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AS geography > Physical > Flashcards

Physical Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a hazard?

A

A potential threat to human life or prosperity

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2
Q

What is a natural hazard?

A

Hazard caused by natural processes
Divided into:
Hydro-meterological = caused by climatic processes
Geophysical = caused by land processes

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3
Q

What is a disaster?

A

A hazard that actually seriously affects humans

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4
Q

What is risk?

A

The likelihood of a disaster occurring

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5
Q

What is vulnerability?

A

How susceptible a population is to the damage caused by a hazard

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6
Q

Example of the similar events effecting people differently

A 
Bam, Iran - 2003 - 6.6
85% of buildings severely damaged or destroyed
30,000 dead
California - 2003 6.6
Only three people died
Mild damage to buildings
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7
Q

Why is Global Warming the greatest current threat?

A

Causes other types of climate change and natural hazards
Happens on a global scale
Chronic hazard
Constant threat
Injustice
Solution will be complex and require everyone at every level to contribute

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8
Q

Why are hydro-meterological hazards becoming more frequent and affecting more people?

A
  • Rapid population growth puts more people at risk and makes them more vulnerable
  • Increasing world poverty
  • Exploitation of resources - deforestation leads to landslides and removes natural defences
  • Global warming = increases sea levels and warms oceans
  • El nino events change global weather patterns
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9
Q

Why are deaths decreasing but economic loss increasing?

A

Prediction - Increased technology means some hazards can be predicted and people evacuated
Prevention - Prevent events becoming hazards = sandbags for flooding or improve infrastructure
Preparedness - Educating people so they are less vulnerable = Japan’s Disaster prepardness day in September

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10
Q

How do tropical cyclones occur?

A

Develops above sea water that is 26.5C or higher, warm moist air rises causing an increase in wind speed
Lose energy moving over water
Occur between five degrees and 30 degrees above and below equator, water isn’t warm enough anywhere else
Cyclones spin due to coriolis effect - coriolis effect not strong enough on equator to make cyclones spin so they don’t occur here
Coriolis effect also why they move away from the equator

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11
Q

California as a disaster hazard hotspot

A

Earthquakes - San Andreas conservative plate boundary (2-3 5.5+ mag earthquakes per year) - largest occurred in 1908 when a 7.8 destroyed most of San Francisco due to liquefaction of soil
Droughts - caused by anticyclones (long lasting periods of high air pressure that causes the air to sink - also caused by La Nina - drought causes wildfires which killed 22 people in 2007 and destroyed 1300 homes
Landslides - triggered by extreme weather and earthquakes but worsened by the urbanisation of coastal land and up steep slopes
Volcanos - Lassen peak 1915

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12
Q

Vulnerability of the Californian population?

A

More than 70% of California’s population live within 50km of a fault line
Lots of building on unstable land which can be liquified causing huge infrastructural damage - Happened in Loma Prieta in 1989
California has a huge economy meaning there will be large financial losses

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13
Q

The Philippines as a Disaster hazard Hotspot

A

Volcanoes - destructie plate boundary of Philippine plate sub-ducting under Eurasian Plate - Mount Pinatubo (Strato volcano) eruption in 1991 - up to 800 killed
Earthquakes - Destructive plate boundary causes pressure by becoming locked together - 1500 people killed in 1990 mag 7.8
Landslides - Heavy rainfall and earthquakes can cause this - worsened by deforestation and new soil - 2006 Leyte Island whole village buried
Typhoons - 10 cyclones a year - Warm Pacific water in Tropics
Tsunamis - caused by earthquakes in ocean

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14
Q

What is long term evidence for climate change?

A

Ice cores - Analyse gases trapped in ice sheets far down in glaciers
Pollen analysis - Pollen can be identified and dated as to when it was released

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15
Q

What is evidence for Medium-term climate change?

A

Tree rings - conditions based on thickness of tree ring

Retreating Glaciers - Looking at rocks deposited by glaciers and the distance between them and the galcier

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16
Q

What is evidence for long-term climate change?

A

Weather records - weather conditions consistently recorded since 1861
Polar ice melt records

17
Q

Natural causes for climate change?

A
  • Stretch - elliptical or circular - 96000 year cycle
  • Tilt - Earth tilts on its axis - changes every 40,000 years - Changes the amount of energy the amount of lattitudes receive
  • Wobble - 22,000 years - swaps the seasons
  • Sunspots - 11 year cycle - caused the 17th century little ice age
  • Meteor impacts - throws cosmic dust into the atmosphere which deflects solar energy causing cooling - responsible for the chlorate change that made the dinosaurs extinct
    Volcanic eruptions - ash blocks out sunlight causing a temporary cooling effect - Mount Tambora in 1815 caused a 0.5 decrease in global temperatures
18
Q

Human causes of climate change?

A 
= Enhanced green house effect
Fossil fuel burning
Rice farming
Cattle ranching
Took off from mid 19th century industrial revolution 
Absorbs deflected solar energy so less is lost to space
= Destruction of CO2 sinks
Deforestation
Destruction of peat bogs and permafrost
19
Q

Impact of climate change on countries?

A

Bangladesh
- Low lying country - 80% live in low lying areas 80 million displaced
- poor country with little capacity to cope
Maldives
- Sea level rise of 0.5 would submerge entire country
- country dependent on tourism

20
Q

Tipping point?

A

Positive feedback scenarios means that eventually climate change may become irreversible
Earth warms - thawing of permafrost -releases CO2 - Earth warms
Earth warms - Ice melts - decreased albedo - earth absorbs more energy - Earth warms

21
Q

What are the environmental impacts of global warming in the arctic?

A
  • Melting of Greenland ice sheet means more fresh water in the ocean which changes the density of the sea and therefore disrupts the north atlantic drift.
  • Release of the permafrost natural sink
22
Q

What are the ecological impacts of global warming in the arctic?

A
  • Polar bears becoming endangered as they need sea ice to hunt
  • sensitive ecosystem, so loss of one species will disrupt many others
  • Number and diversity of fish will increase
23
Q

What are the socio-economic impacts of global warming in the arctic?

A
  • Open new shipping routes above Greenland
  • New natural resources such as minerals in Disko Bay or increased fishing
  • Undiscovered oil and gas in arctic
  • Loss of generations livelihood
24
Q

Why are Africans so vulnerable to climate change?

A
  • Reduced capacity to cope, many subsistence farmers with no income
  • Less able to prepare or respond to climate change
  • Political turmoil
25
Q

Impacts of climate change in Africa?

A
  • Desertification in the Sahel, where 70% of the population are farmers, fertile soil becomes unusable which decreases agricultural production
    = Worsened by Pastoral Nomads who’s livestock eat further into the roots of plants as it becomes hotter, meaning wind blows the fertile soil away
  • Global warming causing an erratic climate - Mozambique suffered drought and crop failure in 1995 and then flooded in 2000 - Do not know what to prepare for
  • In some regions the climate change is making better conditions for mosquitoes that spread malaria which kill 1 million a year
26
Q

What is mitigation?

A

Reduce how much or solve climate change

27
Q

What is adaptation

A

Reduce the impacts of climate change

28
Q

Global mitigation strategies?

A

Kyoto Protocol - 1997 - 180 - cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 - divided countries into ‘developed’ and ‘developing’
Developed countries to cut by 5% overall of the pre-1960 levels
Developing countries did not have to cut at all by needed to monitor it
Scientists said that it was not enough, it had to be more like 25% and the four biggest polluters China, USA, Australia and India did not sign up - USA and China competing
November 2015 COP 21 Paris Conference - 190 countries - with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C - first legal binding agreement for climate change

29
Q

What did the Stern review suggest?

A

2006 - Mitigating against climate change would take 1% of the global GDP and keep temperatures below +2 degrees but to adapt would reduce global GDP by 20%

30
Q

Describe El Nino and its effect on food supply

A

Weak trade winds from West to East lead to eastward flow of warm water that suppress the upwelling in South America. This means that warm water ascends over South America and condenses to cause floods and the anchovy yeild in Peru is lowered. The cool descending air in the West causes a high pressure and drought. This causes Bush Fires in Australia such as ‘Ash Wednesday’ fires in 1983 where 75 people were killed.

31
Q

Adaptation schemes

A

Local - Farmers using GM halophyte rice crops as rising sea levels causing the rivers and soil to become salinated. They are also building Sluice Dams to keep back sea water from their water supplies
Some people from Kiribati have become the first environmental refugees and migrated to Australia and New Zealand
National - In the 1990s the government of Dhaka laid 102km of drains to help reduce flood waters
President Tong in Kiribati bought land on Fiji
International - NGOs built specialised flood shelters in Bangladesh which use GIS Delft-FEWS to warn people, contains a layer for cattle and double as a school

32
Q

Mitigation Schemes

A

Individual - Pay extra on flight to offset your carbon
National - Use green technology - Masdar City or BedZED London
Energy efficiency to reduce CO2 emissions - Copenhagen CHP systems
International - Global conferences such as Kyoto or COP 21 Paris

33
Q

Food security in Africa

A

Governments can’t invest to improve agriculture as climate change and desertification due to pastoral nomads increases as their income is being spent on paying off foreign debt.

34
Q

Global warming and the Arctic Ecosystem

A

Earth gets hotter, tree line extends further into Tundra and Boreal Forest is extended, increasing size of Spruce Bark Beetle population. Permafrost is melted, releasing CO2. Active layer is reduced as the Tundra is pushed close to the Arctic ocean. Annual plants and Reindeer numbers are reduced. This is biome shift.

AS geography (2 decks)

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