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GEOG 243 > quiz 5 > Flashcards

quiz 5 Flashcards

1
Q

Carbon on the Planet

A
  • Movement of carbon between the crust, oceans, atmosphere, plants, soil, and animals
    • Most of the Earth’s carbon is stored in the planet’s crust
    • Carbon dioxide is the most common gaseous form of carbon
    • Photosynthesis: Conversion of carbon dioxide into organic compounds by plants.
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2
Q

Changing CO2 Content of the Atmosphere

A
  • ~2 billion years ago
    • CO2 was up, O was down
  • Cyanobacteria a few billion years later
    • CO2 down, O up
  • Human Activities
    • Human activities are contributing a lot to the increasing carbon dioxide
    • Burning fossil fuels from the industrial revolution kickstarted all of this
    • Agricultural practices
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3
Q

Natural and Human Carbon Exchange

A
  • Carbon exchange is a natural phenomenon but is also human
  • The more we urbanize, the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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4
Q

Measurement of CO2 in the Atmospheric: The Keeling Curve

A
  • Direct measurement of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere from the 1950s to present
  • Recorded from a Hawai‘ian island
  • Overall increase in CO2 emissions
  • Annual fluctuations due to northern hemisphere seasons (different landmass and vegetation)
    • Northern spring: More CO2 absorbed
    • Northern fall: More CO2 released
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5
Q

Measurement of CO2 in the Atmosphere: Proxy Records

A
  • Proxy records estimate the Earth’s temperatures for thousands of years prior to direct measurement
    • Tree rings
    • Ice cores
    • Sediments cores
    • Corals
  • Indicates there have been climate fluctuations in the past, but temperatures and the rate of change are higher than ever
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6
Q

The Greenhouse Effect

A
  • The greenhouse effect is the process by which gases in the atmosphere trap heat
    • Shortwave solar radiation (ultraviolet, visible light) enters the atmosphere, is absorbed by the earth, and then is re-radiated as longwave radiation (heat)
  • The greenhouse effect is both natural and necessary for life on Earth!
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN5-DnOHQmE So, what is the problem?!
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7
Q

Greenhouse Gases

A
  • Are rising higher and faster than ever before in a short amount of time, leading to socio-environmental changes
  • Greenhouse gases comprise of:
    • Carbon dioxide
    • Water vapour
    • Methane
    • Nitrous oxide
    • Chlorofluorocarbons
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8
Q

Increasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Changes in Climate

A
  • Global average temperatures are rising, but the amount and rate of change varies
  • Global warming → Climate change
    • Doesn’t fully capture the whole scope with global warming
  • Changes in precipitation patterns
    • Sea level rise
    • Droughts
    • Melting ice caps
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9
Q

Variability

A

Magnitude (frequency and amplitude) of the changes that can occur

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10
Q

Risk

A

Potential to create adverse consequences for human or ecological systems

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11
Q

Vulnerability

A

People’s exposure and lack of protection towards environmental changes and extreme events

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12
Q

Impact

A

Damage (or positive effect) resulting from an event

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13
Q

Climate Change Impacts

A
  • Potential agricultural losses
  • Islands and coastal areas lost to sea level rise
  • Species extinction
  • Ecosystem collapse
  • Increase in disease incidence
  • Impacts will be felt most strongly by those who contribute little to global greenhouse gas emissions. They are mostly vulnerable populations who are too poor to mitigate or adapt to these impacts
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14
Q

Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change

A
  • Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have been trapping heat in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution
  • This has increased global average temperatures by 1.1°C
  • The additional energy stemming from the increasing temperatures is unevenly distributed causing some locations to experience extreme weather events compared to others WEATHER IS
  • WHAT YOU GET AND CLIMATE IS WHAT YOU EXPECT!
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15
Q

More Persistent Droughts

A
  • Less rain between heatwaves
  • Water supplies and ground moisture run dry more quickly
  • Ground heats up quicker = warming the air above = more intense heat
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16
Q

More Fuel for Wildfires

A
  • Can be sparked by human activities, but also by natural events
  • Related to heatwaves and droughts – the longer the heat lasts, the more moisture is drawn out, making the land tinder dry
  • These tinder dry conditions help fuel wildfires which can spread very quickly
  • Can lead to another weather system – pyrocumulonimbus clouds – that produces lightning, thus igniting more fires
17
Q

More Extreme Rainfall

A
  • More heat means more evaporation
  • Warmer air can hold more water vapour
  • For each temperature degree of warming, the air’s capacity for water vapour goes up by 7%
18
Q

More or Less Hailstorms?

A
  • Changes to atmospheric factors (atmospheric instability, temperature, and wind shear)
  • But these atmospheric factors vary across the globe due to changes in weather patterns from climate change
  • Future decrease in hailstorm frequency in East Asia and North America
  • Future increase in Europe and Australia
19
Q

Stronger Typhoons/Hurricanes/Cyclones

A
  • Warming sea surface temperatures and higher subsurface sea temperatures removes the natural buffer on typhoon strength occasioned when cold water up wells from below the ocean’s surface
  • Stronger typhoons carry more moisture, move faster, track differently, and will be aggravated by sea level rise
20
Q

Climate Change Communication

A
  • On the surface, climate change communication is about educating, informing, warning, persuading, mobilizing, and solving the socio-environmental problem.
  • At a deeper level, climate change communication is shaped by our different experiences, mental and cultural models, and underlying values and worldviews
  • Four factors contribute to how climate change communication is constructed, disseminated, and understood
    • Scientists
    • News media
    • Politicians
    • Social media
21
Q

Scientists

A
  • Initially communicated among scientists or climate specialists
  • Technical language
    • Quantitative
    • Charts
    • Graphs
22
Q

News Media

A
  • News media began to take climate change reporting seriously in the 1990s and continues today
  • But there are peaks and troughs based on global climate events
  • Climate reports more common in developed versus developing countries
  • While the news media is great source for climate information, there are three common distortions of climate coverage
23
Q

Three Common Distortions**

A
  • Factual misrepresentation
    • Get info as fast as they can before they do thorough research
    • Scientific to laypeople language
    • Journalistic timing
  • Human-Interest Narratives
    • Centres primarily on controversy, timeliness of events, and celebrities
  • Alarmism
    • Use of doom-and-gloom narratives
  • Written in 1902, they were well aware about the temperature changes back then,
  • coal consumption affecting the climate, written in 1912
  • regions that are affected the most are talking about it more i.e., Latin America, Africa, etc.
24
Q

Politicians

A
  • As representations of climate change throughout the news media gradually captured public interest, politicians introduced various agreements and policies – some non-binding in scope – to govern how it was to be framed and communicated to the general public
  • Climate change communication moves from technical (scientific) to narrative (media) to political (politician)
25
Q

Social Media

A
  • While news media is a one-way communication tool to distribute climate change information, social media provides a way for the public to interact with climate change issues
  • Provides three important domains of climate change communication
    • Information
    • Discussion
    • Mobilization
  • Used by every citizens, but most popular among youth movements
  • Late 2010s
26
Q

Climate Change and Representation

A
  • While climate change impacts are felt by everyone, everywhere, media portrayals – both news and social – have been largely biased towards a particular perspective
27
Q

Greta Thunberg and School Strike for Climate

A
  • Born in 2003 to famous acting and singing parents
  • Began her climate crusade in 2018 by protesting for stronger action on climate change outside of the Swedish parliament at the age of 15
  • Widely recognized as the face of youth movement on climate action and the “Greta Effect”
  • Received various accolades and nominations for her work on climate activism
  • Invited speaker to various climate conferences worldwide
28
Q

Climate Crusaders

A
  • Autumn Pelletier – Canada
    • Water access
  • Francisco Vera – Colombia
    • Conservation and biodiversity
  • Licypriya Kangujam – India
    • Clean air
  • Vanessa Nakate – Uganda
    • Conservation and rainforests
29
Q

The Erasure of Indigenous Voices

A
  • Polar bears as threatened
    • Global misrepresentations of locally lived reality
  • Polar bears as reverent and practical
    • Troubled sacralization
  • Polar bears as political symbols
    • Indigenization, distorted under a global climate gaze
  • Polar bears have a healthy population
30
Q

Climate Change Governance

A
  • Environmental governance lecture . . .
    • Local
    • National
    • Global
  • Tackle climate change through a global agreement on curbing CO2 emissions
31
Q

Curbing CO2 Emissions around the world

A
  • All countries would benefit from a reduction of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions
  • Assuming that cuts in emissions would put someone at an economic disadvantage, only those who make reductions will pay the economic costs
  • So, who should pay?!
32
Q

Controlling Carbon

A
  • Impacts stemming from CO2 emissions are not necessarily felt equally around the world
  • CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions do not stay in place
    • Emissions come from a set of locations, but the impacts are shared (unevenly) by all
  • The benefits of carbon emission reductions are also unevenly distributed
  • How can cooperation be achieved?
33
Q

Reducing Emissions

A
  • Developed countries
    • Emit most of the CO2 in the atmosphere in order to develop
    • Emit more CO2 per capita than less developed countries
  • Developing countries
    • Emit less CO2 per capita, but have higher population growth
    • If they eventually emit as much per capita as developed countries, they will have higher total emissions as well
  • How can we develop incentives to reduce emissions?
  • If you have a fertility rate more than 2, you will have to think about CO2 emissions
34
Q

1997 Kyoto Protocol

A
  • Kyoto clause: “Common but differentiated responsibility”
  • The parties agreed that
    • the largest share of historical and current global greenhouse gas emissions originated in developed countries
    • per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low
    • the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet social and development needs
35
Q

List of Parties of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol

A
  • Annex I: Strongest 37 economies PLUS 13 economies in transition
  • Annex II: Strongest 37 economies
  • Annex B Countries: Annex I EXCEPT Turkey and Belarus
  • Non-Annex I Countries: Developing countries
  • Grouping of countries according to economic status
  • Different levels of emission-reducing expectations
  • In order to have equal say in climate change talks, you need to have these parties involved.
36
Q

1997 Kyoto Protocol Goals: Carbon Emission Commitments

A
  • Annex I countries – 37 strongest economies
  • Agreed to reduce their collective greenhouse gas emissions by ~5.2% from 1990 levels (on top of the CFC reductions from the Montreal Protocol)
37
Q

Climate Change and the United States (1990s-2015)

A
  • Kyoto signed by US President Bill Clinton in 1998, original commitment target 6% reduction
  • US Congress resistance against ratification (US congress ~36% support)
  • US President George W. Bush US in 2000 withdrew from Kyoto commitment
    • Taking climate change “very seriously,” but “it exempts 80% of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the US economy”
  • US withdrawal puts Kyoto global agreement in jeopardy
    • In order for the Protocol to enter into legal effect, it was required that the Protocol was ratified by 55 Parties including 55% of 1990 Annex I emissions
  • US represented 36% of emissions in 1990
    • Without US ratification, only an EU+Russia+Japan+small party coalition could get the treaty into legal effect.
  • Bonn climate talks in 2001: Russia and others signed
  • By 2015, 190+ countries had signed Kyoto and finished ratifications
  • USA was the only one not intending to ratify Kyoto
  • US carbon emissions increased ~ 16% since 1990
38
Q

2015 Paris Climate Agreement**

A
  • Paris is a REMARKABLE milestone because
    • First climate change agreement that is legally-binding AND universal (global)
    • 195 countries signed; supported also by the biggest emitters of greenhouse gas (USA and China)
  • THE DEAL:
    • Developed and developing countries: Both are bound to reduce their emissions on different national levels (‘INDCs’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions)
    • Carbon emissions and carbon sinks: Not only fossil fuels and developed countries in focus, but also (rain)forests and conservation in the Global South
  • Agreement became legally-binding when 55 parties who produce more than 55% of global carbon emissions ratified it
  • No legal enforceability, only global social (political) pressure to meet these signed commitments
  • Paris Agreement came into force on 4 November 2016
39
Q

2022 Congress of Parties (COP) 27

A
  • Loss and Damage Fund
  • Pooled fund for countries most affected by climate change
  • Most important climate governance advance since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement
  • While the fund is set up, there are still lingering questions:
    • What will be the criteria to trigger a payout?
    • Where will the money come from?
    • Will the payouts be enough?

GEOG 243 (3 decks)

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