24-25 Academic Decathlon Social Science Section One Vocab

Earth System Science

A new approach to studying the natural world as a whole: geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere

Atmosphere

The layers of gases encircling Earth

Pleistocene

A geological epoch that started ~2.58 million years ago, characterized by ice ages and interglacials

Holocene

A geological interglacial period that began ~11.7k years ago, at the end of the last ice age

Anthropocene

The current geological age (debated)

Climate Crisis

A term summarizing the impacts of climate change

Subsystems

Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and Biosphere

Geosphere

The Earth and rock that comprises the Earth

Hydrosphere

All water in, on, and around Earth

Biosphere

All living organisms in and on Earth

Forcings

Factors that are external to a climate system that affect climate: volcanic activity, solar variations, greenhouse gasses

Positive Feedback

The cause is furthered by the effect

Negative Feedback

The cause can be reversed by the effect

Scales

The scope of an investigation

Geological Time Scale

A measure of time based on the record of rocks

Cryosphere

All ice in the Earth system

Greenhouse Gas Effect

A term describing how higher concentration of carbon dioxide and certain other gases in the atmosphere are warming temperatures in the lower levels of the atmosphere by trapping heat

Milankovich Cycles

Patterns of the Earth’s movement in relation to the sun that impacts climate

Tipping Point

A point of no return, where climate change becomes irreversible

Archive

A figurative way of naming something as containing info from the past

Proxy

Something observable in nature that indicates past climate conditions

Precipitation

Water released from clouds

Scholarly Field

A group of scholars who generally share an object of study

Historical Climatology / Paleoclimatology

A field that reconstructs past climates using nature

Climate history

A field that uses past human societies to reconstruct past climates

History of climate and society (HCS)

A field focused on the history of the relationship between climate and human societies

Fossil Fuels

Coal, oil, natural gases left from former organisms that release carbon when burned

Climate determinism

A method of telling historical narratives in which climate drives social and environmental changes over time

Casual Mechanisms

Something that causes something else to occur