Geography - Term 1

What are Earth’s interconnected spheres?

What are Earth’s interconnected spheres?

Atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.

What is the function of the interconnected spheres?

These spheres function as systems that are constantly interacting and adjusting to internal and external factors. Each part of the planet has a role in making Earth home to billions of life forms.

How does climate affect the spheres?

The climate plays a major role in how the spheres interact, and as a result of climate change these spheres and cycles are also changed.

What is the carbon cycle?

Carbon exists in all of Earth’s spheres. This flows between each sphere in an exchange called the carbon cycle. Any change in the cycle that shifts carbon out of one sphere puts more into other spheres, resulting in warmer temps.

What are some examples of carbon producers?

Organisms, volcanic activity, burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, biomass.

What are some examples of carbon stores/sinks?

Fossil fuels, atmosphere, lithosphere, sedimentary rock, oceans, vegetation, marine deposits.

What is the difference between global warming and climate change?

Global warming is Earth’s rising surface temperature, whereas climate change includes warming and the side effects of warming.

What is climate change?

a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth's local, regional and global climates

What is climate justice?

Relates to concerns about the inequitable outcomes for different people and places associated with vulnerability to climate change.

What are some factors that make Bangladesh susceptible to climate change?

Physical geography, human settlement patterns, and poverty.

How does physical geography make Bangladesh more susceptible to climate change?

Low-lying topography, river system (vulnerable to melting glaciers, warming of ocean), and monsoons.

How do human settlement patterns make Bangladesh more susceptible to climate change?

Large population living at risk: massive rural to urban migration.

What are some impacts of climate change on Bangladesh?

Salt water enters the freshwater storage (salination), poverty, river bank erosion, flooding, and rising sea levels.

What is sea level rise?

The average long-term global rise of the ocean surface due to an increase in global temperatures.

What are the 3 main processes which cause sea level rise?

Thermal expansion, land ice melt, and land water storage.

How does thermal expansion affect sea level rise?

More than 90% of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are absorbed by the oceans. As this heat is absorbed, ocean temp rises and water expands, contributing to an increase in sea level.

How does land ice melt affect sea level rise?

When the ice melts in glaciers, the water flows into the oceans causing the sea levels to rise.

How does land water storage affect sea level rise?

The construction of large dams in rivers has led to the impoundment of an amount of water equal to 3cm of sea level. Also, groundwater from non-recharging aquifers is consumed by human civilization, and this water ends up in the oceans.

Where is Bangladesh located?

A south Asian country bordered by India. Has a subtropical monsoon climate.

Where is Tuvalu located?

In the west-central Pacific Ocean, surrounded by coral atolls.

What is Tuvalu?

One of the smallest nations in the world, divided into 7 councils and 1 town council.

What is a coral atoll, and how is it formed?

If a fringing reef forms around a volcanic island that sinks completely below sea level while the coral continues to grow upward, an atoll forms.

What conditions will coral grow in?

Below 40m depth, below 27 degrees water, clear salt water, and on a solid surface.

Why are low-lying islands in the Pacific disappearing?

As a result of climate change, many low-lying islands will be flooded by the sea. Thermal expansion of oceans and melting ice leads to rising sea levels, threatening many coastal communities. Many island groups in the Pacific and Indian Oceans will be almost completely inundated by 2050.

What are greenhouse gases?

Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation.

What is global warming?

the unusually rapid increase in Earth's average temperature primarily due to the greenhouse gases released as people burn fossil fuels

Why does climate change affect less developed countries disproportionately?

Due to their high dependence on natural resources, and their limited capacity to cope with climate variability.

What are the impacts of climate change on rural Bangladesh?

Salt water inundation, poverty, river bank erosion, cyclones.

What are the impacts of climate change on urban Bangladesh?

Poverty, rising sea levels, and flooding.

What are the 3 distinct topography features in Bangladesh?

a broad alluvial plain subject to frequent flooding, a slightly elevated relatively older plain, and a small hill region drained by rivers.