Global Environmental Challenges Lecture Notes

A collection of flashcards summarizing vocabulary and key concepts from the lecture notes on Global Environmental Challenges.

Climate Stripes

A visualization tool that shows the global temperature change over time, where each bar represents the temperature anomaly relative to a reference value.

Habitable Zone

The range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water, given sufficient atmospheric pressure.

Anthropogenic Forcing

Rapid climatic changes due to human activity, as opposed to natural variations that have occurred throughout Earth's history.

Greenhouse Effect

The process by which greenhouse gases absorb and re-emit longwave radiation, contributing to warming of the Earth's atmosphere.

El Niño

A climate pattern characterized by variations in the large scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation, associated with higher global temperatures.

Albedo

The fraction of light reflected by a surface; surfaces with higher albedo reflect more incoming radiation.

Thermohaline Circulation

The global ocean circulation pattern that plays a key role in regulating Earth's climate by moving heat and nutrients through the ocean.

Radiative Forcing

The amount of change in energy balance in the Earth's atmosphere caused by one or more factors, either positive (warming) or negative (cooling).

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body for assessing the science related to climate change.

Feedback Loop

Processes that can amplify (positive feedback) or diminish (negative feedback) the effects of climate change.