Impacts of Climate Change Flashcards
What are the consequences of global warming causing ice to melt?
The melting of ice on land means that water stored as ice returns to oceans.
Increasing volume of water in the oceans and causes sea levels to rise. This kind of sea level change is called eustatic sea level change.
What do increased global temperatures mean about oceans?
Means that oceans get warmer and expand.
This thermal expansion also increases the volume of water, causing sea level to rise further.
Name an international group of scientists which look at the risks of climate change.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Impacts on Bangladesh.
80% of the land area in Bangladesh is low-lying. Any rise in sea level will submerge large areas.
This would affect lots of people as Bangladesh has a very high population density.
The situation would be made worse as it’s a poor country- the population are vulnerable, with a low capacity to cope.
Impacts on The Maldives.
The Maldives are an extremely low-lying set of islands in the Indian Ocean. A rise in sea level of 0.5 m would submerge most of the country.
Although the population isn’t poor, the economy is dependent on tourism, which would be threatened by a rise in sea level.
What is permafrost?
Ground that has been permanently frozen for two years or more.
How can permafrost cause climate change?
Areas of permafrost are natural sinks of CO2. It’s stored as organic material in the soil. Thawing of permafrost releases some of this, contributing further to global warming.
Changes in the global temperature affect global weather patterns. For example, global warming is thought to be causing…
An increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, e.g no. of tropical cyclones.
A change in the distribution of climatic regions which affects ecology and agriculture
What are some IPCC emission scenarios (predictions of how human CO2 emissions will change up until 2100)?
Emissions not increasing much more
Emissions continuing to grow as they are now
Emissions increasing by lots
Emissions being controlled by sustainable management strategies
What is the main cause of the current global rise in sea level?
Thermal expansion of oceans.
Albedo effect and global warming
Albedo is a measure of the reflectivity of a surface. The albedo effect when applied to the Earth is a measure of how much of the Sun’s energy is reflected back into space. As the white surfaces decrease in area, less energy is reflected into space, and the Earth will warm up even more.
Why are floods and windstorms increasing?
Increased warming of the earth causes warm air to rise, creating convection cells – which form hurricanes
Increasing temperatures increase evaporation, which in turn leads to increasing rainfall – and therefore greater flooding.
It is difficult to predict the impacts because:
1) We don’t actually know how emissions will change
2) We don’t know how much of the emissions will be absorbed in natural CO2 sinks
3) We don’t know the exact climate changes each emission scenario will cause
4) The extent of climate change due to natural causes isn’t know
5) We don’t know what attempts to manage climate change there will be or how successful
