GEOL 100: Climate Change

Earth’s climate system depends on the exchange of what? What is this exchange in between of, and what does it include?

1. Heat and moisture

2. The 5 “spheres” and includes pos+neg feedback loops

According to the EPA, global warming is what?

The average increase in temperatures near the Earth’s surface and in the lowest layer of the atmosphere

Ever since 1865, Earth’s global average surface temperature has risen by how much?

0.8°C (1.4°F)

What is the greenhouse effect?

A natural process that occurs when greenhouse gasses absorb the infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface and then radiate it back to the Earth

What is water vapor? (related to greenhouse gas)

The single most important absorber of heat and contributes more than any other greenhouse gas

Carbon dioxide makes the greatest contribution to what and how?

To the greenhouse effect by burning of fossil fuels 

How big is methane’s contribution to the greenhouse effect? What “greater ability” can it do?

1. Smaller 

   1. Greater ability to produce warming than carbon dioxide 

What are the characteristics of greenhouse gases like N2O, O3, CFC-11, and CFC 12?

• Contributes little to atmospheric heating

• Occur in small concentrations

• Great at absorbing heat

According to NOAA (Nat. Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis.), climate is what? Does it predict the weather?

1. The average of weather over at least a 30-year period

2. No the fuck it doesn’t 

According to NOAA (Nat. Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis.), climate change is what?

A non-random change in climate that is measured over several decades or longer 

What do scientists use to to understand the past, present, and future behavior of Earth’s weather and climate? (3)

Geological evidence, computer models, and weather data

Paleoclimatology is the study and reconstruction of what? 

Past climates based on natural records of climate variability known as Proxy Data

• Sea floor sediments

• Coral deposits

• Glacial ice cores

• Tree rings

• Pollen 

• Historical documents 

What are some of the explanations for natural causes of climate change? (4)

1. Changes in solar energy

2. Variations in Earth’s orbit

3. Volcanic eruptions

4. The movement of Earth’s tectonic plates

What does increased sunspot activity on the surface of the sun suggest?

An increase in atmospheric heating.

• Data collected since 1880 shows no significant correlation

What does the Milankouitch Cycle explain?

The long term changes in the Earth’s eccentricity, obliquity, and precession have resulted in major glaciations on Earth, but it does not explain the recent and dramatic warming trends right now 

What does the Mt. Tambora eruption of 1815 and Mt. Pinatubo eruption of 1991 demonstrate?

That short-term atmospheric cooling can happen as a result of volcanic ash and gas temporarily blocking sunlight

What can the slow movement of tectonic plates potentially explain?

The long-term gradual changes in climate change due to ocean circulation patterns 

What are some other recent examples of natural climate change?

Little ice age and the medieval warm period

Observed and predicted global changes in the oceans and atmosphere include? (9)

1. increasing water temp

2. increasing hurricane intensities

3. increasing water acidity

4. melting of polar ice

5. disruption of thermohaline circulation

6. rising sea levels

7. shorter winters

8. earlier, hotter summers

9. more droughts in some places and flood in others