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Royal Compendium > NEW SS: Section 1 > Flashcards

NEW SS: Section 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is ESS?

A

a relatively new approach to studying the natural world, which looks at Earth as a whole

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2
Q

How many subsystems are in ESS?

A

there are 4 basic subsystems, 5 if you count the cryosphere

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3
Q

What are the subsystems of ESS?

A

atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere

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4
Q

What is the geosphere?

A

all the rock on Earth

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5
Q

What is the hydrosphere

A

all the water and ice on Earth

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6
Q

What is the biosphere?

A

all the living things on Earth

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7
Q

What is the atmosphere?

A

all the air on Earth

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8
Q

What are forcings?

A

factors, usually external, that alter the stability of weather and climate

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9
Q

When forcings alter climate, what is produced?

A

a feedback, either positive or negative

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10
Q

What are the 2 types of feedbacks?

A

positive feedbacks and negative feedbacks

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11
Q

What is scale?

A

how large or small something is occurring

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12
Q

The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence what?

A

weather and climate

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13
Q

The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence the weather and climate. These interactions an occur on very different geographical ___________.

A

scales

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14
Q

How large of a scale is a stream drying up?

A

small scale

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15
Q

How large of a scale is an ocean warming up?

A

large scale

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16
Q

What is another term for geosphere?

A

lithosphere

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17
Q

Lithosphere is derived from what language?

A

Greek

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18
Q

Lithosphere incorporates the Greek word for what?

A

rock or stone

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19
Q

What created mountains, volcanoes, and oceans?

A

tectonic plates

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20
Q

Where do most of the interactions between the geosphere and the other subsystems occur?l

A

the crust

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21
Q

The Earth’s crust is a relatively _____ layer.

A

thin

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22
Q

How does the biosphere influence the geosphere?

A

it changes the composition of the soil

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23
Q

How does the geosphere interact with the hydrosphere?

A

mountains cause clouds to form, resulting in rainfall

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24
Q

How do mountains cause rainfall?

A

they help form clouds, which eventually cause rainfall

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25
Q

What subsystem is the cryosphere part of?

A

the hydrosphere, as it is not usually considered its own subsystem

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26
Q

What is the cryosphere?

A

all the ice on Earth, not an official subsystem

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27
Q

What is the lowest layer of the atmosphere?

A

the troposphere

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28
Q

What is the second lowest layer of the atmosphere?

A

the stratosphere

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29
Q

What is the middle layer of the atmosphere?

A

the mesosphere

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30
Q

What is the second highest layer of the atmosphere?

A

the thermosphere

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31
Q

What is the highest layer of the atmosphere?

A

the exosphere

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32
Q

What is the main way the atmosphere affects climate?

A

the greenhouse effect

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33
Q

Light that comes from the Sun is either __________ or ___________.

A

absorbed, reflected

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34
Q

What is the greenhouse effect?

A

when certain gases in the atmosphere trap heat

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35
Q

Is the greenhouse effect bad?

A

Not necessarily, we need it to keep our planet warm, but too much of it can harm the planet

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36
Q

How high above Earth is the troposphere found?

A

0 to 12-18 km

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37
Q

How high above Earth is the stratosphere found?

A

11 to 50 km

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38
Q

How high above Earth is the mesosphere found?

A

40-50 to 80-90 km

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39
Q

How high above Earth is the thermosphere found?

A

80-90 to 800 km

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40
Q

How high above Earth is the exosphere found?

A

800 to 3000 km

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41
Q

What is the temperature of the troposphere?

A

15 to -56.5 C

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42
Q

What is the temperature of the stratosphere?

A

-56.5 to -2.5 C

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43
Q

What is the temperature of the mesosphere?

A

-2.5 to -86.5 C

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44
Q

What is the temperature of the thermosphere?

A

-86.5 to 1200 C

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45
Q

What is the temperature of the exosphere?

A

1200 C

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46
Q

Life influences the _________ and __________ makeup of the Earth’s subsystems.

A

chemical, thermal

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47
Q

What is the carbon cycle?

A

the cycle of carbon throughout Earth, humans inhale oxygen produced by trees and plants, etc

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48
Q

What has the human use of fossil fuels rapidly accelerated?

A

the carbon cycle

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49
Q

What are the 2 types of systems?

A

open systems and closed systems

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50
Q

What is an open system?

A

a system where the exchange of matter or energy occurs

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51
Q

What is a closed system?

A

a system where the exchange of matter or energy doesn’t occur

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52
Q

What type of system is Earth’s climate?

A

an open system

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53
Q

What is Earth’s main source of energy?

A

the Sun

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54
Q

What are the 3 most influential forcings?

A

solar energy, volcanoes, and greenhouse gases

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55
Q

Cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1600s and 1700s corresponded with what?

A

fewer sunspots and low solar activity in general

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56
Q

What are the Milankovitch cycles?

A

different cycles that Earth goes through which influence the amount of solar energy received by Earth

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57
Q

What are the intervals of the Milankovitch cycles?

A

100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years

58
Q

What happens when multiple volcanoes erupt one after another?

A

it can cause a period of cooling, and may even bring down the average global temperature

59
Q

What is shown when a car is parked, its windows are rolled up, and sunlight is coming through the windows?

A

the greenhouse effect

60
Q

Water vapor, CO2, and methane are what type of gases?

A

greenhouse gases

61
Q

What is a positive feedback in the context of Earth’s climate?

A

a reaction that warms the climate

62
Q

What is a positive feedback in the context of Earth’s climate?

A

a reaction that cools the climate

63
Q

Is the melting of ice sheets in the North Pole a positive or negative feedback?

A

positive, because when they melt, it reduces the amount of ice that reflects light, warming Earth

64
Q

Positive feedbacks can push climate change to a _________ ________.

A

tipping point

65
Q

Does Earth’s surface emit infrared radiation?

A

Yes

66
Q

Is the weakening of the polar vortex of a positive or negative feedback?

A

Negative, because it brings cooler weather to North America

67
Q

What is the polar vortex?

A

cold air that circulates the poles

68
Q

What is an archive?

A

a physical collection of documents

69
Q

What are archives of society?

A

places and sources with written records of past climates

70
Q

What are archives of nature?

A

parts of nature that hold clues about past climates

71
Q

What is a proxy?

A

something observable in nature that gives an indication of past climate conditions

72
Q

What are the 3 most revealing sources of climate history?

A

ice, trees, and soil

73
Q

What is ice core sampling?

A

a technique of drilling long cylinders of ice out of deep glaciers to reveal past atmospheric conditions

74
Q

Ice cores are analyzed in _________.

A

layers

75
Q

What causes ice cores to reveal past atmospheric conditions?

A

as snow fell, the new top layer would trap particles and freeze them in the ice, revealing what the atmosphere was like in the past

76
Q

How can you identify the age of a tree?

A

by counting the rings when it has been cut through

77
Q

What is the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees called?

A

dendrochronology

78
Q

What is dendrochronology?

A

the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees

79
Q

Dendrochronology is a combination of words that refer to __________ and _______.

A

trees, time

80
Q

What do layers of sediment and mud at the bottom of lakes and oceans contain information about?

A

the historical composition and content of the water

81
Q

What does coral sampling reveal about oceans and lakes?

A

similar data as the sediment, as well as past temperatures and content of the water

82
Q

What is the main limitation of the archives of society?

A

they only go back to the past hundred or thousand years

83
Q

When do the oldest instrumental records of weather and climate date back to?

A

1700, when the thermometer was invented

84
Q

When was the thermometer invented?

A

around 1700

85
Q

How are the archives of society more specific in dating occurrences compared to the archives of nature?

A

the archives of society can give an exact date or time something happened, making them more specific

86
Q

What is the strength of instrumental records of weather and climate?

A

they are very precise and specific

87
Q

What is the weakness of instrumental records of weather and climate?

A

they only go back a relatively short period of time

88
Q

Why did Phoenix, AZ receive attention in the news in 2023?

A

for record-breaking heat

89
Q

When did Phoenix, AZ receive record-breaking heat?

A

the summer of 2023

90
Q

When do the temperature records for Phoenix, AZ date back to?

A

1896

91
Q

What is a scholarly field?

A

a group if scholars who share common ways of studying evidence they analyze

92
Q

What is a scholar?

A

a member of a field

93
Q

What happens when a scholar develops methods for analyzing sources with useful information, and scholars begin to join that work?

A

a scholarly field is born

94
Q

What are the 4 main scholarly fields regarding climate history?

A

historical climatology, paleoclimatology, climate history, and history of climate and society (HCS)

95
Q

Historical climatology is most related to which field?

A

paleoclimatology

96
Q

How similar are historical climatology and paleoclimatology?

A

they are so similar that they’re different names for essentially the same field

97
Q

What is climatology?

A

the study of climate that relies on the archives of nature

98
Q

Climatology uses what source as evidence for past climates?

A

the archives of nature

99
Q

What does paleo mean?

A

ancient or old

100
Q

Paleo conveys a similar idea as which other term?

A

historical

101
Q

Historical climatology or paleoclimatology study climates primarily before when?

A

the 1800s

102
Q

What source does the climate history field use as evidence for past climates?

A

the archives of society

103
Q

Who is an influential pioneer in the climate history field?

A

Swiss historian Christin Pfister

104
Q

Who is Christin Pfister?

A

a Swiss historian and an influential pioneer in climate history

105
Q

Which of the scholarly fields mentioned in the resource guide is the newest?

A

The History of Climate and Society (HCS), as it is a relatively new field in the study of climate

106
Q

Who has led the push to form HCS?

A

Dagomar Degroot

107
Q

What does HCS focus on?

A

the relationship between past climate conditions and human societies

108
Q

Why is HCS better at what it does compared to other fields?

A

because other fields aren’t that precise and makes sure evidence and scale size are sufficient

109
Q

What does HCS scrutinize?

A

scholarly claims about climate’s past impacts on society that lack sufficient evidence, or “casual claims”

110
Q

To put it simply, HCS scrutinizes ___________ __________.

A

casual claims

111
Q

The field of HCS also pays attention to _________.

A

scale

112
Q

What is scale?

A

the size of an investigation

113
Q

What are the 2 parts of the word Anthropocene?

A

anthro and cene

114
Q

What does the first part of Anthropocene, anthro, mean?

A

human

115
Q

What does the “cene” within Anthropocene indicate?

A

that the geologic time is within the Cenozoic era

116
Q

When did the Pleistocene start?

A

2.8 million years ago

117
Q

When did the Pleistocene end?

A

11,700 years ago, roughly 9700 BCE

118
Q

What does the term Anthropocene put a strong emphasis on?

A

the cause of our current climate change, humans

119
Q

What group proposed the Anthropocene should be officially recognized as a new time period?

A

the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG)

120
Q

What is the AWG?

A

a body of experts on the Earth’s geological epochs

121
Q

What did the AWG propose in 2019?

A

that the Anthropocene should be the new geological time period

122
Q

When did the AWG propose the Anthropocene as the new epoch?

A

2019

123
Q

According to the AWG, when did the Anthropocene start?

A

1950

124
Q

Did the International Union of Geological Science accept or reject the AWG’s Anthropocene proposal?

A

they formally rejected it, but it will still be used among scientists

125
Q

What does the AWG stand for?

A

Anthropocene Working Group

126
Q

What does IUGS stand for?

A

International Union of Geological Sciences

127
Q

When did the IUGS reject the proposal for the Anthropocene?

A

March of 2024

128
Q

Professional historians have been telling stories about global history since when?

A

the profession become formalized in Europe in the 1800s

129
Q

French historians E. Le Roy Laudurie and Fernand Braudel didn’t include climate in their global history narratives until when?

A

2000 CE

130
Q

The history of China can be portrayed as a timeline of what?

A

dynasties, such as the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and more

131
Q

What empire did the Mediterranean area start out with?

A

the Greek Empire, with the Roman Empire and Middle Ages succeeding it

132
Q

What empire succeeded the Greek Empire?

A

the Roman Empire

133
Q

Why is there not enough information to prove a cause-effect relationship with many climate and society theories?

A

because they could’ve happened coincidentally and they may be unrelated

134
Q

What is the argument that climate sets the course for human history called?

A

climate determinism

135
Q

Almost all studies of climate and society today state that they are _________ing climate determinism.

A

rejecting

136
Q

What are causal mechanisms?

A

simple mechanisms that directly cause another happening

137
Q

The chronological scale of human history dates back to when?

A

when the first major human societies emerged, roughly 5 or 6 thousand years ago

138
Q

Who wrote “Silent Spring”?

A

Rachel Carson

139
Q

When was “Silent Spring” published?

A

1962

140
Q

What was “Silent Spring” about?

A

the harmful effects of DDT, and how humans could destroy and transform entire ecosystems, even Earth itself

Royal Compendium (35 decks)

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