe.
1970, The ozone looks to be disappearing with a big drop off over time. Artic surveys show that there was a hole in the ozone in 1991 over Antarctica and spreading over Tasmania.
2013, alternatives to CFC are made which can break down before they reach the ozone layer.
How does CFC lead to ozone weakness?
CFC destroys ozone particles by latching on and taking an oxygen atom away, leaving O2 (Oxygen). After this process, the CFC can break away leaving O2 and therefore restarting the cycle.
A mass amount of this process can lead to weakening and holes in the ozone layer.
The Greenhouse Effect
The ozone acts as a ‘greenhouse’ to keep the earth warm. This stops energy and heat from leaving the earth after the sun heats up the earth with energy.
Some energy is bounced back onto the earth off the ozone layer. Without it the earth would be a frozen ball.
No atmosphere = no life on earth
Human Enhanced Greenhouse Effect
Making the atmosphere thicker with chemicals resulting in less energy escaping into space.
The anthropogenic greenhouse effect.
Increased greenhouse gasses retain heat within the earth’s atmosphere.
Greenhouse Gasses come from…
- Transport
- Agriculture
- Industry
- Comercial and residential
- Electricity
- Carbon Dioxide
Impacts of global warming
- Species loss
- Ice melts (Sea ice, glaciers, permafrost)
- Extreme weather events (floods, fires, wind, drought)
> increased intensity and frequency. - Decreased reliability of food production
>more floods, fires, and droughts have less reliability in growing food. - Changes to the timing of biological events
> migration
> hatching
Negative feedback loops.
There is a ‘correct’ level and forces will bring the level back to this correct level.
Swaying up and down data. An imaginary correct level (Such as carrying capacity).
When things are squeezed towards a ‘correct’ answer.
Positive feedback loops.
No ‘correct’ answer. An increase will produce further increases.
The loop always gets bigger and escalates, usually an issue or problem.
Ice melting in water leads to an increase in temperature, an increase in water temperatures lead to more ice melting. this is a positive feedback loop.
Sea level rise
Water previously trapped in ice that has melted goes into the sea, raising the sea level.
Heat expands, therefore the oceans get bigger.
Change in ocean currents (Convection currents)
Heat rises but cold sinks.
As water tends to move towards the north and south poles it gets colder, but as it comes back toward the equator it gets hot again.
Thermohaline circulation
Seawater is made denser by cooling and/or increasing salinity.
Deepwater is formed in localised areas.
Once hot water hits its destination some of the freshwater freezes making it saltier therefore sinking and moving backward in the convection current, cold water also sinks so it moves with the salty water.
Coldwater along the bottom of the floor picks up the nutrients that coral reefs need, when it hits the equator it brings these good nutrients up to feed the reefs.
Ocean acidification
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (In the air) > Dissolved carbon dioxide + Water > Carbonic acid
More carbon dioxide in the air leads to it dissolving into the water, when it reacts to water it produces carbonic acid, which leads the ocean to become more acidic.
