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Global Issues > Revision > Flashcards

Revision Flashcards

1
Q

What is energy flux?

A

The amount of energy reaching the Earth per unit time per unit area.

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2
Q

What is Earth’s mean albedo?

A

0.3

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3
Q

What is monitoring the Earth’s energy budget?

A

CERES has been monitoring the energy budget since 1997.

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4
Q

What is the Coriolis force?

A

Deflection caused by Earth’s rotation. Acting right in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa in the South.

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5
Q

Why are the poles (especially the Arctic) warming faster than the rest of the world?

A
  1. Changes to albedo
  2. Thinner atmosphere and drier air are heated faster.
  3. The transport of energy to the poles by large weather systems.
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6
Q

What can change the Earth’s energy balance?

A
  1. Fluctuations in solar output.
  2. Milankovitch cycles.
  3. Changing the amount of atmospheric GHG.
  4. Changing Earth’s albedo through land use change or
    areosols.
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7
Q

What is the definition of a mass extinction, and what causes it?

A

A 75% loss of all species in a geologically short space of time.

  1. Destruction of habitat
  2. Hunting
  3. Introduction of invasive species.
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8
Q

How long does a complete cycle through the oceans take?

A

About 1000 years.

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9
Q

How will global warming impact ocean circulation?

A

Warmer temps will melt the Greenland ice sheet, resulting in an increase in freshwater which is less likely to sink. This will slow the southward flow of deep, cold water and therefore the North Atlantic current which replaces it.

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10
Q

What monitors the North Atlantic Overturning Circulation?

A

The RAPID array.

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11
Q

How does global warming cause sea levels to rise?

A
  1. Thermal expansion

2. The added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers.

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12
Q

What is coastal squeeze?

A

When the eroding shoreline reaches a sea wall causing the beach to narrow due to the sediment deficit.

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13
Q

What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

A

Discovered in 1997, it is a million sq mile patch of rubbish mainly comprised of tiny plastic pieces.

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14
Q

What are biogeochemical cycles?

A

The recycling and reuse of organic molecules and elements.

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15
Q

What is the compost bomb instability?

A

An explosive release of soil carbon from peatlands or permafrost into the atmosphere which occurs above a critical rate of global warming.

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16
Q

What is a common pool resource, and what problem do they create?

A

A resource that everyone has equal rights to use because they are a public good. This creates a free-rider problem, where people receives the benefits of a good but does not pay for it.

17
Q

What are Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ)?

A

The area, 200 miles, which is controlled by the country. 90% of the global fish catch comes from EEZs.

18
Q

How much of Earth’s water is freshwater?

A

2.5% is freshwater, of this 68.7% is locked up in glaciers and icecaps.

19
Q

What is water footprint?

A

A measure of humanity’s appropriation of freshwater in volumes of water consumed and/or polluted.

20
Q

What is the purpose of NASA’s GRACE mission?

A

It provides measurements of variations in the total water stored in and on the land. It does this by measuring changes in the Earth’s gravity.

21
Q

What fuels drought?

A
  1. Natural variations

2. Land use change and desertification

22
Q

What land type has the highest erosion rates per year?

A

Agricultural land.

23
Q

What are the four ecosystem services?

A
  1. Supporting: nutrient cycling, primary production and soil formation.
  2. Provisioning: food, freshwater and fuel
  3. Regulating: climate, flood and disease regulation
  4. Cultural: aesthetic, spiritual and eductional
24
Q

What is a keystone species?

A

A species that has a disproportionally large effect on its environment relative to its abundance.

25
Q

What is biodiversity offsetting?

A

If developers damage an area they should fund an increase in biodiversity elsewhere.

26
Q

What is an externality?

A

An extenality exists when choices made by individuals, states or organisations affect other people in a way that is not reflected in the costs of that choice.

27
Q

What is meant by land sharing and land sparing? And which is best for biodiversity?

A

Land sharing: mixed land use, with natural components of the urban ecosystem interspersed within the built areas.
Land sparing: zoned land use, with the density of built areas maximized to allow unused land to be allocated for natural ecosystems.
Land sparing tends to be better for biodiversity, while land sharing is better for humans.

28
Q

What are DALYs?

A

Disability adjusted life years. One DALY represents a year of full health lost.

29
Q

What is population attributable fraction (PAF)?

A

The incidence of disease in a population that is associated with an exposure to a risk factor.
Or..
The proportional reduction in population disease or mortality that would occur if exposure to a risk factor were reduced to an alternative ideal exposure scenario.

30
Q

What is the purpose of Argo floats?

A

Argo floats measure the upper ocean, the standard Argo float descends to 2000m and takes recordings of temperature and salinity.

31
Q

What is included in earth system models?

A

ESMs take into account physical climate, GHG, ecosystems, chemistry and aerosols.

32
Q

What are the main components to the atmosphere?

A

78% nitrogen
21% oxygen
0.9% argon
0.1% trace gases

33
Q

How much more potent is methane than carbon dioxide?

A

28x

34
Q

What are the main sources of methane?

A

Wetlands, fossil fuels, ruminants and rice fields.

35
Q

What is the main methane sink?

A

Tropospheric destruction, with the OH radical (85%).

36
Q

How have humans changed clouds?

A

The first indirect effect: cloud albedo, more aerosol means brighter clouds.
The second indirect effect: cloud lifetime, more aerosol means longer lived clouds.

37
Q

Why does CO2 need to be removed from the atmosphere?

A

Carbon dioxide has a long life (about 100 years) and RCP 2.6 assumes negative emissions after 2080.

38
Q

What happened at the 2001 Stockholm Convention?

A

More than 100 countries signed a United Nations treaty which sought to eliminate the use of 12 persistent, toxic compounds, including DDT.

Global Issues (1 decks)

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