Midterm 1 Flashcards
Know the basics about the 2 main environmental issues introduced on the first day.
- Climate Change
- Coral Reef Stressors
o Causes
Change in ocean temperature
Runoff and pollution
Overexposure sunlight
Extreme low tides
o If stressed algae leaves the coral and it becomes vulnerable and bleached
What % of the US thinks global warming is occurring (Yale study, as of 2021)
72%
How are time periods of Earth’s history divided? What Eon, Era, Period, and Epoch are we currently in?
- Caused by major events
- Eon: Phanerozoic
- Era: Cenozoic
- Period: Quaternary
- Epoch: Holocone
What requirements need to be met for something to be called a “golden spike” (GSSP)?
- Principal correlation event (spike)
- Secondary markers
- Regional and global correlation
- Complete continuous sedimentation with adequate thickness above and below marker
- Exact location
- Accessibility
- Provision for GSSP conversation
What are the 5 main potential markers for the start of the anthropocene (know dates, impacts, etc)? Which have GSSPs (and what are they) and which have GSSAs? Which one is the current Anthropocene Working Group leaning towards as a start date (Waters article)?
- Farming (~11,000)
o Impacts
Irrigation
Change in landscape
Animal extinction/domestication
o GSSP
Small increases in CO2 (5-10ppm) and CH4
o Can’t be GSSP because
Impact was small
Regional not global - Potential GSSA
- Age of Exploration (~ 1492)
o Cause regrowth of forests and killed 90% of natives
Minimum in CO2 - Orbis Spike in 1610 → would be GSSP marker → is not because it implies minimum of CO2 is the problem
- Nuclear weapons/Great Accelerations (1945-1950)
o GSSP
Marker found in radiation (fly ash) - Industrial revolution (-1800)
o Impacts
Population growth and urbanization
o GSSP
Gradual increase but no spike in CO2 due to burning of fossil fuels
Increase in methane and nitrate are other potentials
o Does not have start date
Can’t be GSSA - Plastic in rocks
o Plastiglomerates as marker (GSSP)
o Problems
Not global
No sediment on top yet
What types of plastic have been found in plastiglomerate in Hawaii and why is this location unique (Corcoran article)?
- Campfires are causing plastic from trash to melt
o Source of plastic
Netting/ropes
Pellets
Tubes/pipes
Confetti
Containers and lids
o Recorded location of flowing lava does not coincide with location of Kamilo Beach
Fires have to be man made
What are some benefits/consequences of defining a start date to the Anthropocene?
o Assigning blame
If the Industrial Revolution caused it then it’s Europe’s fault
* Benefits
o Spread awareness
Take action
What are the main 5 gasses that make up the atmosphere? What are their % contributions? Which are permanent and which are variable? What are the pre-industrial and current concentrations of CO2?
- Nitrogen (78%)
- Oxygen (21%)
- Argon (~1%)
- Water vapor (0-4%)
o Variable - Carbon dioxide (0.04%)
o Variable
o Pre industrial: 280 ppm
o Current: 420 ppm
. Know the steps involved in the hydrological cycle
- Evaporation- liquid to gas form (from bodies of water)
- Condensation- gas to liquid form (clouds)
- Transpiration - evaporation from plants
- Precipitation- atmosphere to earth’s surface
- Runoff- water moving along surface
- Infiltration- water going from surface to underground
What are ways to add CO2 to the atmosphere? What about removing? What processes dominate each?
o Photosynthesis
o Marine life
* Adding
o Burning of fossil fuels
o Deforestation
o Respiration
o Volcanic Activity
o Soil decay
What are aerosols? What are some natural and manmade examples? How are these different from pollutants?
- Tiny particles
o Natural (dust) and manmade (hairspray)
Differs from pollutants because they are only man made and are harmful
What was the first atmosphere made up of? How did the current atmosphere come about?
- Composed mostly of hydrogen and helium
- Changed due to outgassing of CO2 and H20 from cooling center of the Earth
o Lead to rain → lakes and oceans
Know the relationships between temperature, wavelength, and energy emitted. What are the names of these laws?
- Stefan Boltzmann Law: Hotter the object the more energy it emits
- Wien’s Law: Hotter the object the shorter the wavelength
What types of wavelengths come from the sun and the Earth (general names and peak emission wavelengths)?
- Sun: y = 0.5 um → visible (short wavelength)
- Earth: y = 10um → infrared (long wavelength)
- General name = visible infrared
- Peak emission wavelengths = 0.5um and 10 um
What is the greenhouse effect? How does it work (be sure to know the scientific terminology)? What are the main greenhouse gases? Why is anthropogenic CO2 a problem? What percentage of CO2 emitted each year is due to human emissions?
- Greenhouse effect is due to atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation (emitted by the earth) by trace gasses (co2, h20, ch4). These gasses then emit more energy, some of which comes back to the surface, increasing temperature
o Natural but worsened by anthropogenic activity
o CO2, H20 and CH4
3-4% of CO2 comes from human emission
o Causes global warming
What are the differences between ecological and carbon footprints? How (generally) is each calculated? What about biocapacity? How many Earths are we currently using each year? When did this number get above 1 (ecological overshoot)?
- Carbon footprint
o True footprint of how much carbon you burned
o Specific - Ecological footprint
o Represents the productive area required to provide the renewable resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste
o Much more broad and considers all - Biocapacity
o Planet’s biologically productive land areas that provides resources needed - Ecological Overshoot
o Since 1970
o Takes Earth one year and nine months to regenerate what we use in a year
What 3 concepts does Foley claim are the most important to convey the climate crisis?
- Electricity and food and land use are the leading sources of Greenhouse Gas Emission
- Over half of CO2 is absorbed by ocean and land
- Not sure about third
o Not just an energy problem → 62% of emissions comes from burning fossil fuels
o Not just a CO2 problem → represents 76% of GHG
. What % of peer-reviewed scientific articles support human-caused climate change? How are the categories balanced? (Lynas article, figure 1)
99%
What are the main proxies used to study past climate? How does each (generally) work? What proxy example was given in the Cornwall article and why is this research so important? Which proxy did the Robbins article discuss, and what did it show?
- Fossil evidence
o Evidence of thick ice sheet throughout the southern continents
o Rocks formed in tropical conditions
o Bones - Sediment cores
o Layers can indicate sedimentation rate through time - Ice cores
o Can look at things like
Air bubble → CO2 concentration
Pollen
Compare different types of oxygen (isotope ratios) that occur depending on climate - Dendrochronology (Robbins)
o Changes in tree ring thickness
Warmer and wetter the climate is the wider the ring
Narrow rings during cold, dry years
o Tree rings can show short term climate change
Up to ~1000 years - Cornwall
o Looked at past sea levels → can be used to estimate how much sea levels will rise
Robbins used dendrochronology
How has the temperature of the earth changed over different time periods? 150 years? 1000 years? 450,000 years? Longer? What time period is the “hockey stick” talking about? What is significant about the rate of change now?
150 years
o 1.24C above 1850-1900 average in 2022
Correlates with CO2
More warming in the winter months
Northern hemisphere (especially in Artic) heats up quicker than southern because there is more land and people
* 1,000 years
o “Hockey Stick” graph
1998
Presents warming after Industrial Revolution as unprecedented
o Also correlates with increase in CO2
* 450,000 years
o This time period is divided into glacial (cooling trend where ice appears/grows) and interglacials (warmer period between glacial advances) intervals
Based on the length of interglacial, we should be about 10,000 years away from entering another cold glacial interval
o While our current interglacial isn’t the warmest, it has the highest CO2 concentrations
* 66 million years
o Earth was way hotter
o No polar ice caps
o Less contrast between the equator
How has the concentration of CO2 changed in the past 100 years? 1000 years? 450,000 years?
…
What are interglacials and glacials? Which lasts longer? How long over time do we have to look to see repeated patterns of interglacials and glacials?
- Glacial: cooling trend where ice appears/grows
- Interglacial: Warmer period between glacial advance
o Shorter than glacials
How much higher was sea level during the last interglacial? How much would sea level rise if all the ice on Earth melted?
- 18 ft higher than today
- 213 feet
What are the 3 external causes of climate change? Which are natural and which are manmade?
- Coming sunlight (natural)
- Composition of atmosphere (natural or manmade)
- Ground cover (natural or manmade)
What is the Milankovitch Theory? Know the 3 Milankovitch cycles (names, what changes, and time frames).
- Eccentricity: changes in orbit → circular to long (100,000 years)
o Further away –> less light –> less warming - Obliquity: variation in tilt angle (~ 41,000 years)
o Tilt closer to sun (larger tilt angle) = intensity of light increases = warmer - Precession: “wobble” (direction of tilt) around rotation axis (~23,000 years)
- These three things work together to change the temperature of the planet
How do volcanic eruptions influence global climate? How long does this impact last?
- Volcanic addition of SO2 has a significant cooling effect
o Enhanced if it gets into stratosphere - Climatic impact depends on size of eruption and location
o Mt pinatubo (1991) - 0.5C global decrease, lasted 1-2 years
o Mt tambora (1815) - local decrease of 5-6C, lasted 2 years
How does changing ground cover influence climate?
- Deforestation (usually) decreases albedo and decreases evaporation cooling by transpiration
- Desertification (over cultivation) reduces soil moisture
How do climate models predict future climate conditions?
If we look at the climate data of the past 450,000 years, there are repeated patterns of glacials and interglacials where average temperature and CO2 are similar. Currently, CO2 is at a high of 420 when it was 280 on average
What is albedo? Know the average albedo of the Earth, as well being able to compare the albedo of some common surfaces.
Reflectivity of a surface, average albedo of Earth is roughly 30%
High Albedo = More reflective
Snow, ice = 85-95%
Low Albedo = not reflective
Blacktop = 5-10%
Forrests: 10-20%
Cropland, Grassland: 10-25%
EARTH’S AVERAGE: 30%
What is Global Warming Potential? How does the GWP of CO2 compare to CH4 and N2O?
- Developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gasses.
o CO2 lasts ~100 years in the atmosphere
It is highly variable though
o One molecule of methane causes 21 more times as much global warming potential as co2
Methane lasts 12 years in the atmosphere
o One molecule of nitrous oxide causes 310 more times as much global warming potential as co2
Nitrous oxide lasts 114 years in the atmosphere
What are positive and negative feedbacks? Be able to identify examples of each and think about how feedback works.
Negative Feedback Loop
* Self stabilizing
o Initial change is counteracted
* Temperature Infrared radiation (IR)
o When you increase the temp of the earth, the earth with emit more radiation to cool itself down (does not take into account GHG effect)
* Warmer temps -> increased radiation (IR) from Earth -> temperature decreases
Positive Feedback Loop
* Self-reinforcing
o Initial change is enhanced
o Whatever we started with we end with more of
* Water vapor –> GHG Feedback
o Warmer air can hold more moisture –> enhance GHE = temperature goes up
* Snow ice albedo
o Temperature increases –> ice melts –> albedo decreases –> more energy is absorbed = warmer Earth
* Clouds are both
What are positive and negative feedbacks? Be able to identify examples of each and think about how feedback works.
Negative Feedback Loop
* Self stabilizing
o Initial change is counteracted
* Temperature Infrared radiation (IR)
o When you increase the temp of the earth, the earth with emit more radiation to cool itself down (does not take into account GHG effect)
* Warmer temps -> increased radiation (IR) from Earth -> temperature decreases
Positive Feedback Loop
* Self-reinforcing
o Initial change is enhanced
o Whatever we started with we end with more of
* Water vapor –> GHG Feedback
o Warmer air can hold more moisture –> enhance GHE = temperature goes up
* Snow ice albedo
o Temperature increases –> ice melts –> albedo decreases –> more energy is absorbed = warmer Earth
* Clouds are both
What are SSPs? What do each of the 5 represent? Which scenarios predict the most/least extreme changes? How do impacts change with progressively warmer temperatures?
o SSP1: Sustainability: The world shifts gradually, but pervasively, toward a more sustainable path
o SSP2: Middle of the Road : The world follows a path in which social, economic, and technological trends do not shift markedly from historical patterns.
o SSP3: Regional Rivalry: A low international priority for addressing environmental concerns leads to strong environmental degradation in some regions.
o SSP4: Inequality: Highly unequal investments in human capital, combined with increasing disparities in economic opportunity and political power, lead to increasing inequalities and stratification both across and within countries
o SSP5: Fossil Fuel Development : This world places increasing faith in competitive markets, innovation and participatory societies to produce rapid technological progress and development of human capital as the path to sustainable development
What are compound extremes and tipping points? What are some examples for each? (NCA chapter)?
Compound events are events that occur at the same time or are sequentially happening at the same geographical location. It can be a heat wave that follows up with a drought. It can come from reinforcing cycles. Different parts of Earth system exhibit critical threshold some times called tipping points. These tipping points are event where there is a shift in state like a summer due to which all ice melts.
What is an ensemble?
When each model is run many times with slightly different starting conditions
Goal: have flexibility in initial conditions that account for errors and also encompass uncertainty and final prediction
Know about the relationships during ENSO- what do atmospheric pressure and oceanic temperature patterns look like during “normal”, El Niño, and La Niña conditions?
- El Niño Southern Oscillation
o EN = Water Temps in Eastern Equatorial
o SO=Atmospheric pressure changes
o Normally high pressure and dry weather - Normal Pattern/Non-El Niño Conditions
o High pressure east of the Equator/low west to the Equator
o Wind drags warm water from South America towards Indonesia
Causes cold water from deep to replace it in South America - El Niño Conditions
o High pressure west of Equator/low pressure east of Equator
o Warm water gets pulled back towards South America
Causes fishes to leave because there is cold water = more nutrients = more fish - La Niña Conditions
o Extreme version of normal
What’s happening in the Marshall Islands (Sutter article)?
Many are moving to arkansas
Springdale
Sea level rising means there is a lot more flooding at the Marshall Islands
They are “sinking”
o Pushing for goal of 1.5 temperature increase rather than 2
What do major climate models predict in terms of change in temperature, precipitation, ice coverage, and sea level rise?
- Temp: Warms
- Precipitation:
- Ice coverage: Decreases
- Sea level rise: Thermal expansion of deep and surface level waters
- Hurricane
o More strong hurricanes (not necessarily more) - Tornados
o More cluster → tornadoes happening at the same time
What contributes to current and future sea level rise?
- Current and future: Thermal expansion
- Past: Ice sheet melting (120 ft)
What are some other consequences of climate change? (Mora et al. article, Fig 1)
- Only thing we don’t predict to see are more ice and lower sea levels
o Everything else is possible → climate changes impacts everything
Economy, infrastructure, health, water, food, security
How much more frequent are heatwaves, heavy precipitation events, and once-in-a decade crop drought events currently (vs historical)? (Milman article)
Heatwaves happen 2.8x a decade but used to happen a decade historically.Heavy precipitation happens 1.3x a decade but used to happen once a decade. Droughts happen 1.7x a decade but used to happen once a decade.
What are the main climate critiques discussed in class and how can they be refuted?
Co2 Lags Temperature
Co2 Lags Temperature
* Normally the temperature changes first and CO2 follow which changes temperature more
o Now CO2 changes and temperature follows
Urban Heat Island Effect
* Idea that thermometers in cities record faster warming
o Other completely independent temperature data compiled from weather balloons, satellite
measurements, and from sea and ocean temperature records, also tell a remarkably
similar warming story.
Antarctica is Gaining Ice
* Land ice decreasing but sea ice has been increasing
o Was increasing for variety of reasons
Ozone levels were causing cooling
Fresh water freezes faster than salt water
o No longer increasing
Confusing Weather and Climate
* Easy to confuse current weather events with long-term climate trends
o You can’t attribute an individual event solely to climate change unless you collect data
The Oceans are Large and Can Absorb the Excess Heat/CO2
* Things accumulate
Renewable Energy is Too Expensive
* In most places power from new renewables is now cheaper than new fossil fuels
What percentage of CO2 emitted each year is due to human emissions?
3-4%. Not a big number but it upsets natural balance
Of the contrarian climate claims, which dominate CTTs and blogs? (Coan article, Fig 2)
- CTTs: They say solutions don’t work
- Blogs: Science is unreliable
- All are not saying that climate is not changing
How does the perceived worry/support for climate differ from actual worry/support? (Sparkman article)
- Underestimate support for policies by about half
What are the differences between mitigation and adaptation?
- Mitigation: avoiding the unmanageable
o Reducing/stopping climate change - Adaptation: managing the unavoidable
o Reducing impacts of climate change
What global mitigation efforts/treaties have occurred (including years)?
- UN FCCC (1992)
- Kyoto Protocol (1997)
- Copenhagen Accord (2009) and Cancun Agreement (2010)
- Paris Agreement (2015)
What is the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement? What is the current status of the Agreement
- 2.0
o Ideally 1.5 - Current status: ~2.1
- Be able to identify the challenges/benefits associated with some of the geoengineering options.
- Geoengineering
o Attempts to counteract human caused climate change
o Challenges
Some are really expensive
Some aren’t ready yet
Some only influence temperature and don’t do anything to impact climate change
What’s the difference between carbon-neutral and carbon-negative technologies?
- Carbon neutral: balance between carbon dioxide emitted and removed from atmosphere
- Carbon negative: remove more carbon dioxide than emitted
*
What are some personal choices you can make to reduce your contribution to climate change?
Carpool/Bike
Fly less
Eat less meat
Turn Heat down or cooling up
Turn off water when brushing teeth
Unplug electronics
Use energy efficient products
Avoid disposable plastics
Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Make your vote count
Get educated
How does the IRA help to reduce climate change?
- $369 billion in investments in climate and clean energy programs, mostly toward tax credits for renewable energy
- Where is the ozone hole and why has it been damaged? Why do we need that ozone? How was the hole “fixed”?
- Blocks 97-99% of the harmful incoming ultraviolet rays from reaching Earth’s surface
- Ozone Hole
o CFCs caused a reduction in ozone
Chlorine part of CFC is the problem
Reacts with ozone and breaks it down –> positive feedback loop - Montreal Protocol
o 1987
o US banned aerosol sprays containing CFC and phased out their production
o Still impacting atmosphere because it takes time for the change to be seen
- Where is the ozone hole and why has it been damaged? Why do we need that ozone? How was the hole “fixed”?
- Blocks 97-99% of the harmful incoming ultraviolet rays from reaching Earth’s surface
- Ozone Hole
o CFCs caused a reduction in ozone
Chlorine part of CFC is the problem
Reacts with ozone and breaks it down –> positive feedback loop - Montreal Protocol
o 1987
o US banned aerosol sprays containing CFC and phased out their production
o Still impacting atmosphere because it takes time for the change to be seen
What is the Carbon Law (Foley article)? What 4 types of solutions does he claim he need to meet that goal?
- To limit global warming to 2C we must cut emissions by half during this decade and reach net zero emissions by 2050
o Quick wins
Halting highly destructive practices
o New infrastructure
Renewable energy
o Growing natural sinks. 50% absorbed by oceans and forest with equal division
o Deploying new tech
Remove carbon from atmosphere artificially
What are the 4 mechanisms of ineffective adaptation interventions (Eriksen article)? How can these be addressed?
o Shallow understanding of the vulnerability context
o Inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation
o A retrofitting of adaptation into existing development agendas
o A lack of critical engagement with how ‘adaptation success’ is defined.
* Solution
o shifting the terms of engagement between adaptation practitioners and the local populations
participating in adaptation interventions;
o expanding the understanding of ‘local’ vulnerability to encompass global contexts and
drivers of vulnerability
Which approach to climate solutions is more equitable (mitigation vs adaptation)?
Mitigation
What are the principles of climate justice? How does this connect to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals?
- Connect climate problems and social inequality
- Climate change is a threat to human rights
Why is climate justice an important part of climate solutions?
- Focuses on root causes of climate change and calls for transformation to a sustainable and community led economy
When was “one of the first official efforts to incorporate environmental justice language into the international environmental movement”? Which U.S. President was the first to sign an Executive Order regarding environmental justice? (Córdova article)?
First effort in July 3-14 1992 at Rio de Janeiro summit when environmental justice committees urged to recognise it. Advocated by Bill Clinton
What suggestions does Bastida suggest for successful climate justice activism?
- Join initiatives
- Maintain good communication with peers
- Take good care of yourself and others
- Make activism intersectional
- Don’t exclude marginalised communities
- Invite indigenous people at events
- Convey individual and structural change
- Meet people where they are at by explaining it and presenting solutions
- Use accessible language
Know the 8 tips for communicating climate information given in the lecture, including related vocabulary (red text).
- Know your audience
o Be aware of their biases - Get their attention
o Frame the issue in a way that matters to them
o Now instead of future
o Gain instead loss - Translate scientific data into concrete experience
o Real world instead of abstract ideas
o Facts are not most effective tools by themselves - Use simplified scientific terms
o 64 - Don’t address uncertainties
o Focus on “knowns” instead of “unknowns” - Don’t overuse emotional appeals
o Don’t want to risk numbing the audience to the issue
People will lose hope
o Focus on aspects that matter most - Tap into social identities and affiliations
o Avoid the Tragedy of the Commons
Individuals with access to a public resource act in their own interest and deplete the resource - Focus on solutions
o Not to make people feel bad but to show there are win-win solutions
Be able to identify simplified (but accurate) meanings for some of the scientific terms often used to communicate climate.
- Range vs uncertainty
- Offset from observations vs bias
- Self enforcing and vicious cycle vs positive feedback
- Physical understanding vs theory
- Numbers vs values
- Deviation from long term vs anomaly
- Tiny atmospheric particle vs aerosol
What is the Tragedy of the Commons?
- Humans can’t be trusted with resources because we will act on our own interest and ignore what the community needs
o Deplete the resource
Know the 6 mains tips for IPCC scientists when communicating with the public (Climate Outreach article).
- Be a confident communicator
- Talk about the real world, not abstract ideas
- Connect with what matters to your audience
- Tell a human story
- Lead with what you know
- Use the most effective visual communication
What does Katherine Hayhoe say is the most important thing you can do to fight climate change in her video (and why)?
- Talk about it
o Only 33% of people are talking about
