INTRO AND ESSAY Flashcards
What are 3 observed changes in the 2013 IPCC report?
+0.85c over 150 years
-4mkm2 artic summer sea ice extent since 1900
+150mm global sea level rise since 1900
What are some projected changes across the continents in the 2014 IPCC report?
Europe - flooding, extreme heat and water shortages
Asia - famine, drought and extreme heat
Africa - famine and drought
How do we predict future climate change implications?
Representative Concentration Pathways
What do human adaptions to climate change include?
Social - such as education and behaviour changes
Physical - engineering and technology
Institutional - laws, policies and legislations
What are climate changes mainly driven by?
Overwhelming driven my anthropogenic forcings and greenhouse gases
What is ‘climate’?
It is the average weather of a broad area over a long period of time
What drives the climate system?
Solar energy
How is heat distributed through the earth system?
Through atmospheric circulation (Ferrell, polar and Hadley cell)
Thermohaline circulation
What are the external forcings of the earth system?
Sun’s strength
Earth’s orbit (milankovich cycles, obliquity, procession and eccentricity)
Tectonic forcings (uplift hypothesis, Raymo 1980 and BLAG spreading rate hypothesis)
Volcanoes and GHG’s (+33 degrees)
How do we measure climate?
Instrumental and Proxy records
What are instrumental records?
Records over the past 100 years, including temperature etc
What are proxy records?
Estimates taken from geology, geomorphology and biology
Radiometric/incremental records (varves, tree rings, ice cores)
