NEW SS: Section 1 Flashcards
What is ESS?
a relatively new approach to studying the natural world, which looks at Earth as a whole
How many subsystems are in ESS?
there are 4 basic subsystems, 5 if you count the cryosphere
What are the subsystems of ESS?
atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere
What is the geosphere?
all the rock on Earth
What is the hydrosphere?
all the water and ice on Earth
What is the biosphere?
all the living things on Earth
What is the atmosphere?
all the air on Earth
What are forcings?
factors, usually external, that alter the stability of weather and climate
When forcings alter climate, what is produced?
a feedback, either positive or negative
What are the 2 types of feedbacks?
positive feedbacks and negative feedbacks
What is scale?
how large or small something is occurring
The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence what?
weather and climate
The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence the weather and climate. These interactions an occur on very different geographical ___________.
scales
How large of a scale is a stream drying up?
small scale
How large of a scale is an ocean warming up?
large scale
What is another term for geosphere?
lithosphere
Lithosphere is derived from what language?
Greek
Lithosphere incorporates the Greek word for what?
rock or stone
What created mountains, volcanoes, and oceans?
tectonic plates
Where do most of the interactions between the geosphere and the other subsystems occur?
the crust
The Earth’s crust is a relatively _____ layer.
thin
How does the biosphere influence the geosphere?
it changes the composition of the soil
How does the geosphere interact with the hydrosphere?
mountains cause clouds to form, resulting in rainfall
How do mountains cause rainfall?
they help form clouds, which eventually cause rainfall
What subsystem is the cryosphere part of?
the hydrosphere, as it is not usually considered its own subsystem
What is the cryosphere?
all the ice on Earth, not an official subsystem
What is the lowest layer of the atmosphere?
the troposphere
What is the second lowest layer of the atmosphere?
the stratosphere
What is the middle layer of the atmosphere?
the mesosphere
What is the second highest layer of the atmosphere?
the thermosphere
What is the highest layer of the atmosphere?
the exosphere
What is the main way the atmosphere affects climate?
the greenhouse effect
Light that comes from the Sun is either __________ or ___________.
absorbed, reflected
What is the greenhouse effect?
when certain gases in the atmosphere trap heat
Is the greenhouse effect bad?
Not necessarily, we need it to keep our planet warm, but too much of it can harm the planet
How high above Earth is the troposphere found?
0 to 12-18 km
How high above Earth is the stratosphere found?
11 to 50 km
How high above Earth is the mesosphere found?
40-50 to 80-90 km
How high above Earth is the thermosphere found?
80-90 to 800 km
How high above Earth is the exosphere found?
800 to 3000 km
What is the temperature of the troposphere?
15 to -56.5 C
What is the temperature of the stratosphere?
-56.5 to -2.5 C
What is the temperature of the mesosphere?
-2.5 to -86.5 C
What is the temperature of the thermosphere?
-86.5 to 1200 C
What is the temperature of the exosphere?
1200 C
Life influences the _________ and __________ makeup of the Earth’s subsystems.
chemical, thermal
What is the carbon cycle?
the cycle of carbon throughout Earth, humans inhale oxygen produced by trees and plants, etc
What has the human use of fossil fuels rapidly accelerated?
the carbon cycle
What are the 2 types of systems?
open systems and closed systems
What is an open system?
a system where the exchange of matter or energy occurs
What is a closed system?
a system where the exchange of matter or energy doesn’t occur
What type of system is Earth’s climate?
an open system
What is Earth’s main source of energy?
the Sun
What are the 3 most influential forcings?
solar energy, volcanoes, and greenhouse gases
Cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1600s and 1700s corresponded with what?
fewer sunspots and low solar activity in general
What are the Milankovitch cycles?
different cycles that Earth goes through which influence the amount of solar energy received by Earth
What are the intervals of the Milankovitch cycles?
100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years
What happens when multiple volcanoes erupt one after another?
it can cause a period of cooling, and may even bring down the average global temperature
What is shown when a car is parked, its windows are rolled up, and sunlight is coming through the windows?
the greenhouse effect
Water vapor, CO2, and methane are what type of gases?
greenhouse gases
What is a positive feedback in the context of Earth’s climate?
a reaction that warms the climate
What is a negative feedback in the context of Earth’s climate?
a reaction that cools the climate
Is the melting of ice sheets in the North Pole a positive or negative feedback?
positive, because when they melt, it reduces the amount of ice that reflects light, warming Earth
Positive feedbacks can push climate change to a _________ ________.
tipping point
Does Earth’s surface emit infrared radiation?
Yes
Is the weakening of the polar vortex of a positive or negative feedback?
Negative, because it brings cooler weather to North America
What is the polar vortex?
cold air that circulates the poles
What is an archive?
a physical collection of documents
What are archives of society?
places and sources with written records of past climates
What are archives of nature?
parts of nature that hold clues about past climates
What is a proxy?
something observable in nature that gives an indication of past climate conditions
What are the 3 most revealing sources of climate history?
ice, trees, and soil
What is ice core sampling?
a technique of drilling long cylinders of ice out of deep glaciers to reveal past atmospheric conditions
Ice cores are analyzed in _________.
layers
What causes ice cores to reveal past atmospheric conditions?
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
How can you identify the age of a tree?
by counting the rings when it has been cut through
What is the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees called?
dendrochronology
What is dendrochronology?
the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees
Dendrochronology is a combination of words that refer to __________ and _______.
trees, time
What do layers of sediment and mud at the bottom of lakes and oceans contain information about?
the historical composition and content of the water
What does coral sampling reveal about oceans and lakes?
similar data as the sediment, as well as past temperatures and content of the water
What is the main limitation of the archives of society?
they only go back to the past hundred or thousand years
When do the oldest instrumental records of weather and climate date back to?
1700, when the thermometer was invented
When was the thermometer invented?
around 1700
How are the archives of society more specific in dating occurrences compared to the archives of nature?
the archives of society can give an exact date or time something happened, making them more specific
What is the strength of instrumental records of weather and climate?
they are very precise and specific
What is the weakness of instrumental records of weather and climate?
they only go back a relatively short period of time
Why did Phoenix, AZ receive attention in the news in 2023?
for record-breaking heat
When did Phoenix, AZ receive record-breaking heat?
the summer of 2023
When do the temperature records for Phoenix, AZ date back to?
1896
What is a scholarly field?
a group if scholars who share common ways of studying evidence they analyze
What is a scholar?
a member of a field
What happens when a scholar develops methods for analyzing sources with useful information, and scholars begin to join that work?
a scholarly field is born
What are the 4 main scholarly fields regarding climate history?
historical climatology, paleoclimatology, climate history, and history of climate and society (HCS)
Historical climatology is most related to which field?
paleoclimatology
How similar are historical climatology and paleoclimatology?
they are so similar that they’re different names for essentially the same field
What is climatology?
the study of climate that relies on the archives of nature
Climatology uses what source as evidence for past climates?
the archives of nature
What does paleo mean?
ancient or old
Paleo conveys a similar idea as which other term?
historical
Historical climatology or paleoclimatology study climates primarily before when?
the 1800s
What source does the climate history field use as evidence for past climates?
the archives of society
Who is an influential pioneer in the climate history field?
Swiss historian Christin Pfister
Who is Christin Pfister?
a Swiss historian and an influential pioneer in climate history
Which of the scholarly fields mentioned in the resource guide is the newest?
The History of Climate and Society (HCS), as it is a relatively new field in the study of climate
Who has led the push to form HCS?
Dagomar Degroot
What does HCS focus on?
the relationship between past climate conditions and human societies
Why is HCS better at what it does compared to other fields?
because other fields aren’t that precise and makes sure evidence and scale size are sufficient
What does HCS scrutinize?
scholarly claims about climate’s past impacts on society that lack sufficient evidence, or “casual claims”
To put it simply, HCS scrutinizes ___________ __________.
casual claims
The field of HCS also pays attention to _________.
scale
What is scale?
the size of an investigation
What are the 2 parts of the word Anthropocene?
anthro and cene
What does the first part of Anthropocene, anthro, mean?
human
What does the “cene” within Anthropocene indicate?
that the geologic time is within the Cenozoic era
When did the Pleistocene start?
2.8 million years ago
When did the Pleistocene end?
11,700 years ago, roughly 9700 BCE
What does the term Anthropocene put a strong emphasis on?
the cause of our current climate change, humans
What group proposed the Anthropocene should be officially recognized as a new time period?
the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG)
What is the AWG?
a body of experts on the Earth’s geological epochs
What did the AWG propose in 2019?
that the Anthropocene should be the new geological time period
When did the AWG propose the Anthropocene as the new epoch?
2019
According to the AWG, when did the Anthropocene start?
1950
Did the International Union of Geological Science accept or reject the AWG’s Anthropocene proposal?
they formally rejected it, but it will still be used among scientists
What does the AWG stand for?
Anthropocene Working Group
What does IUGS stand for?
International Union of Geological Sciences
When did the IUGS reject the proposal for the Anthropocene?
March of 2024
Professional historians have been telling stories about global history since when?
the profession become formalized in Europe in the 1800s
French historians E. Le Roy Laudurie and Fernand Braudel didn’t include climate in their global history narratives until when?
2000 CE
The history of China can be portrayed as a timeline of what?
dynasties, such as the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and more
What empire did the Mediterranean area start out with?
the Greek Empire, with the Roman Empire and Middle Ages succeeding it
What empire succeeded the Greek Empire?
the Roman Empire
Why is there not enough information to prove a cause-effect relationship with many climate and society theories?
because they could’ve happened coincidentally and they may be unrelated
What is the argument that climate sets the course for human history called?
climate determinism
Almost all studies of climate and society today state that they are _________ing climate determinism.
rejecting
What are causal mechanisms?
simple mechanisms that directly cause another happening
The chronological scale of human history dates back to when?
when the first major human societies emerged, roughly 5 or 6 thousand years ago
Who wrote “Silent Spring”?
Rachel Carson
When was “Silent Spring” published?
1962
What was “Silent Spring” about?
the harmful effects of DDT, and how humans could destroy and transform entire ecosystems, even Earth itself
What is found in the exosphere?
spaceships and satellites
What is found in the thermosphere?
aurora
What is found in the mesosphere?
meteors and meteorological rockets
What is found in the stratosphere?
radiosondes
What is found in the troposphere?
planes and hot air balloons
