Climate Change, Population Growth, and Natural Disasters Vocabulary

Flashcards on Climate Change, Population Growth, and Natural Disasters

Greenhouse Effect

The process by which gases in the atmosphere trap heat, allowing warming sunshine through but preventing heat from escaping, naturally keeping the planet from freezing.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

The most important greenhouse gas, responsible for 60% of the enhanced greenhouse effect due to human activities like industrialization and burning fossil fuels.

Enhanced Greenhouse Effect

The increase in greenhouse gas levels due to human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, leading to global warming and climate change.

Biomimicry

An approach that seeks to use Nature as a blueprint and a recipe that inspires biologists and engineers to consciously develop new innovations.

Population Growth

The increase in the number of individuals in a population, influenced by biotic potential and resource availability.

Zero Population Growth (ZPG)

A state where the number of births plus immigration equals the number of deaths plus emigration, resulting in no net population change.

Exponential Growth

Unrestrained growth or decline in a population, represented graphically with a lag phase and an exponential growth phase.

Carrying Capacity

The number of individuals an environment can maintain over an indefinite period of time.

Natural Disaster

A natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life.

Positive Feedbacks (Climate Change)

Processes that amplify warming, such as snow cover loss/ice melt reducing sunlight reflection, increased water vapor, and methane release from melting permafrost.

Thermoresistant 'super corals'

A coral discovered that can survive extreme heat stress.