Social Science Section 1 Flashcards
How are volcanos forcings?
The eruption of volcanos emits a layer of dust particles that shade vast region and cool these areas.
What is the process that describes the change in the natural world?
climate change
What does ESS stand for?
Earth System Science
How do greenhouses work?
The closed area allows for sun rays to enter the greenhouse but acts as a barriers for preventing heat from getting out. These places create great conditions for agriculture.
what are the four main subsystems of the ESS?
Geosphere , Hydrosphere , Biosphere , Atmosphere
What are some examples of greenhouse gases?
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane.
What is Anthropocence?
The idea that current climate conditions have been heavily influenced by human actions
What are the external forces that Impact the stability of the climate, and subsystems called?
Forcings
What are the reactions to climate change caused by forcings called?
Feedbacks
What are the two ways scientists classify feedbacks?
As positive and negative
What is the climate?
The weather over a long period of time
What are positive feedbacks?
A forcing that pushes the climate in the same direction (warm forcing results in warm feedback)
What is Earth System Science?
The scientific approach of studying the natural world that looks at the interactions between the air, water, land, and living organisms.
Define tipping point.
When positive feedback changes the climate to a point of no return.
True or False. There is a lot of continuity between the past. and the present in the way Earth’s subsystems interact to create climate conditions?
True
What is the Geosphere?
All the land, earth, and rock that make up the planet.
What new field focuses on the relationship between past climate conditions, and human societies?
history of climate and society (HCS)
True or False. All the interactions of the four sub systems happen at the same geographical scale
False
True or False humans have always thought that there actions impact the climate
False
Where do the geosphere and the other subsystems interact most?
The Earth’s Crust
What is the hydrosphere?
All the water on the Earth, in the ground, and in the atmosphere
What is the atmosphere?
Various gases
What are the different layers of the atmosphere?
Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere
What is the biosphere?
All living things inside, on, or around the Earth
What is the greenhouse gas effect?
Gases from Earth’s other subsystems trap heat in the lower layers of the atmosphere
Provide an example of positive feedback.
Warmer temperatures affect the hydrosphere melting if off. As there is no ice to reflect back solar energy, the hydrosphere absorbs it warming the climate even more.
How can greenhouse gas molecules contribute to global warming?
Infrared radiation can pass through the atmosphere and be absorb by the gasses. They are then reemitted in all directions by the green house molecules which contributes to Earth’s surface warming.
What has accelerated the Earth’s natural carbon cycle?
Human use of fossil fuels
What is the other name for the geosphere?
Lithosphere
What is negative feedback?
A feedback that results in the opposite outcome its forcing produces (cold forcing would produce warm feedback and vice versa)
True or False. There are five layers of the earth atmosphere
True
True or False. Can negative feedback push the climate to tipping point?
False. Only positive feedback can do this.
What reverses the greenhouse effect?
Human emission of greenhouse gases that concentrate in the atmosphere.
What is solar energy?
Energy from the Sun that heats up the Earth
True or False. Volcano dust can produce acid rain.
True
Positive Feedback.
Push Climate change to Tipping point; relations pushing in same direction
Tipping Point
the time the climate changes reaches a point of no return
Archive Of Nature
using evidence from nature (ie: Ice cores) to see what types of climate & when it took place
Archive of Society
using evidence from humanity (ie: written documents) to see what types of climate occurred & when
Proxy
Something from nature that gives indication of Past Climate Conditions
Precipitation
amount of rainfall through a specific amount of time.
Instrument
A tool used to measure data and feedback (Temperature, Precipitation, etc.) Often used to identify trends in the climate.
Negative feedback
Little to no change in climate; relations pushing and pulling against each other
example of Positive Feedback
Melting ice around the North Pole
example of Negative Feedback
Warmer conditions rase water temp of great lakes. This then leads to more water vapor & clouds in the atmosphere that cast shade, cooling back down the Earth
Polar Vortex
The Polar Vortex is a large area of low pressure & cold air surrounding the earth’s Poles.
T or F: Climate affects all 4 (5) subsystems
True
Sediment
Small pieces of rock broken apart by erosion. Tend to clump us into “Sedimentary rocks”
How do you find trends in the climate?
Reading a lot of sources & making your own opinion.
what is ice core sampling?
drilling out a large cylinder of Ice to see how much it grew during specific times
What are the pros that Archive of Nature provide?
Because of the recent invention of scientific instruments going into the archive of nature can provide us with more accurate data on recent temperature patterns
what is the main Con of the Archive of Society
It only goes back a couple hundreds to thousands years, & reliable measurements only go back ~200 years.
T or F: The Thermometer is a relatively recent invention, being made in the 1850s during the US Civil War By Benjamin Franklyn’s son, William Franklyn
False
What is the oldest instrument to be invented/When was it made?
The thermometer which was invented in 1700
T or F: Dendrochronology is the study of studying fossils to tell what the climate was like when that given animal was alive
False
Coral sampling
gathering data from the ocean’s coral
What does the layers and Sediment/Mud provide?
Composition and Contents of the water (such as pollen)
What can an old Glacier reveal?
What the atmospheric conditions were dating back hundreds to thousands of years
What is an Archive?
a physical repository of documents (ie. archive of nature or humanity)
what are the 3 most revealing sources of climate history in nature?
soil, ice, and trees
Scientist Hypothesize about polar vortex?
Warmer temperatures in the ocean and atmosphere weakened the polar vortex
Why are Trees one of the best sources from the Archive of Nature
Counting the rings can tell you not just how old it is, but also how wet/dry a particular season was.
How is Positive and Negative being defined in terms of weather feedbacks?
The relationship between the original forcing and impact.
What brought Phoenix, Arizona, attention on the news?
The record-breaking heat in summer 2023. Though records only date back to 1896.
What is precipitation?
Any weather that comes falling from the sky. (Rain, snow, hail, etc)
T or F: The Location of the recorded events do NOT affect the result.
False
What is a major Con of the Archive of Humanity?
It only goes back a couple hundreds to thousands years, & reliable measurements only go back ~200 years.
T or F: careful analysis is still required even after instruments
True
T or F: negative Feedback loops lead to worse Climate change
False
What does an ice core look like?
It is a very long cylinder in a long tube.
T or F: Can a singular scholar be a member of more than one field?
True
How is a new field made?
When a scholar finds useful information and develops effective methods for analyzing sources
T or F: Do fields with few perspectives help find the most accurate results?
False
T or F: Even with different fields it is still unlikely for us to get a reliable picture on past climate
False
T or F: Historical climatology or paleoclimatology investigates past climate change from the 1800 to today
False
T or F: Climatology uses the archives of nature from the investigations of the natural world
True
What are some skills climate historians have to help study the climate ?
Ability to understand the languages, find the text, and analytical techniques
Who was Christian Pfister?
A Swiss historian who led the creation of the field of climate history
T or F: Scholars can examine human-produced records for clues about past climate conditions
True
What is an example of a human-produced record
weather diaries, ship logbooks
What is a piece of art that depicts weather conditions.
Winter Landscape with Skaters, c, 1608, Hendrick Avercamp
Why were grain prices used as a marker for weather conditions
There is a correlation between certain types of weather and fruitful harvests that would cause prices to decline
Proxy
a person authorized to act on behalf of another
Why are paintings NOT a reliable source of climate history
The painting is not the same as a photograph, it might not be an accurate depiction of the area or time.
T or F: Scholars do not treat the information contained in narrative records as proxies for estimating climate history.
False
Weather Diary
record of weather experiments
Ship logbook
record of important events in the management, operation, and navigation of a ship
Why are grain prices not a reliable source of climate history
Other factors that are unrelated to whether also affect the prices of grain
T or F: Scholars can devise systems for taking narrative records and comparing them with other records to gain an idea of climate trends and conditions over time.
True
T or F: Narrative records are as reliable as modern instruments
False
Hendrick Avercamp
Dutch painter in the 17th century
What group in 2019 proposed that Anthropocene be officially recognized as a new geological time interval (epoch)?
Anthropocene Working Group (AWG)
According to the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) propose the Holocene ended and Anthropocene began?
1950 (mid-twentieth century)
Who rejected the proposal to officially declare the Anthropocene as a new geological epoch in March 2024?
The International Union of Geological Sciences, but they noted that it will continue to be used as an invaluable descriptor of human impact.
True or False? The International Union Geological Sciences accepted the proposal to formally name the Anthropocene the new epoch.
False, they rejected it in March 2024
What epoch do we still live in according to the formal geological time scale?
Holocene
Do scientists, politicians, and economists still use the term Anthropocene?
Yes, it is commonly used to label the recent climate shifts
Is the idea of the Anthropocene discredited due to the lack of official and specific recognition?
No, the lack of official recognition is simply the seriousness of scientists.
True or False? Most modern historians did not include climate in their narratives until about the year 2000
True
Who wrote about the climate in their narratives prior to 2000?
E. Le Roy Ladurie and Fernand Braudel
When did the modern historical profession become formalized in Europe?
1800s
What is a major challenge regarding events when combining the study of human history and climate history?
Causation. It is difficult to determine definitively if certain events in history had caused the next event to occur, or if it was just a coincidence and this can lead to biases
