Weather and Climate gateway 2 part 1 sorry its very long Flashcards
What are some natural causes of recent climate change?
4
- The greenhouse effect
- Enhanced greenhouse effect
- Sunspots
- Volcanic eruptions
Greenhouse effect (examples of GHG, how it affects shortwave and longwave radiation, how it influences earth’s temp)
eg carbon dioxide, methane
shortwave radiation is reflected back to space, some is absorbed by earth’s surface
longwave radiation is absorbed and reradiated back to earth’s surface
in the day, it prevents temp from becoming too high, at night, it prevents temp from getting too low
Enhanced greenhouse effect (how it influences earth’s temp)
- increased conc of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
- more GHG absorbing and re-radiating longwave radiation back to earth’s surface
- with more longwave radiation being re-radiated back to earth’s surface, results in an increase in temp
sunspots
what is solar maximum/solar minimum and how it affects temp
solar maximum
- more sunspots
- higher surrounding temp to compensate for cooler regions of sunspots
- increased solar activity
- more solar radiation reaches earth’s surface
solar minimum
- less sunspots
- decreased solar activity
- less solar radiation reaches earth’s surface
- lower temp
volcanic eruptions (how it influences earth’s temp)
- volcano eruption results in large amounts of sulfur dioxide being released into the atmosphere
- sulfur dioxide reacts with water to form sulfur based particles
- the sulfur based particles, along with dust particles and ash, reflect more solar radiation back to space
- less sunlight reaches earth’s surface which results in lower temp for months to years. this is known as global dimming
Why is there the enhanced greenhouse effect?
reasons and most significant ghg
reasons:
-human activities causes ghg to be released at a faster rate
most significant:
-carbon dioxide
what human activities have led to enhanced greenhouse effect?
2 and 3 sub
- deforestation
- changing land use
- agriculture
- industries
- urbanisation
BOO!! BOO TO ENHANCED GREENHOUSE EFFECT!! WHO CARES ABOUT BOO TO PAP WE BOO TO ENHANCED GREENHOUSE EFFECT!!!
how has deforestation led to enhanced greenhouse effect
- why trees are cut down
- how fewer trees lead to ghg
- how the soil contributes to enhanced greenhouse effect
- example on greatest loss
- measures taken with example
-trees are cut down to make paper and to clear the land for mining activities or construction for infrastructure
- forest absorb carbon dioxide which is a significant amount of ghg
- fewer trees means less plants to absorb carbon dioxide leading to an increase in carbon dioxide levels
- soil is the largest source of ghg. carbon accumulates through the decay of organic matter like dead leaves. deforestation means the soil is exposed to sunlight. this increases the soil temp and the rate of carbon oxidation to produce carbon dioxide
- the greatest overall loss was in south america due to the need for development and commercial activities
- countries plant new trees or have laws restricting the number of trees that can be cut down eg. china. large-scale programmes carried out to plant trees and millions of hectares of forest is added every year
how has changing land use led to enhanced greenhouse effect
how changing lifestyle and high carbon content stuff affects amount of ghg emitted and amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
does not include the stuff on agriculture, industries, urbanisation
- population increases, demand for land for agricultural and industrial use increases
- more land is converted to urban areas as more people want to live in urban areas so more fossil fuels are burnt to meet the energy demands which contributes to ghg emissions
- as world’s usage of fossil fuels increase, it releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
- things with high carbon content produce large amounts of carbon dioxide when burnt (China is a large consumer) (Singapore gets most of out electricity from fuel cells)
how has agriculture led to enhanced greenhouse effect
- how it releases ghg
- a cow joke
- it if the 3rd highest contributor of ghg (idk if we need this)
- eg. tractors run on fossil fuels which releases carbon dioxide. inorganic fertilisers increases the amount of nitrous oxide in the soil which is released when soil is ploughed or when rain flows into the soil
- in cattle farming, cattle release methane
me: knock knock
you: who’s there?
me: interrupting cow
you: interrupting co-
me: MOOOOOOO
hehe
how has industries led to enhanced greenhouse effect
- how it produced ghg
- largest producers of ghg and carbon dioxide
- manufacturing involving burning of fossil fuels releases ghg
- largest carbon dioxide emissions producer in north and central america due to their heavy involvement in manufacturing
- eg China is producing more ghg than before due to rapid industrialisation
how has urbanisation led to enhanced greenhouse effect
-what is in urbanisation that produces ghg
Increasing number of people living in urban areas causes large amounts of fossil fuels to be burnt to provide energy for activities like cooking which produces ghg. there is a higher concentration of cars and other modes from transportation which produces ghg and constructing infrastructure and production of construction materials produces ghg
