FINALS: LESSON 11 - Climate Change Flashcards
A change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time.
Climate change
Effects of climate change
Glaciers have shrunk
Plant and animal ranges have shifted
Trees are flowering sooner
Global temperature rise
More intense heat waves
Water acidification
And extreme events
One manifestation of climate change
GLOBAL WARMING
Refers to the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation
GLOBAL WARMING
Refers to recent warming and implies a human influence
GLOBAL WARMING
CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Mining
Wrong practices in agriculture (like burning of crop)
Illegal logging
Burning of fossil fuel
Deforestation
Too much car that emits carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide
And producing industrial waste
THE GREENHOUSE GASES
Water vapor (H2O)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Ozone (O3)
Methane (CH4), and Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs)
Effects of greenhouse gases
They allow light, infrared radiation, and some ultraviolet radiation from the sun to pass through the troposphere.
Small amounts of heat trapping gasses play a key role in determining the Earth’s average temperature and thus its climates.
greenhouse gases
Greenhouse Effect: Natural trapping of heat in the ________
troposphere
Greenhouse Effect
: First proposed by Swedish chemist ___________ in 1896, has been confirmed by numerous laboratory experiments and atmospheric measurements.
Svante Arrhenius
Greenhouse effect: the earth would be a cold and lifeless planet with an average surface temperature of _____
-18℃
Greenhouse effect is caused by human activities:
burning fossil fuels, agriculture, deforestation, and use of CFCs.
Carbon dioxide is responsible for _____% of the global warming from greenhouse gases produced by human activities since pre-industrial times.
50-60
The main sources are fossil fuel burning: coal, oil, and natural gas (How much percent?)
75%
land clearing and burning (How much percent?)
25%
is nevertheless the main driver of the greenhouse effect.
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Because of this, the layer of greenhouse gas is getting thicker, which is, in turn, making the Earth warmer.
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
contribute to global warming in the troposphere and deplete ozone in the stratosphere.
Chlorofluorocarbon
The main sourcesof CFCs are
leaking air conditioners and refrigerators, and evaporation of industrial solvents.
is produced when anaerobic bacteria break down organic matter in moist places that lack oxygen.
methane
Methane concentration: moist places that lack oxygen includes
swamps and other natural wetlands, rice paddies and landfills, intestinal tract of cattle, sheep, and termites.
can trap heat in the troposphere and deplete ozone in the stratosphere.
nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide is released from
nylon production, burning of biomass and nitrogen fertilizers in soil, and livestock wastes.
IPCC
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
the earth’s mean surface temperature will rise _____℃ between 1990 and 2100.
1 - 3.5℃
The ___________ should warm more and faster than the southern hemisphere because the latter has more heat absorbing ocean than the land and because water cools more slowly than land.
northern hemisphere
SOME POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF A WARM WORLD
Changes in food production; reduced water supplies
Change in the makeup and location of many world’s forests
Can cause massive wildfires
Reduction in biodiversity due to loss of habitat; destroying the coral reefs
Water in the oceans would expand and lead to rising in sea level
Warming at the poles caused ice sheets and glaciers to melt, the global sea level would rise far more; melting of polar ice caps
Weather extremes are expected to increase in number and severity
Poses threats to human health, affects the respiratory tract increasing air pollution in winter months
Drought
Lead to a growing number of environment refugees. Causing social disorder and political instability.
HOW CAN WE LOWER DOWN THE POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF GLOBAL WARMING?
cut fossil fuel use in half
Improve energy efficiency; switch off the light when not in use
Shift to renewable energy resources
Reduce deforestation
Use sustainable agriculture
Slow population growth
Remove carbon dioxide from smokestack and vehicle emissions
Plant and tend trees; green your community
Trim production of industrial waste; encourage practices of 3R’s
Full implementation of laws concerning the conservation of the environment and the planet Earth.
In the 1922 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro, _____ nations approved a Convention on Climate Change
106
The ___________________________, in which developed countries committed themselves to reducing their emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Convention on Climate Change
In December 1997 representatives of 160 nations met in ________ to negotiate a new treaty to help slow global warming.
Kyoto, Japan
The resulting treaty would require developed countries to cut greenhouse emissions by an average of _____ below 1990 levels between 2008-2012
0.2%
