Impacts Of Climate Change

Question 1

What is the melting of ice causing and give an example

Answer 1

Water stored as ice returns to the oceans

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets

Question 2

What does water returning to the oceans mean there is an increase of and what does it lead to
What is this called

Answer 2

Volume of the water in oceans increases
Causing sea level to rise
Eustatic sea level change

Question 3

If all remaining ice sheets were to melt, how much would global sea level increase by

Answer 3

60-80 metres

Question 4

What does increased global temperatures mean and what does it cause

Answer 4

Oceans get warmer and expand

Causes thermal expanse which also increases the volume of water leading to further sea level rise

Question 5

How much could the sea levels rise for an increase in global temperature of 1degrees

Answer 5

8-80cm

Question 6

What is global warming causing

Answer 6

Ice to melt
Permafrost to thaw
Other changes in climate

Question 7

What are prediction of how much sea level will rise in the future like

Answer 7

Uncertain and differ a lot

Question 8

What does IPCC stand for, who are they and what do they do

Answer 8

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Group of scientists
Look at the risks of climate change

Question 9

What do the IPCC think

Answer 9

Sea levels could rise by 18-59cm by the end of the century

Question 10

Any rise in sea level will have a local/regional/national/global impact
(Which one)

Answer 10

Global

Question 11

Will the impact of sea level rise be the same everywhere

Answer 11

It will be greater in some places than others

Question 12

Explain how sea level rise would affect Bangldesh

Answer 12

80% of land area is low lying - any sea level rise will submerge large areas
Would affect lots of people as it has a high population density (1,000 people per km2)
Would be made worse as it is an LIC - vulnerable population with low capacity to cope

Question 13

Explain how sea level rise would affect the Maldives

Answer 13

Extremely low lying set of islands I’m Indian Ocean - rise of 0.5cm would submerge most of the country
Population not poor but economy is dependent on tourism, which would be threaded by sea level rise

Question 14

What is permafrost

Answer 14

Ground that has been permanently frozen for two or more years - covers around 20% of the Earth’s land surface

Question 15

What are areas of permafrost

Answer 15

Natural sinks of CO2

• stored as organic material in the soil
• thawing releases some of this, contributing further to global warming

Question 16

What could thawing of permafrost lead to

Answer 16

Buildings to collapse and pipelines on it
-may also bring economic benefits though -eg easier to look for/extract natural resources (fossil fuels) in areas of unfrozen ground

Question 17

What do changes in global temperatures affect

Answer 17

Global weather patterns

1. Increase in frequency of extreme weather events -eg increasing in ocean temperatures may mean an increased risk of tropical cyclones over a wider area
2. Change in the distribution of climatic regions -eg colder polar regions may shrink and warmer tropical regions may advance to higher latitudes

Question 18

What does a change in global temperature and weather patterns affect

Answer 18

The ecology (distribution/abundance of organisms) - species will have to migrate to remain in a sustainable climate, if they cannot migrate they will become extinct
Agriculture -eg some areas become unsuitable for cultivation as climate factors (temperature and the timings of seasons) alter

Question 19

Example of a benefit that regional climate changes may bring to some human activities

Answer 19

Economic benefits of tourism where climate has become hotter

Question 20

What are emissions scenarios used for

Answer 20

To predict impacts of global warming

Question 21

What is the scientific consensus of what is causing global warming

Answer 21

Human factors (eg CO2 emissions)

Question 22

How do scientists try to predict the impact of climate change

Answer 22

By predicting how emissions will change in the future

Question 23

What are the emissions scenarios the IPCC have produced

Answer 23

Predictions of how human CO2 emissions will change up to 2100

Question 24

What are the scenarios

Answer 24

Emissions not increasing much more (scenario 5)
Emissions continuing to grow as they are now (‘business as usual’)
Emissions increasing a lot (scenario 1)
Emissions being controlled by sustainable management strategies

Question 25

What do the IPCC put all the different scenarios into to see how much the climate would change with each scenario eg. how much global temperature will rise

Answer 25

Global climate models

Question 26

What will the different scenarios also show other than how the climate would change

Answer 26

Different climate changes will cause different impacts eg. different levels of sea level change
Scenario 2: rise by 0.23-0.51m
Scenario 3: rise by 0.21-0.48m
Scenario 4: rise by 0.18-0.38m

Question 27

Reasons why it is difficult to predict the impact of climate change

Answer 27

So much uncertainty:
1. Do not actually know how emissions will change, ie. which emissions scenario is accurate
2. Do not know how of the emissions will be absorbed (eg. natural carbon sinks)
3. Extent of climate change due to natural causes (without human influence) is unknown
4. Do not know what climate changes each emission scenario will
cause
5. Do not know what attempts there will be to mange the impacts of climate change or how successful they will be

Question 28

What might combined impacts lead to

Answer 28

Tipping point

Question 29

What is the tipping point

Answer 29

Where a slight rise in temperature would cause catastrophic and irreversible changes to the environment, creating a much more hazardous world

Question 30

What might the tipping point occur because of

Answer 30

May happen because of the positive feedback loop - where a change in climate is speeded up by impacts already caused

Question 31

Example of positive feedback loop

Answer 31

Global warming causes melting of Arctic sea ice
As ice melts it leaves darker sea water in its place
Sea water has a lower albedo (amount a surface reflects the Suns radiations) than ice
Therefore more radiation is absorbed by the water
Warm water, then causes more ice to melt, etc

Question 32

Example of combined effect of positive feedback on several of the impacts of global warming

Answer 32

Ice melt and the destruction of CO2 sinks, may lead to a tipping point