Lecture Notes
Introduction to EAR111
diesel and gas are the roots of our economy
when prices go up for these, prices for everything goes up
3 highest rainfall events in the United States have occurred in the past 6 years
when there are changes in storm speeds, there is more time to dump rain over land
question in immigration is why are people moving in very large groups
people immigrate due to weather
severe drought makes it hard for agricultural workers to work
droughts create food and job shortages which pushes peoples toward starvation
Madagascar drought is the worst in 40 years and is the first famine caused by climate change alone
climate change forces people to immigration in hopes of finding a place with more resources
Lake Mead is at its lowest capacity ever
this lake provides water for over 20 million people in 7 states
due to low capacity the government implemented the first ever water cuts in Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona
excessive heat is causing water shortages
earth’s climate is a system with many interacting components that regulate its state
climate influences us and out behaviors
climate change is all apart of a large system
the climate influences how much water there is, what is being released into the environment, how many animals and plants their are
climate essentially impacts everything on our earth and in the atmosphere
climate change is also affecting humans due to making soil more moist (makes homes and roads collapse), stronger fires which can take down major cities, and strong floods that societies aren’t prepared for
during Hurricane Harvey, the rain was so heavy that the city of Houston sunk a few millimeters due to the rain being so heavy
atmosphere is getting warmer which causes more rain and stronger storms
climate change has a large impact on money
changes way governments and insurance behaves
storms have more water in them (due to atmosphere warming), storms have slowed down (wind has slowed because of differences in pressure and temp - bigger difference means higher wind speed)
means more water being dumped in a single place
when you live on the coast small changes can make a big difference in way of living
the American west and southwest have been in drought for over 20 years
the states have been arguing on who gets more water from lake mead
fires heat things up and burn things down
ruins vegetation and soil becomes dry
climate change is natural, however the speed its occurring at is unnatural
you can use isotopes to determine what foods people ate, where they’ve been, and when they were alive
there are cave paintings of people swimming in bodies of water in places, where in the modern era, there is no water
one way to determine that there was climate change years ago
art is practical because it shows ideas in a way that people can look at them and refer to them at a later time
humans can preserve information for a long period of time, which we do better than any other species on earth
if we don’t know what actions by humans cause climate change, then you cannot enforce law onto people
ex: telling people to stop using heat during winter
sometimes solutions can be worse than the actual problem
if we completely stopped using fossil fuels all together, around 1/3 of the human population would die
measuring with numbers rather than political opinions is a better way to form ideas on climate change and how to create applicable solutions
earth’s climate is a system with many interchanging components that regulate its state
there are physical, chemical, and biological components
systems state that we call climate is not the same as the weather
if it is hot or rainy today, it is not the climate it is the weather
they are related but not the same thing
weather is a local daily function on the overall behavior of the climate system as it fluctuates
the climate is the long term weather of an area over decades
99% of the stuff in our solar system comes from the sun
sun provides energy to other planets
when things heat up they start to move
the sun is one of the primary forces of the climate system
internal heat of the earth is another driving force of the climate
the sun’s behavior is not consistent
this is why some peoiple say sun is the cause of climate change
this is true in the very long run (5 million years) but not in the past 500 years
Daisyworld
albedo is the shiniest or the reflectiveness of a surface
higher albedo the lower the absorption of energy
daisies reflect sunlight and dark soil absorbs sunlight
daisy coverage goes up + surface albedo decreases - surface temperature
tipping point = critical value
positive feedback is an accelerator
toward extinction
daisyworld will be on test
stable equalibrium = if temp increases daisy cover increases
increased daisy cover increases temp
change in one direction causes change in the same direction but faster
planetary systems are not passive
negative feedback loops can counter forcing
positive feedback loops can magnify forcing
self-regulating
equilibrium point has to fall on the line where it intersects the arch
the arch is the optimium temprature
Planetary Energy Balance
our measurements of different surface of planets
the closer a planet is to the sun, the warmer the planet is
except mercury is closest to the sun but is not the hottest
gets very hot and very cold
so close to the sun and so small that it is locked with only one face going towards the sun
planetary energy balance is determined by the amount going in and out
if amount coming in is more than planet heats and vise versa
total radiation absorbed by planet = total radiation emitted by the planet
Atmospheric Circulation
Back to Feedbacks
increasing greenhouse gasses can result in positive feedbacks
radiative forcing is the difference between isolation (sunlight) absorbed by the earth and energy radiated back to space
this is a flux
climate scientists measure this to understand drivers of climate change
Earth’s Atmosphere
pressure is force per unit area of gas or liquid on a surface
pressure decreases with altitutde
temp changes irregularly
almost all life forms are in the troposphere
most of ozone layer is in stratosphere
warm at top and colder at bottom
troposphere is cooling from surface to tropopose
less pressure ensures gases expand so there is lower energy which provides cooling
stratophere gets warming towards the top
ozone absorbs UV radiation