APES Unit 9- Ozone & Global Climate Change

Anthropogenic

Human-induced changes on the natural environment.

Atmospheric circulation

The large-scale movement of air by which heat is distributed on the surface of the Earth.

Calcium Carbonate

CaCO3, substance that makes up coral and shells of aquatic organisms.

Cap and Trade

Market-based system of pollution control whereby individual businesses can buy and sell emission credits even while the total level of industry pollution is capped at some level.

Carbon dioxide

A colorless, odorless gas produced by burning organic compounds and by the biological process of respiration. It acts as a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

CFCs

Chlorofluorocarbons. Man made chemicals used as coolants and propellants in aerosols that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, and are also potent greenhouse gases.

Climate change

Change in the overall properties of the climate system when considered over periods of decades.

Color bleaching

A phenomenon in which mutualistic algae inside corals die, causing the corals to turn white.

Currents

Mass movements of water caused by prevailing winds blowing over the ocean surface, and by differences in density, temperature, and salinity for deeper waters.

deforestation

The removal of trees faster than forests can replace themselves.

Feedback loop

A circular process in which a system's output serves as input to that same system.

Fossil Fuels

Coal, oil, natural gas, and other fuels that are formed from the ancient remains of plants and animals.

Geological time scale

A record of the events and life forms in Earth's history.

Glaciers

large areas of slow moving ice over land

Global Warming Potential

The ability of a substance to warm the atmosphere by trapping thermal energy.

Greenhouse effect

The trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to gases that absorb infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface.

Greenhouse gases

Gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and ozone in the atmosphere which trap heat near the surface of the earth.

HFCs

Hydrofluorocarbons, chemicals containing hydrogen, fluorine, and carbons, produced as potentially less damaging substitutes for chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Ice cores

Cylinders of ice drilled from ice caps and glaciers that have build up over thousands of years.

Jet steam

A narrow belt of strong winds that blow in the upper troposphere.

Kyoto Protocol

2005 agreement among 150 nations requiring greenhouse gas emission reduction in order to control global climate change. Signed but not ratified by the United States.

Methane

CH4, the main component of natural gas as well as a powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Mitigate

To make less severe

Montreal Protocol

1987 International agreement to phase-out chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) and other ozone-depleting substances

Nitrous Oxide

N2O, one of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly produced by agriculture and the combustion of fossil fuels.

Ocean acidification

The decreasing pH of ocean waters due to absorption of excess atmospheric CO2.

Ozone depletion

Thinning of Earth's stratospheric ozone layer caused by CFC's reacting chemically with ozone molecules, breaking them apart.

Permafrost

Permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the surface of the ground.

Photic zone

Portion of an ocean or lake that is shallow enough for sunlight to penetrate.

Sea level

The average level of the ocean's surface at any given time.

Stratospheric Ozone

Ozone found in the stratosphere that interacts with UV radiation and prevents 95% of it from reaching the surface.

Sustainable land use

Practices and technologies that aim to use the land's environmental resources to meet human needs while ensuring long-term availability of those resources.

Thermal expansion

An increase in the volume of water in the ocean when the temperature is increased.

UV radiation

Energy given off from the sun

Vectors

An organism that transmits disease by conveying pathogens from one host to another.

Water Vapor

Water in the form of a gas, one of the important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Albedo

Ability of a surface to reflect light

Carbon Tax

a fee that the government charges polluters for each unit of greenhouse gas they emit

Grasshopper effect

pollutants evaporate into warmer climate's air and travel on wind to colder areas

Melanoma

The most serious form of skin cancer

Milankovitch cycles

Changes in the shape earth's orbit and tilt that cause glacial periods and interglacial periods.

tropospheric ozone

Human produced ozone, a result of air pollution, respiratory irritant.