Soc Sci S1 Facts Flashcards

1
Q

The first set of key concepts

A

the field of Earth System Science (ESS) ; pg. 5

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2
Q

Views the Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere as a single system

A

Earth System Science (ESS) ; pg. 5

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3
Q

ESS looks at the interactions between

A

air, water, land, and living organisms ; pg. 5

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4
Q

The second set of key concepts

A

How scholars create and organize the knowledge of past climate ; pg. 5

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5
Q

The third and final set of key concepts

A

The idea of Anthropocene ; pg. 5

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6
Q

What can the basics of ESS provide

A

am easy-to-understand way for non-specialists to obtain an accurate picture of how climate works ; pg. 6

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7
Q

What can alter the balance of the subsystems

A

External forces called forcings pg. 6

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8
Q

Notable events in climate history

A

The shifting of the Earth’s plates and the release and recapture of minerals and particles from within the Earth ; pg. 7

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9
Q

Where is most of the interactions between the geosphere and other subsystems occur

A

The Earth’s crust ; pg. 7

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10
Q

The most well-publicized aspects of current climate change focuses on which subsystem

A

hydrosphere ; pg. 7

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11
Q

The atmospheric zones from lowest to highest altitude

A

troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere ; pg. 7

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12
Q

Why do certain gases in the atmosphere cause the greenhouse effect

A

The gases are transparent to the Sun’s rays which allows them to reach the surface ; pg. 7

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13
Q

What happens to the Sun rays that are re-radiated by the Earth back into space

A

The rays lose energy and drop to the infrared levels. At that level, they are absorbed by the greenhouse gases and are trapped in the heat ; pg. 7

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14
Q

Influences the chemical and thermal constitution of the Earth’s subsystems

A

Life on Earth ; pg. 7

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15
Q

Radically accelerated the Earth’s natural carbon cycle which increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere above natural levels

A

Human use of fossil fuels ; pg. 7

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16
Q

What does it mean by the Earth’s climate system is an open system

A

The Earth’s climate system is not entirely self-contained ; pg. 7

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17
Q

Earth’s vital source of external energy

A

Solar energy radiated from the Sun ; pg. 7

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18
Q

What mixes to shape climate conditions

A

Solar energy and the Earth’s climate ; pg. 7

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19
Q

The 3 particularly influential forcings

A

solar energy, volcanoes, and greenhouse gases ; pg. 7

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20
Q

Isn’t completely consistent over time and space

A

the amount of energy transferred from the Sun to the Earth ; pg. 7

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21
Q

What happens when large volcanoes erupt and how can it create cooler conditions over vast regions

A

they emit a layer of dust and particles that can offer shade cover to large areas of the globe ; pg. 8

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22
Q

How can the cooling impact from volcanic eruptions be a great enough to influence large regions of the world and bring the average global temperatures down

A

Multiple volcanoes erupt ; pg. 8

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23
Q

Some of the gases that produce a greenhouse effect

A

water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane ; pg. 8

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24
Q

What kind of feedback is this: the original forcing and the feedback both push the climate in the same direction, either both warmer or colder

A

Positive feedback ; pg. 9

25
Q

Why is melting ice classified as a positive feedback

A

The loss of ice warms the climate in addition to the initial warming ; pg. 9

26
Q

What does the ice do to solar energy when it covers the surface of the ocean

A

it reflects the solar energy back away from the surface of the Earth ; pg. 9

27
Q

What kind of feedback is this: Warmer conditions raise the water temp of the great Lakes, increasing water in the atmosphere. The increased water in the air over the lakes becomes cloud cover that cools the surface of the Earth by blocking the sunlight and can start snowstorms

A

Negative feedback ; pg. 9-10

28
Q

What has weakened the polar vortex of cold air that circulates around the North Pole

A

The warmer temperatures in the oceans and atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere ; pg. 10

29
Q

3 of the most revealing sources of climate history

A

ice, trees, and soil ; pg. 10

30
Q

Ice cores are analyzed how

A

In layers ; pg. 10

31
Q

Ice cores from where can reveal atmospheric conditions from the past

A

An old glacier ; pg. 11

32
Q

How can the age of a tree be identified

A

By counting the rings of a tree that has been cut through ; pg. 11

33
Q

What can a tree reveal in relation to climate

A

If the year was dry or rainy and can even show the weather conditions of individuals seasons in a year ; pg. 11

34
Q

What can contain info about the historical composition and content of water

A

The layers of sediment or mud on the bottom of lakes and the ocean ; pg. 11

35
Q

The oldest instrumental records

A

The thermometer ; pg. 11

36
Q

Scholars utilize a system of what that is similar to those used to study the archive of nature

A

system of proxies ; pg. 11

37
Q

One area in which the archives of society are more specific than the archives of nature

A

dating ; pg. 12

38
Q

Why did the city of Phoenix review attention in the summer of 2023

A

for record-breaking heat ; pg. 12

39
Q

Scholars use information in what as proxies for estimating the information that modern scientific instruments can record

A

narrative records ; pg. 13

40
Q

Groups that are highly specialized at analyzing specific types of sources

A

Professionally trained scientists, social scientists, and historians ; pg. 13

41
Q

The fields of what offer complementary views of climate history

A

historical climatology, paleoclimatology, climate history, and the history of climate and society (HCS) ; pg. 14

42
Q

Some of the skills that historical climatologists must learn and practice

A

collecting samples from nature, operating the machinery or instruments used to analyze the samples, analyzing data obtained from nature to reconstruct past climate conditions, and communicating findings from nature according to the standard written conventions of the field of climatology ; pg. 14

43
Q

The skills that climate historians bring to the study of climate include

A

the ability to read the language and script of the texts being analyzed, the ability to find the texts, analytical techniques, and the contextual knowledge to interpret the texts accurately, and the ability to formulate and communicate historical narratives based on textual evidence ; pg. 14

44
Q

What did Christian Pfister do

A

He showed that sources in the archives of society can be used to produce trustworthy climate reconstructions ; pg. 14

45
Q

The need for the field of history of climate and society (HCS) stemmed from recent expansion of studies from which fields

A

climate history and paleoclimatology, archeology, economics, geography, linguistics, and genetics ; pg. 15

46
Q

Why does HCS seek to apply rigorous analytical methods from the field of history

A

To make sure that sufficient evidence exists to support claims about climate causing certain social conditions ; pg. 15

47
Q

HCS scrutinizes

A

causal claims ; pg. 15

48
Q

HCS pays careful attention to

A

scale ; pg. 15

49
Q

What concept refers to the scientific divisions of geological time that correspond to climate conditions of the Earth over millions of years through to the present

A

Anthropocene ; pg. 16

50
Q

What is the current epoch

A

Holocene ; pg. 16

51
Q

At the end of what did the Holocene epoch begin

A

The last global ice age ; pg. 16

52
Q

What epoch started before the Holocene

A

Pleistocene ; pg. 16

53
Q

An important reason to use the term Anthropocene

A

Other scholars and the public often refer to the Anthropocene already ; pg. 17

54
Q

Since when have professional historians been telling stories about global history

A

Since the modern historical profession became formalized in Europe in the 1800s ; pg. 17

55
Q

what did modern historians, until around 2000, not include in their narratives of global history

A

climate ; pg. 17

56
Q

What has happened since climate wasn’t included in traditional histories of the world

A

Many things converged or crashed together at once since historians have started trying to incorporate climate into the story of world history ; pg. 17

57
Q

Civilizations in places like what left traces of buildings, artifacts, and written documents

A

Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China ; pg. 19

58
Q

What is in Rachel Carson’s novel “Silent Spring”

A

It demonstrates how commercial pesticides destroyed living organisms and transformed the ecosystem in mere years, whereas natural changes in an ecosystem could only evolve over the course of decades or generations ; pg. 19

59
Q

What is “Silent Spring” often credited with

A

Helping humans develop an awareness of how much potential people have to alter the Earth ; pg. 19