Unit 2 - Changing Climate Flashcards
How can we tell what the average temperatures were like 400,000 years ago?
Drill through glaciers to find ice cores.
What is a Milankovitch cycle?
It is cycle of 100,000 years where the earth’s orbit changes a small amount.
How do sun spots cause an increase in global temperatures.
They increase the amount of heat radiation that the sun outputs.
Increased volcanic activity has a _____ affect?
COOLING!
What caused the mini Ice age in the 16th-19th century?
Fewer sun spots, volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
How do we know about the ice age?
Diaries, newspapers and paintings. Also tree rings are thinner during cold years.
Why did the mega fauna die out after the ice age?
They could not adapt quick enough to the rising temperatures.
What is the UK’s climate like now?
Mild, wet and described as temperate maritime.
What factors affect the climate of a country?
Latitude, water currents, air masses, prevailing winds.
What possible changes could affect the UK’s climate?
Temperature rise, less predictable rainfall and drier summers, colder winter.
Why will the UK’s climate change?
More air masses from the North bringing storms and more extreme weather.
What are impacts, environmental and economic, of the changes to UK climate?
Environmental - Loss of land, more storms, changes to ecosystems and an increase in diseases.
Economic - Increase in refugees, different crop seasons, hotter summers for tourism, damage to cities would be expensive, new housing design.
