acadec social science

super cool amazing awesome stellar flashcards to study (sections I and II)

earth system science

scientific approach to study the interactions between air, water, land, and living organisms

the four subsystems

geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere

earth system science

scientific approach to study the interactions between air, water, land, and living organisms

the four subsystems

geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere

forcings

forces that alter the stability of the weather and climate

most interactions between the geosphere and the other subsystems occur at…

the earth’s crust

the atmospheric zones/layers (lowest to highest)

troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere (“tim said my teacher exploded”)

why do certain gases in the atmosphere cause the greenhouse has effect?

they absorb the rays the earth radiates back to space, trapping heat

what is earth’s vital source of external energy?

the sun (solar energy)

three influential forcings described in the resource guide

solar energy, volcanoes, and greenhouse gases

cooler temps in the northern hemisphere in the late 1600s and early 1700s corresponded to a period of…

fewer sunspots and low solar activity

intervals of the milankovitch cycles

100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years

how do volcanoes create cooler conditions?

they emit a layer of dust and particles that can offer shade when they erupt

example of humans experiencing the greenhouse warming effect

solar radiation entering through a car’s windows, warming the interior surfaces of the car

positive feedback

pushing climate in the same direction

melting polar sheets is an example of a…

positive feedback

tipping point

when the change reaches a point of no return

negative feedback

pushing climate in the opposite direction

the winter season in the Great Lakes region in North American is an example of a…

negative feedback

the warming of the polar vortex is a negative feedback because

the cold air moves out of its course into areas of the united states

archive

physical repository of documents

archives of society

human-made sources used to study climate

archives of nature

natural sources used to study climate

proxy

a natural feature showing impacts of climate conditions

the three most revealing sources of climate history

ice, trees, and soil

ice cores reveal…

the atmospheric conditions of the past through trapped particles

scientists analyze tree rings to know…

the tree’s age and the weather during that year of the tree’s life

dendrochronology

gathering information from trees (combines the words that refer to trees and time)

coral sampling reveals…

past temps of the ocean in the location of the coral

what are the limitation of the archives of society?

human records can only go back so far and are less precise without instrumental records

when was the thermometer invented?

1700

one area in which the archives of society are more specific than archives of nature

dating

what year did phoenix, arizona reach a record-breaking heat in the summer?

2023

temperature records for the city of phoenix only date back to what year?

1896

what are some examples of human-produced records for clues about past climate conditions?

weather diaries and ship logbooks

other types of human records include…

highwater marker, works of art (may be unrealistic), and grain prices (controversial)

scholarly field

group of scholars who share common practices for studying the type of evidence they analyze

climatology primarily relies on what type of archives?

archives of nature

historical climatology/paleoclimatology

gathering information about climate from the investigations of the natural world

“paleo-”

historical

historical climatology/paleoclimatology investigates climates before the…

1800s (when scholars first utilized scientific instruments to systematically record climatic conditions)

climate history colleges and study sources from the…

archives of society

influential pioneer in the field of climate history

christian pfister

the field of the history of climate and society (HCS) was pushed by…

dagomar degroot

the history of climate and society

study of the relationship between past climate conditions and human societies

HCS scrutinizes…

causal claims

people started extracting and releasing fossil fuels about how many years ago?

two hundred

what term is used to describe climate change today?

anthropocene

the holocene began how many years ago?

11.7 thousand (at the end of the last global ice age)

the pleistocene began how many years ago?

2.58 million

the organization that proposed that the anthropocene should officially be recognized as a new geological time interval

the anthropocene working group (AWG)

what year did the AWG make its proposal for the anthropocene to be recognized as a new geological time interval?

2019

the AWG advocated that the anthropocene began and the holocene ended around…

1950

who rejected the AWG anthropocene proposal?

the international union of geological sciences (IUGS)

when did the IUGS reject the anthropocene proposal?

march of 2024

why do the public use the term anthropocene, even if it is unofficial?

it is a good descriptor for our changing climate today

the modern historical profession became formalized in Europe in the…

1800s

modern historians did not include climate in their narratives of global history until what year?

2000

the two historians who included climate in their narratives of global history before the year 2000

e. le roy ladurie and fernand braudel

successive dynasties of china

xia, shang, zhou, qin, and han

timeline of the mediterranean world

the greek empire, to the roman empire, to the middle ages

what is one weakness that comes from looking for climatic events in between notable junctures of historical narratives?

scholars trying to prove too specific of a thesis

climate determinism

argument that climate sets the course for human history (rejected)

analysis of causal mechanisms

looking for what the climate impacted that then triggered a human response

the chronological scale for human histories date back to…

around five or six thousand years ago, when major human societies emerged

scholars use archeological evidence to create historical accounts of human life as far back as how many years ago?

40,000

what book is often credited with helping humans develop an awareness of how they could potentially alter the earth?

silent spring, by rachel carson

what year was silent spring by rachel carson published?

1962

what did silent spring demonstrate?

how commercial pesticides were destroying living organisms and transforming ecosystems

dipesh chakrabarty’s argument

humans are reshaping the earth’s climate systems in an exponentially shorter timespan than the natural one

the oldest fossil record of homo sapiens date back to around…

300,000 years ago

homo sapiens became the last surviving members of the homo genus around…

40,000 years ago

before the holocene, the global human population may not have surpassed…

ten million

according to the united nations (UN), the current global human population is over…

eight billion

the general marker of the start of the holocene

the end of the last ice age

most of human history took place in the…

pleistocene epoch

the pleistocene is characterized by…

cycles of glaciers growing or receding

the last glacial maximum (LGM) occurred how many years ago?

20,000

continents covered in ice during the LGM

Europe, North American, and Asia (permafrost)

a major glacial meltwater event started around how many years ago?

14,000

the cold millennium caused by a major glacial meltwater event

the younger dryas period

the younger dryas period occurred between…

12,900 to 11,700 years ago

the holocene is an period

interglacial

interglacial period

warm period between ice ages

the quaternary period consists of what two epochs?

the pleistocene and holocene

the quaternergy period began…

2.6 million years ago

how many interglacial periods have there been in the last 800,000 years?

eight

according to the milankovitch cycles, the earth should be cooling right now. instead, it is…

rapidly warming

another name for the early holocene

greenlandian age

the early holocene lasted from around…

11,700 to 8,236 years ago

another term for the middle holocene

northgrippian age

the middle holocene lasted from around…

8,236 to 4,250 years ago

another name for the late holocene

the meghalayan age

the late holocene runs from…

4,250 years ago to the present

the warmest period of the holocene is called…

the holocene thermal maximum

the holocene thermal maximum occured during what age?

the early holocene

the holocene thermal maximum time period

from around 11,000 to 7,000 years ago

the early holocene is named after what ice core in greenland?

NGRIP2

what is the depth of NGRIP2?

1,492.45 meters

in north america, the beginning of the holocene coincided with…

the extinction of dozens of large mammals

the beginning of the middle holocene coincides with what event?

the collapse of the glacial laurentide ice sheet in canada

the mid-holocene transition occured between…

5300 and 3700 bce, or 7,300 years ago