Final Review

Question 1

Define Weather:

Answer 1

Short term natural events in a place

Question 2

Define Climate:

Answer 2

Long term weather trends often defined by temperature and precipitation

Question 3

Define Climate Variability:

Answer 3

Deviations of climate variables
from a given mean state at all spatial and temporal scales
beyond that of individual weather events

Question 4

Define Climate Change:

Answer 4

A change in the state of the climate
that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by
changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties
and that persists for an extended period

Question 5

What are some key insights from the paleoclimate record?

Answer 5

Climate has been in constant flux throughout the history of Earth, but it is not warming at an unprecedented rate

Question 6

What are the 5 natural drivers of climate change?

Answer 6

Global energy balance, sun spot cycles, earth’s orbit, volcanoes, and ocean cycles

Question 7

What are the physical effects of increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere?

Answer 7

Increased greenhouse effect – rising global temperatures, sea level rise, extreme weather events, desertification, etc.

Question 8

Define a climate impact:

Answer 8

The consequences of realized risks on natural and human systems due to climate change.

Question 9

Define a Hazard:

Answer 9

The potential occurrence of a natural or human caused physical event that could cause loss of life or injury, and/or cause damage to infrastructure

Question 10

Define exposure:

Answer 10

The presence of people, services, social or cultural places that could be effected by a hazard

Question 11

Define vulnerability:

Answer 11

predisposition to be adversely
affected… [as a] product of intersecting social processes
that result in inequalities in socioeconomic status and
income, and are exacerbated by exposure

Question 12

List 5 categories of climate impact that the IPCC tracks:

Answer 12

Water scarcity, agriculture/crop production, infectious diseases, heat/malnutrition/other, and damages to infrastructure

Question 13

Climate risk =

Answer 13

hazard + exposure + vulnerability

Question 14

What are 5 key takeaways about global climate impacts?

Answer 14

1. climate impacts everything
2. hazards have generally gotten warmer and more extreme
3. a little bit of warming can make a big difference
4. not all impacts are negative
5. some impacts are reversible, others are not
6. impacts are compounding and cascading

Question 15

According to Eve Darian-Smith, what are the 3 ways to interpret wildfires?

Answer 15

1. About fire (empirical dimensions)
2. With fire (relational dimensions)
3. Through fire (spatial/temporal dimensions)

Question 16

According to Eve Darian-Smith, what are two intersecting trends that shape global responses to climate change?

Answer 16

Surges in anti-democratic policies and anti-environmentalist policies

Question 17

Define adaptation to Climate Change:

Answer 17

the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effets

Question 18

What are the 7 principles that assure effective climate adaptation?

Answer 18

1. avoid maladaptation
2. resilient adaptation
3. transformative adaptation
4. just adaptation
5. mainstream adaptation
6. needs to be financed
7. have synergies with mitigation

Question 19

What is the key takeaway about adaptation finance?

Answer 19

Financing adaptation is only going to get more expensive, we should be doing it NOW

Question 20

What are the 3 key international climate treaties?

Answer 20

1. 1992 UNFCCC
2. 1997 Kyoto Protocol
3. 2015 Paris Agreement

Question 21

What is a social movement?

Answer 21

a collective effort with some degree of organization, it must challenge an existing institutional or cultural authority, it must use means outside institutional channels

Question 22

Define dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent:

Answer 22

Dutiful: working within the system, lobbying
Disruptive: working outside of the system, protests
Dangerous: working to create a new system

Question 23

What are the 4 principles of a successful climate movement?

Answer 23

1. Work with a broad coalition
2. Frame the issue
3. Act based on a theory of change
4. Dangerous/disruptive/dutiful

Question 24

What is a frame?

Answer 24

A package of meaning that connects to idea you already have in order to make it easier to understand

Question 25

What is resilient adaptation?

Answer 25

Adaptation that enables settlements to better plan, adapt, and thrive in the face of a changing climate

Question 26

What is transformative adaptation?

Answer 26

a process that may involve institutional reforms, cultural changes and the challenging of assumptions, and involves large-scale changes that are new to a location or system, generate long-term impacts and/or produce a new social-ecological system

Question 27

What is just adaptation?

Answer 27

Adaptation that ensures that workers and vulnerable communities are at the center of planning and design efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change

Question 28

What is mainstream adaptation?

Answer 28

Incorporating climate change adaptation strategies into general planning programs and strategies