Lec 11 - Future Climate change Flashcards
1
Q
A
2
Q
What 3 human factors affect Carbon emissions?
A
- changes to population
- changes in emission per person
- changes in carbon use efficiency
3
Q
What do optimistic and conservative climate models predict for future CO2 concentrations?
A
- optimistic: 2x pre-industrial levels
- conservative: 4x pre-industrial levels
4
Q
What temporal factors make it hard to accurately predict future climate change?
A
- lag between emissions and CO2 concentrations
- lag between CO2 concentrations and CC (ocean thermal inertia)
5
Q
What uncertainties make it difficult to predict future climate change?
A
- amount of CO2 emitted
- levels of CO2 compared to other reservoirs
- Earth’s sensitivities to CO2 concentrations = unknown
- emissions of other GHGs
6
Q
What are the 3 oceanic impacts of CC?
A
- reduced/retreating sea ice (ice feedback)
- oceanic ice shelves and margins of ice sheets melting (feedbacks)
- ocean acidification
7
Q
How does the melting of ice sheet margins cause more melting?
A
- ice feedback by uncovering low-albedo surfaces
- causes ice sheet to flow and thin out
8
Q
What are the terrestrial impacts of CC?
A
- mountain glaciers melting
- permafrost thawing
- vegetation shifts
- greening deserts
- more evaporation
- ice sheets melting
9
Q
Why might CC cause desert greening?
A
- higher CO2 may allow trees/shrubs to outcompete grasses (C3 vs C4 pathways)
10
Q
How might terrestrial ice sheets change in the future?
A
- Greenland = at risk, unclear whether the center of the ice sheet is vulnerable
- Antarctica: margins may melt, center may get more precipitation
11
Q
What 3 barriers are there to communicating about climate?
A
- Fatalism
- Efficacy - local weather perceptions = shaped more by beliefs than experience
- Equity - social inequalities put some people more at risk than others
12
Q
A
