Social Sciences Section 1

Question 1

What is the Pleistocene?

Answer 1

A geological epoch that started around 2.58 million years ago and was characterized by cycles of ice ages and interglacials

Question 2

What is the Holocene?

Answer 2

A geological interglacial (warm) period that began around 11,700 years ago, at the end of the last ice age

Question 3

What is the Anthropocene?

Answer 3

A proposed new epoch starting from 1950, based on unprecedented human-driven climate change.

Question 4

What is Earth System Science (ESS)?

Answer 4

A new approaching to studying the world, based on the interaction between the major four subsystems:
Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere.

Question 5

What is the Geosphere (Lithosphere)?

Answer 5

One of the subsystems of ESS; the earth and rock that comprise the Earth

Earth System Science

Question 6

What is the Hydrosphere?

Answer 6

One of the subsystems in ESS; all the water in, on, and around the Earth in various forms

Earth System Science

Question 7

What is the Biosphere

Answer 7

One of the subsystems in ESS; all living organisms in and on the Earth

Earth System Science

Question 8

What is the Atmosphere?

Answer 8

One of the subsystems in ESS; the layers of gases encircling the Earth

Earth System Science

Question 9

What is a Geological Time Scale?

Answer 9

Measure of time based on the record of rocks in which change is sometimes
measured at the pace of millions or even billions of years

In contrast to the human scale of decades. Climate change has brought these scales together—changes that should be on geological time scales are now happening in our lifetimes.

Question 10

What is the Cryosphere?

Answer 10

Part of the hydrosphere; all ice on Earth

Earth System Science

Question 11

What is the Greenhouse Gas Effect?

Answer 11

Higher concentrations of gases (CO2, methane, water vapor) that trap heat and warm the planet’s surface

Forcing

Question 12

What are Forcings?

Answer 12

Factors that are external to the climate system and influence climate change

Volcanoes, Solar Energy, Greenhouse Gases

Question 13

What are Milankovitch cycles?

Answer 13

Patterns of the Earth’s movement in relation to the sun, at intervals of 100,000, 41,000, and 26,000 years resulting in ice ages when they line up.

Forcings—Solar Energy

Question 14

What are Positive Feedbacks?

Answer 14

In ESS, a phenomenon where climate change causes a natural reaction that increases climate change in the same way.

Melting Ice

Question 15

What are Negative Feedbacks?

Answer 15

In ESS, a phenomenon where climate change causes a natural reaction that acts against the original direction of the climate change.

Polar Vortex, Great Lakes Lake-Effect

Question 16

What is a Tipping point?

Answer 16

A point of no return where climate change becomes irreversible

Question 17

What is a Proxy?

Answer 17

Something that indicates past climate conditions, e.g. ice cores or human records

Question 18

What is a Scholarly Field?

Answer 18

A group of scholars sharing the same object of study, type of evidence to study it, and methods for analyzing evidence.

Question 19

What is Historical climatology (Paleoclimatology)?

Answer 19

A scholarly field that reconstructs past climates using sources found in nature

Archives of Nature

Question 20

What is Climate History?

Answer 20

A scholarly field that uses historical human records to construct climate conditions in the recent past

Archives of Society

Question 21

What is the History of Climate and Society (HCS)?

Answer 21

An interdisciplinary scholarly field, suggested by historian Dagomar Degroot, which focuses on the relationship between climate and human history

Archives of Society AND Nature

Question 22

What is Climate Determinism?

Answer 22

The argument that climate determined social conditions throughout human history

Almost all studies today REJECT this theory.

Question 23

What is a Causal Mechanism?

Answer 23

Something that causes something else to occur

Question 24

What scholarly field did Dan Pfister pioneer?

Answer 24

Climate History

Question 25

Is the weakening of the Polar Vortex a **positive** or **negative** feedback?

Answer 25

Negative ## Footnote Warming has caused the Polar Vortex to weaken, which has led to cold air escaping the vortex and cooling North America.

Question 26

When was the **Anthropocene** proposed?

Answer 26

2019 ## Footnote The Anthropocene Working Group voted to adopt it in May 2019. It was later rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences in March 2024.

Question 27

When was the **Anthropocene** rejected?

Answer 27

March 2024 ## Footnote The International Union of Geological Sciences rejected the term due to the lack of data signifying 1950 as an epochal shift in the Earth system.

Question 28

What are all the examples of **proxies in nature**?

Answer 28

Dendrochronology, ice cores, coral sampling, waterbed sedimentation | Archives of Nature ## Footnote Traces in nature of the past climate.

Question 29

What are **Archives of Nature**?

Answer 29

Clues found in **nature** of the past climate

Question 30

What are **Archives of Society**?

Answer 30

Clues in **human history** of the past climate

Question 31

What are **Instrumental Records**?

Answer 31

**Precise and accurate** weather records, that only go back a **few centuries**. | Archive of Society

Question 32

What are **Narrative Records**?

Answer 32

**Human-produced records** such as diaries, logbooks, etc. that **describe the weather**. Not precise temperatures, but give a general idea of the climate at the time. | Archives of Society

Question 33

Highwater marks / Works of art / Grain Prices are all potential examples of what? | Archives of Society

Answer 33

human records/proxies | Archives of Society ## Footnote Ongoing debate on whether it is valid to use grain prices as proxies, due to other potential factors

Question 34

Why do some argue for the **adoption** of the term '**Anthropocene**'?

Answer 34

There is **overwhelming evidence** that **warming trends** began around **1950**, with the advent of the **Great Acceleration**. The term also highlights human involvement in the changing climate.

Question 35

What is the significance of **Rachel Carson's** novel, ***Silent Spring***?

Answer 35

It brought **awareness** to **humanity's potential to alter the Earth**—demonstrating how commercial pesticides transformed ecosystems over years instead of generations. ## Footnote The book was published in **1962**