Environmental Threats To The Planet

Question 1

albedo

Answer 1

The percentage of solar energy (shortwave radiation) reflected from the Earth back into space. It is a measure of the reflectivity of the earth’s surface.

Question 2

Anthropocene

Answer 2

Suggested that we have entered a new geological era where human activity is the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Question 3

climate change

Answer 3

Changes in long term temperature and precipitation patterns that can be either natural or linked to human activities

Question 4

coriolis effect

Answer 4

The result of the Earth’s rotation on weather patterns and ocean currents making storms swirl clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.

Question 5

eccentricity

Answer 5

The shape of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. This constantly fluctuating orbital shape ranges between more and less elliptical (0 to 5% ellipticity) on a cycle of about 100

Question 6

El Nino

Answer 6

Climatic changes affecting the Pacific region and beyond every few years characterised by the appearance of unusually warm water around northern Peru and Ecuador

Question 7

enhanced greenhouse effect

Answer 7

The impact on the climate from the additional heat retained due to the increased amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that humans have released into the earths atmosphere since the industrial revolution.

Question 8

glacial

Answer 8

A period in the earth’s history when polar and mountain ice sheets were unusually extensive across the earth’s surface.

Question 9

global atmospheric circulation model

Answer 9

The large-scale movement of air by which heat is distributed on the surface of the Earth. The wind belts and the jet streams girdling the planet are steered by three convection cells: the Hadley cell,the Ferrell cell and the polar cell

Question 10

global warming

Answer 10

A trend associated with climate change involving a warming trend (0.85C since 1880)

Question 11

greenhouse effect

Answer 11

Natural warming of the atmosphere as heat given off from the Earth is absorbed by liquids and gases such as CO2 and Methane

Question 12

Holocene1

Answer 12

The current geological epoch which started some 11500 years ago when the glaciers began to retreat.

Question 13

ice age

Answer 13

A glacial episode characterised by lower than average temperatures and during which ice covers more of the Earth’s surface

Question 14

ice core

Answer 14

A core sample that is typically removed from an ice she most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica

Question 15

interglacial

Answer 15

An interglacial period is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene about 11,700 years ago

Question 16

inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ)

Answer 16

A low pressure belt that encircles the globe around the Equator; it is where the trade winds from the northeast and southeast meet; the Earth is tilted on its orbit around the Sun causing the ITCZ to migrate between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn with the seasons

Question 17

IPCC

Answer 17

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific and intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nationsset up at the request of member governments

Question 18

Little Ice Age

Answer 18

The Little Ice Age was a period of regionally cold conditions between roughly AD 1300 and 1850

Question 19

Medieval Warming Period

Answer 19

c900–1400 during which warmer temperatures existed in many parts of the world.

Question 20

Milankovitch cycles

Answer 20

A cyclical movement related to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun which affects climate. There are three types: eccentricity axial tilt

Question 21

paleoclimatology

Answer 21

The study of past climates: as we are unable to use meteorological data to analyse past climates we have to use climate proxies (preserved physical characteristics of the past which act as natural recorders of climate variability). We can use these proxies to reconstruct past climates.

Question 22

Paris Agreement 2015 (COP21)

Answer 22

An agreement to keep warming to a max of 2C above preindustrial times. It deals with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

Question 23

Pleistocene

Answer 23

the geological epoch which lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world’s most recent period of repeated glaciations.

Question 24

precession

Answer 24

One of the Milankovitch cycles this is the trend in the direction of the Earth’s axis of rotation relative to the fixed stars

Question 25

Quaternary

Answer 25

The most recent geological period covering the last 2.6 million years and including the Pleistocene and Holocene eras

Question 26

sunspot

Answer 26

temporary phenomena on the Sun’s photosphere that appear as spots darker than the surrounding areas.

Question 27

tilt

Answer 27

The angle of the Earth’s axial tilt with respect to the orbital plane (the obliquity of the ecliptic) varies between 22.1° and 24.5°over a cycle of about 41

Question 28

tropical storm

Answer 28

An area of low pressure with winds moving in a spiral around the calm central point called the eye of the storm. Winds are powerful, rainfall is heavy and storm surges can result. Can develop into a Hurricane (Atlantic) Cyclone (Indian Ocean) or Typhoon (Pacific)

Question 29

volcanic winter

Answer 29

a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid and water obscuring the Sun and raising Earth’s albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption.