Weather and climate (KQ2) Flashcards
What are some natural causes of global warming?
- variations in solar output
- volcanic eruptions
How do variations in solar output cause global warming?
- sun emits varying amounts of solar radiation due to changes in its magnetic field
- sunspots are cooler regions on the sun’s surface
- they appear as dark spots
- during periods of intense solar magnetic activity, amounts of sunspots increases
- this results in higher solar radiation as the areas surrounding the sunspot emit more energy
- this is to compensate for the lower termperatures at sunspots
What is released into the atmosphere when a volcano erupts?
- water vapour
- sulfur dioxide
- dust
- ash
- carbon dioxide
How do volcanic eruptions cause global warming?
- sulfur dioxide reacts with water to form sulfur-based particles in the atmosphere
- the sulfur-based particles, ash and dust reflect solar energy back into space
- this causes global dimming to occur
- global dimming is a gradual reduction of sunlight reaching the earth’s surface
- this results in temporary cooling for months, or even years
What is an example of a volcanic eruption that caused global warming
- eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991
- released 17 million tonnes of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere
- caused temperature in the northern hemisphere to be lowered by 0.6 degrees celsius for 2 years
What is the greenhouse effect?
- a natural process in which the gases in the atmosphere trap longwave radiation emitted by the earth’s surface and warm the atmosphere
What is emitted by the sun?
- shortwave radiation
- in the form of visible light
What is emitted by the earth’s surface
- longwave radiation
- after shortwave radiation is absorbed by the surface of the earth
What are some examples of greenhouse gases?
- carbon dioxide
- methane
- nitrous oxide
- water vapour
- chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs)
What is the process of the greenhouse effect?
- incoming shortwave radiation from the sun enters the atmosphere
- it reaches the earth’s surface (it heats up)
- the earth’s surface emits it as longwave radiation
- the longwave radiation is then absorbed by greenhouse gases
- warms the atmosphere
What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?
- refers to an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
What does the enhanced greenhouse effect lead to?
- rise in global temperatures
How does the enhanced greenhouse effect occur?
- when human activity causes greenhouse gases to be released at a far greater rate than that of natural emissions of greenhouse gases
What are some anthropogenic causes of climate change?
- deforestation
- changing land use (agriculture, industries, urbanization)
What is deforestation?
- the loss of forests due to the removal of trees in forested areas
Why is deforestation carried out?
- obtain wood to make products such as paper and building materials
- carry out mining activities
- agricultural activities such as grazing and growing crops
- developing infrastructure
How does deforestation lead to an increasing carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere? (1 of 2 ways)
- forests have trees
- trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis
- thus, when deforestation occurs
- there are less trees to absorb the carbon dioxide in the air to photosynthesize
- as such, there is more carbon dioxide in the air
(not from textbook)
How does deforestation lead to an increasing carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere? (2 of 2 ways)
- soil contains a high amount of carbon
- due to the accumulation of carbon through the decay of organic matter
- such as dead leaves and animals
- deforestation causes the soil to be exposed to the sun
- this increases soil temperature
- increases the rate of carbon oxidation in the soil
- carbon oxidation is when carbon in the soil and oxygen in the atmosphere react to produce carbon dioxide
- thus, deforestation increases the rate of carbon dioxide emission from the soil into the atmosphere
What are some examples of deforestation?
- South America experiences the greatest overall loss
- followed by Southeast Asia
- Australia and Africa also suffer losses in forests
- deforestation in these places in carried out for agricultural and commercial purposes
- cattle ranching, soybean production, commercial logging, mining
What does changing land use refer to?
- the demand for agricultural and industrial land imcreases as population increases
How does changing land use contribute to climate change?
- more fossil fuels are burnt to meet energy demands
What are some examples of changing land use?
- agriculture
- industries
- urbanization
How does agriculture contribute to climate change?
- tractors used run on fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
- use of inorganic fertilizers increases the amount of nitrous oxide
- nitrous oxide is released when soil is ploughed or when water (rain) flows through the soil
- decomposition of organic matter such as dead leaves and manure release methane
-decomposition is rapid due to the presence of moisture in soil - cattle waste gas contains methane
What do industries refer to?
- the production of goods and services within a country
How do industries contribute to climate change?
- economic activities, such as manufacturing involve the burning of fossil fuels
- they release greenhouse gases
- some processes produce more carbon dioxide than others (refer to tb pg 179)
What does urbanization refer to?
- process in which an increasing number of people live in urban areas such as cities and towns
How does urbanization contribute to climate change?
- large amounts of fossil fuels are burnt for household activities
- activities such as heating, cooling, cooking and lighting
- high concentration of cars, buses and other forms of transportation also contribute to the high amount of carbon dioxide produced
What are some impacts of climate change?
- sea level rising
- more frequent extreme weather events
- spread of infectious diseases
- lengthens growing seasons in certain regions
How does climate change lead to sea level rising?
- higher temperatures cause the melting of glaciers in greenland and antarctica
- meltwater causes a rise in sea level
- high temperatures also cause water in seas to expand, increasing sea level
What are the impacts of rising sea levels?
- over 600 million people live in areas less than 10 metres above sea level
- rising sea levels threaten low-lying areas and islands
- coastal cities such as Miami and Venice are in danger of losing land due to rising sea level
What is an example of rising sea level?
- Majuro Atoll in the Pacific Coean is in danger of losing 80% of its land if sea levels rise by half a metre
Why is the increasing incidence of extreme weather events a serious impact of climate change?
- it can result in loss of life
- significant economic losses
Why are heatwaves known as “silent killers”?
- they are neither visibly destructive nor violent
Why do heatwaves result in loss of life?
- when people are subjected to extreme heat
- vital organs are at risk
- death results when the body cant cool itself down sufficiently
- young children and the elderly are especially at risk
Why does climate change cause the spread of infectious insect-borne diseases?
- climate change results in increased temperature and rainfall
- these are favourable conditions for insects to thrive in
What are some examples of insect-borne diseases?
- malaria
- spread by a mosquito parasite
- causes high fever, chills anf flu-like symptoms
- dengue
- transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected mosquito
- causes fever, headaches and sever bleeding
How does climate change lengthen the growing season in certain regions?
- higher temperatures result in longer growing seasons
- growing seasons refer to the period during which crops can be grown
What are the advantages of longer growing seasons?
- an increase in the types of crops that can be grown in the UK
- new crops such as blackberries and maize can be grown
- the production of fruit, soya beans, potatoes are projected to increase in Canada
What are the disadvantages of longer growing seasons?
- In the Yunnan province, China, the production of fruits such as apples and cherries and nuts, such as almonds and walnuts is reduced as they require cool weather conditions
- in Canada, the average wheat grain yield has decreased
What are international agreements?
- they are contracts signed by two or more countries
What are national responses?
- when individual countries implement policies to achieve international goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
What is an example of an international agreement?
- Kyoto Protocol
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
- an agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCC)
- to reduce levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by anthropogenic causes
How did the Kyoto Protocol intend to reduce carbon emissions?
- countries were required to monitor and report their greenhouse gas emissions
What were key dates in the Kyoto Protocol?
- drawn up on 11 dec 1997
- came into action on 16 feb 2005
What were the successes of the Kyoto Protocol?
- many countries met/exceeded the target set
- included countries such as Finland, Greece and Ireland
What were the successes of the Kyoto Protocol?
- many countries met/exceeded the target set
- included countries such as Finland, Greece and Ireland
What were the successes of the Kyoto Protocol?
- many countries met/exceeded the target set
- included countries such as Finland, Greece and Ireland
What were the limitations of the Kyoto Protocol?
- countries such as Denmark, Austria and Spain did not meet their targets
- it was not made compulsory for countries with low greenhouse gas emissions to provide support to countries with high greenhouse gas emissions
- thus, countries with high greenhouse gas emissions may not be able to meet their targets as easily
- it had limited impacts on global greenhouse gas emissions
- countries that did not sign continued to contribute significantly to global emissions
What are some national responses created in Singapore?
- Singapore green plan 2012
- Green mark scheme
- Plant-a-tree programme
How did the Singapore green plan aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
- use natural gas rather than coal
- its a cleaner form of energy as compared to coal as it does not produce as much smoke
What are some key details about the Singapore green plan?
- launched by ministry of environment in 2002
- plan aimed to generate 60% of Singapore’s energy needs using natural gas by 2012
What were some successes of the Singapore green plan?
- as early as 2010, 79% of Singapore’s electricity was generated by natural gas
- exceeded the ministry’s target ahead of time
What were some limitations to the Singapore green plan?
- natural gas requires complex treatment plants to process and pipelines to transport
- high maintenance cost as they need to be laid underground and have to be regularly checked for leakage
How did the green mark scheme aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
- encourages more energy-efficient buildings
- they use less energy to provide the same services, thus promoting energy conservation
(please check tb idk im summarising)
What were some successes of the green mark scheme?
- existing green buildings such as Plaza By The Parl, Standard Chartered @ Changi etc reported energy savings of 15 to 35% compared to convectional buildings
- it cuts down greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity
What were some limitations in the green mark scheme?
- construction companies tend to be conservative about adopting new ideas
- green buildings use green materials that are more expensive
What was the purpose of the Plant-A-Tree programme?
- started in 1971 as tree planting day
- aimed to maintain Singapore’s status as a garden city
How did the Plant-A-Tree programme aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
- residents were encouraged to donate money to buy a tree or take part in tree planting events monthly throughout Singapore
What were some successes of the Plant-A-Tree programme?
- programme has contributed an estimated 60000 trees planted yearly by NParks
- trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (green lungs of the environment)
What were some limitations of the Plant-A-Tree programme?
- trees take many years to mature
- the positive effects of tree planting will take time to materialise
- even fast growing trees, such as angsanas, raintrees and yellow flames that were planted by NParks took 25 years to reach their full height
