Unit 1A - Climate change

Question 1

What is climate change?

Answer 1

any significant change in the earths climate over a long period

Question 2

What is the quaternary period?

Answer 2

2.6 million years ago to today

Question 3

What was the earth’s climate like before the quaternary period?

Answer 3

warmer and quiet stable

Question 4

What happened during the quaternary period?

Answer 4

global temps shifted between cold glacial periods (last 100,000 years) and warmer interglacial periods (last 10,000 years)

Question 5

When was the last glacial period?

Answer 5

15,000 years ago, climate has got warmer since

Question 6

What is the term global warming used to describe?

Answer 6

sharp rise in global temps over the last century, type of climate change

Question 7

What are the 4 ways scientists can work out how the climate has changed over time?

Answer 7

ice and sediment cores, tree rings, pollen analysis, temperature records

Question 8

What happens in the method, ice and sediment cores?

Answer 8

• scientists drill into ice sheets to get long cores of ice
• by analysing the gases trapped in the layers of ice, they can tell what the temp was that year
• one ice core can show how the temp changes over the last 400,000 years
• remains of ocean sediment can also be analysed, dating back to 5 million years ago

Question 9

What happens in the method, tree rings?

Answer 9

• as tree grows it forms a new ring each year (thicker and warm, wet conditions)
• take the cores and count the rings to find the age of a tree, the thickness shows the temp, the past 10,000 years

Question 10

What happens in the method, pollen analysis?

Answer 10

• pollen from plants gets preserved in sediment, we can identify and date to show which species were living at the time

Question 11

What happens in the method, temperature records?

Answer 11

• since 1850’s global temps have been measured accurately using thermometers, a reliable short term source

Question 12

What are the three natural factors of climate change?

Answer 12

orbital change, volcanic activity, solar output

Question 13

What are the 4 main human factors of climate change?

Answer 13

burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation, farming

Question 14

What are the environmental effects of climate change?

Answer 14

• glaciers shrink
• sea ice shrinks
• other species declining
• precipitation patterns change

Question 15

Temperatures are expected to rise by 0.3-4.8 degrees between 2005 and…>

Answer 15

2100

Question 16

What are the effects of climate change on people?

Answer 16

• deaths do to heat
• struggle to supply water
• effect farming
• lower crop yields
• weather is more extreme

Question 17

What are the 4 things we can do to reduce the effects of climate change?

Answer 17

carbon capture, planting trees, alternative energy production, international agreements

Question 18

What are the three ways people are adjusting to the effects of climate change?

Answer 18

managing water supply, changing agriculture systems, coping with rising sea levels