SS Pure Vocab Flashcards
Straight from the glossary
1.5°C
a goal for limiting the amount of global warming
above the pre-industrial average to 1.5°C by the end
of the century
536 ce
an abnormally cold year in Europe as a result
of volcanic eruptions; historian Michael McCormick
recently named it the worst year to be alive.
4,250 Years Ago/2250 bce
the starting date of the
Late Holocene and the date of a severe climate event
that may have included droughts that strained early
human civilizations across Eurasia
Akkadian Empire
an early Mesopotamian empire
that lasted from around 2334 to 2218 bce
Alexander the Great
Greek king from
Macedonia whose vast conquests created cultural
links throughout the Mediterranean region and east
as far as the Indus Valley
Andes Mountains
a long mountain range that
stretches from north to south along the Pacific Rim
in South America that was home to early agrarian
societies
Anthropocene
According to the IPCC, “a proposed
new geological epoch resulting from significant
human-driven changes to the structure and
functioning of the Earth System, including the
climate system”1; in March of 2024, the International
Union of Geological Sciences rejected a proposal to
formally name the Anthropocene as a new geological
epoch, but noted that the term will “continue to
be used not only by Earth and environmental
scientists but also by social scientists, politicians
and economists as well as by the public at large”
and “will remain an invaluable descriptor of human
impact on the Earth system.”
Archive
traditionally a storehouse of historical
documents, but now also a figurative way of naming
something as containing information about the past,
such as the archives of nature
Atmosphere
one of the subsystems in the Earth
System; the layers of gases encircling the Earth
Biosphere
one of the subsystems in the Earth System;
all living organisms in and on the Earth
Black gold
a popular term that references oil, its
immense value, and the fact that it, like gold, must be
extracted from the earth
Bolin, Bert (1925−2007)
a Swedish meteorologist
who led numerous scientific communities
studying climate and was the first Chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
“Carbon footprint”
a term that references a person or
organization’s personal contribution to global carbon
emissions
Carbon sequestration
also known as carbon
capture; the act of taking carbon dioxide out of the
atmosphere and storing it
Causal mechanism
something that causes something
else to occur
Climate crisis
a term summarizing the dangerous
impacts of climate change
Climate determinism
a method of telling historical
narratives in which climate drives social and
environmental changes over time
Climate history
an academic field that uses the
methods of historians and studies sources produced
by human societies to reconstruct past climatic
conditions
Cold War
the global political conflict between the
United States and the Soviet Union, and their allied
nations, from around 1946 to 1991
Colonialism
a political system in which states or
companies establish control over natural resources
and people in distant lands
Crutzen, Paul J. (1933−2021)
a Dutch meteorologist
who helped found the IPCC in 1988, won the Nobel
Prize in Chemistry in 1995, and coined the term
“Anthropocene” in 2000
Cryosphere
a part of the hydrosphere subsystem; all
the ice in the Earth System
Early Holocene Subseries/Subepoch or the
Greenlandian Stage/Age
the first of three stages
of the Holocene that lasted from around 11,700 to
8,236 years ago and was characterized by warmer
conditions
Earth System Science (ESS)
a relatively new
approach to studying the natural world as a
connected whole with a focus on the interactions
between the Earth System’s subsystems: the
geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere
Foote, Eunice Newton (1819−1888)
an American
scientist and women’s rights advocate who
recognized in the mid-nineteenth century that
changing amounts of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere could impact the climate
Forcings
factors that are external to a climate system
and influence climate change, such as volcanic
activity, solar variations, and greenhouse gases
Fossil fuels
matter—including coal, oil, and natural
gas—left behind from formerly living organisms
that can be burned to create energy but when burned,
releases carbon into the atmosphere
Fridays for Future
a youth climate activism
movement that was inspired by Greta Thunberg’s
school strikes for climate in 2018 and spread
organically across the world
Geological time scale
a measure of time based on
the record of rocks in which change is sometimes
measured at the pace of millions or billions of years
Geosphere (Lithosphere)
one of the subsystems in the
Earth System; the earth and rock that comprise the
Earth
“Great Acceleration”
a term coined by environmental
historian J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke that
identifies 1950 as a date when, partly due to a rapid
growth in the human population, humanity’s impact
on the natural world rapidly increased, including a
steep rise in fossil fuel emissions
Green New Deal
a policy proposal championed by
U.S. Congressional Representative Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Ed Markey, and others that
would involve government investment in building
infrastructure and incentivizing industries to help
address the climate crisis
