Atmosphere and Climate - ENSP 101 - Final Exam

Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere (from innermost to outermost)

Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere (from innermost to outermost)

Layers of the Atmosphere

Troposphere

Layer of the atmosphere closest to Earth’s surface. Air is densest here and it contains 75% of the total atmospheric mass

Microscopic organisms of the Earth produced Oxygen

How did the atmosphere come to exist?

Scale Trees

Trees so efficient at photosynthesis that they actually caused the Earth to cool enough that an Ice Age occurred

Industrialization, cattle farming, trading goods globally, war, movie making, etc.

Human sources of change to the atmosphere of the Earth

Bioaccumulation

Accumulation of Mercury in general

Biomagnification

Accumulation of Mercury as it continues up the food chain

Heavy metals

Pushed to the surface by natural processes such as volcanic eruptions

Acids

Move between the Earth and the atmosphere through wet and dry deposition. Can damage and kill plant life and buildings when deposition occurs through precipitation

Sulfur Scrubbers

Capture sulfur before it leaves a smokestack by mixing it with a limestone slurry to form a solid that can be removed, calcium sulfate

Forever Chemicals

Chemicals that humans have created that are resistant to heat, grease, water, and oil

The Clean Air Act

A comprehensive federal law aimed at regulating air emissions from stationary and mobile sources, establishing air quality standards to protect public health and the environment

1. Reduce outdoor or ambient concentrations of air pollutants that cause smog, haze, acid rain, and other problems

2. Reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or have other serious health effects

3. Phase out the production and use of chemicals that destroy the stratospheric ozone layer

Goals of The Clean Air Act

• Sulfur dioxide

• Nitrogen dioxide

• Carbon monoxide

• Particulate matter 2.5

• Ground Level Ozone

• Lead

Air Pollutants defined by The Clean Air Act

The Montreal Protocol

Limits ozone depleting gases from entering the atmosphere

Has helped to slow or possibly even begin to reverse the area of the ozone layer hole. The ozone layer has the potential to fully recover by 2066. Regardless, global warming is expected to continue

Effects of the Montreal Protocol

Massachusetts v. EPA

Supreme Court case the declared that greenhouse gases fit well within the Clean Air Act's definition of air pollutants, allowing the EPA to regulate them.

Inflation Reduction Act

A significant piece of legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting clean energy, and addressing climate change, including various incentives for renewable energy and electric vehicles, all while lowering costs for American families

Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act

A landmark legislation focused on improving the nation's infrastructure, including investments in public transit, broadband access, and clean water systems, while also addressing climate resilience and creating jobs

Global Warming

Earth’s global temperature has risen 4-7 degrees Celsius over the last 5000 years. The warmest years on record are recent with 2023 as the warmest year and 2024 on track to be warmer

Climate Change

The changing climate in the long run due to human activities and natural processes. Earth’s temperature does not react instantly to each year’s record high new carbon dioxide levels because of the high heat capacity of the water and the volume of global oceans. Earth’s surface temperature resists rapid changes

Albedo Effect

Ice and snow reflect the sun back significantly more than water does

• Melting of glaciers

• Thermal expansion

• Melting of Antarctic Ice Sheet

• Greenland Ice Loss

Causes of sea level rise

• Storm surge

• Breaching infrastructure built in flood zones

• Pollution of freshwater reservoirs

• Flooding of coastal cities

• Loss of top arctic predators

• Wind intensification

• Precipitation

• Waves

• Ocean Warming

• Ice algae and krill populations may lessen

• Acidification of the oceans

• Coral bleaching

Consequences of sea level rise

Isostatic rebound

Land rises after the weight of glaciers from the last ice age is removed

Temperature should increase by no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Carbon should not increase above 350ppm

Goals to limit climate change

• Reduce fossil fuel emissions by transitioning to renewable energy sources and using public transportation

• Large scale reforestation

• Improvement of land management practices

• Emerging technologies

Solutions to mitigate climate change risk

Direct Air Capture with Carbon Storage (DACCS)

Emerging technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Not widely adopted yet due to high cost and energy needs. It only captures about a quarter of emissions in its current form and its high energy needs could lead to a lot of climate pollution, possibly even more than it’s capable of removing

Little Ice Age

Occurred between 1600 and 1814 when the Thames River froze over for up to two months at a time. City residents held 7 major frost fairs in these cold and icy temperatures. Could have been caused by sunspots, volcanic eruptions, and currents

The Great Dying

Quick Indigenous population decrease caused by Smallpox which resulted in a significant CO2 drop

Coalification

When peats are buried, the weight of overlying sediment compacts it and reduces its volume. Continued burial exposes the material to high temperatures. The combination of this pressure and heat changes the peat into coal

• All energy comes from the sun

• Plants give us the chemical energy that photosynthesis has taken from the sun

• Animals give us more of that energy through muscle power

• Wind and water are also the indirect products of solar energy

• Wood has accumulated energy of 100-200 years of sunlight. By burning it, humans could warm themselves and cook food

Biological Old Regime

Initially, industrialization observed the Biological Old Regime, using sources like water power. However, most of he British Isles became deforested for timber and fuel. Coal was an alternative for wood for fuel. The burned coal could create steam power that could run steam engines which could do many things seemingly more efficiently. As a result, CO2 and methane in the atmosphere increased drastically and began to warm Earth’s climate

Brief history of British Industrialization

Kyoto Protocol

Stated that industrialized and transition countries needed to reduce overall emissions by 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. Many countries signed but some did not ratify

Emissions Trading

Countries may buy and sell greenhouse gas emissions units and credits

Clean Development Mechanism

Protocol provides a system for financing emissions-reducing or emissions-avoiding projects in developing countries

Joint Implementation

Industrialized countries are granted emissions-reduction units for financing projects in other developed countries

Copenhagen Accord

Acknowledges the deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that are necessary to hold global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius, set a deadline for countries to submit emissions limitation pledges, and called for developing countries to increase frequency of reporting with provisions for international consultations and analysis

• Not legally binding

• Negotiation process was not democratic

• If countries only put forward emissions targets brought to Copenhagen, global temperature increases will still go above 2 degrees Celsius

Issues with the Copenhagen Accord

Green Climate Fund

Advanced countries formally agree to jointly mobilize 100 billion USD by 2020 for developing countries. Only under 19 billion actually was provided

Paris Agreement

Aimed to achieve a binding and universal agreement on climate from all nations of the world. 184 countries ratified the Paris Agreement

Possible Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

1. Sustainability - Taking the Green Road; Low challenges to mitigation and adaptation

2. Middle of the Road - Medium challenges to mitigation and adaptation

3. Regional Rivalry - High challenges to mitigation and adaptation

4. Inequality - Low challenges to mitigation, high challenges to adaptation

5. Fossil-fueled development - High challenges to mitigation and adaptation

1. 95% certainty that human activities are responsible for global warming

2. CO₂ at unprecedented level not seen for at least 800,000 years

3. Sea level set to continue to rise at a faster rate than over the past 40 years

4. Over the last two decades, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been melting and glaciers have receded in most parts of the world

Key Findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change