Lecture 13

Question 1

What is a carbon footprint?

Answer 1

The total greenhouse emissions caused by processes, products, companies, industry sectors, individual consumers, groups of consumers geographically delineated areas.

Question 2

What is carbon sequestration?

Answer 2

The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Question 3

What is the greenhouse effect?

Answer 3

Increase of heat in a system where energy enters, it is absorbed as heat, and released sometime later

Question 4

What is negative feedback?

Answer 4

Change in some condition triggers a response that decreases the changed condition

Question 5

What is positive feedback?

Answer 5

Change in some condition triggers a response that intensifies the changed condition

Question 6

What is weather?

Answer 6

the state of the atmosphere at a place and time as regards heat, dryness, sunshine, wind, rain, etc.

Question 7

What is climate?

Answer 7

The average weather in a place over many years. Weather can change in just a few hours, climates (should) take hundreds, thousands, even millions of years to change.

Question 8

How is climate regulated?

Answer 8

Climate is regulated by complex interactions among components of the Earth system:

• Sun, ocean, atmosphere, clouds, ice, land, and life
• Oceans cover 70% of Earth’s surface exerts a major control on climate
• Climate dominates Earth’s energy and water cycles
• Oceans can absorb large amounts of solar energy and re-distribute it

Question 9

What is climate change?

Answer 9

There’s more averages, extremes, timing, and spatial distribution of diff extremes like hot & cold, cloudy & clear

Question 10

How does the Sun effect the Earth?

Answer 10

The Sun is the primary source of energy for Earth’s climate system:

• sunlight reaches the Earth, some reflected back to space
• much of the sunlight that reaches Earth is absorbed and warms the planet
• when Earth emits the same amount of energy as it absorbs, balance, and its average temperature remains stable
• satellite measurements taken over the past 30yrs show that the Sun’s energy output has changed only slightly and in both directions

Question 11

Who was Joseph Fourier?

Answer 11

Discovered the greenhouse effect and stuff

Question 12

Who was John Tyndall?

Answer 12

worked in the 1860s

Figured out how greenhouse gases work and what they do/are

Question 13

What is the natural greenhouse effect?

Answer 13

Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from earth’s surface the emit the infrared radiation in all directions which creates a second source of radiation to warm the surface of Earth

Earth is warmer than it otherwise would be

Question 14

Where do GHG emissions come from?

Answer 14

Question 15

Describe the impact of a 1.5C degree increase on the Earth.

Answer 15

Also every degree Celsius of warming results in a 1.2 decrease in GDP

Question 16

What are some examples of air contaminants?

Answer 16

Wild fires (particulate matter, ozone precursors, volatile hydrocarbons)

Possible More Plant Growth (leads to allergens and increased use of herbicides)

Question 17

What ratio of species are at risk of extinction?

Answer 17

25%

Question 18

How does temperature effect coral reefs?

Answer 18

Coral reefs can be bleached due to increase in water temperature

Lower pH decreases algae growth and decreases fish who feed at the coral niche

Question 19

What is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Answer 19

Question 20

What is the Paris Agreement?

Answer 20

Question 21

What are some ways to lower GHG emissions?

Answer 21

Question 22

What is a system?

Answer 22

A system is a set of interconnected components.

In a system, the properties are not fully explained by an understanding only of its components.

That is, the system’s behavior or “effect” arises out of both its components and their interconnections, including feedback loops.

The interconnections create interactions among the components producing an emergent behavior that is different than the behavior of each individual component.

Question 23

What are the characteristics of a system?

Answer 23

Is composed of parts

All the parts of a system must be related (directly or indirectly), or else there are really two or more distinct systems

Can be nested inside another system

Can overlap with another system

Consists of processes that transform inputs into outputs

Is a dynamic and complex whole, interacting as a structured functional unit

Energy, material and information flow among the different elements that compose the system

Question 24

How are forest fires a positive feedback loop?

Answer 24