Q: Climate Change

What is climate injustice/justice?

A term used to frame climate change as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature. Historically marginalized communities often face the worst consequences of climate change: in effect the least responsible for climate change suffer its gravest consequences.

About how many people in the US are in danger from the sea level rise?

About 40% of the US population.

The more mitigation you do, the less xxx you have to do.

Adaptaion.

What other factors besides greenhouse gases cause changes in climate?

Aerosols, winds, clouds, ocean chemistry, ocean currents, albedo, The Sun.

Why do the bristlecone trees live so long?

Because the conditions where they are are not good, so they grow slowly.

Besides burning fossil fuels what is another way humans are increasing CO2 levels?

Burning forests, via slash and burn and other techniques. Deforestation, plants use co2 to make sugar during photosynthesis, so fewer trees means that less co2 gets removed from the atmosphere.

What is the reaction that CO2 undergoes in the ocean?

CO2 + H2O - H2 CO3 - HCO3 + (H+) H2 CO3 is carbonic acid.

How are greenhouse gases compared in percentage?

CO2 - 82%, Methane - 10%, Nitrous Oxide - 5%, Fluorinated Gases - 3%.

Why are cumulus clouds starting to become less common?

CO2 levels and the corresponding warmer temperatures will shrink the size of them.

What gas accounts for 60 percent of the incr5eased radiative forcing caused by GGs?

CO2.

How is the ocean intake of CO2 threatened by ocean acidification?

Coccolithophores (single celled phytoplankton), which are important because they from the base of some marine food chains.

How has soot and dust lowered ice's albedo?

Darkening of the ice.

How do we know that the sun is not causing climate change?

Data show that the atmosphere is now heating from the bottom up, indicating inputs at the surface of the Earth are more important.

When does the ocean become enriched in O-16?

During a warm period, because ice melts.

How do we know that increased CO2 is coming from human activities?

Fossil fuels start out as plants, they are enriched in C12 because plants did photosynthesis. if the increased co2 is from humans burning fossil fuels, the ratio of C13 to C12 should be decreasing.

What is one evidence of climate change that has to do with ice?

Glaciers around the world are melting at an unprecedented rate.

How can LDCs bypass older energy-inefficient, polluting technologies?

HDCs can help fund the transfer of the latest green technologies to LDCs.

What is the potential change in location of crops due to climate change?

Higher latitudes will be able to support more crops, whereas lower latitudes will support less (where most poor people live).

How do hurricanes allow the ocean to rise to much higher than normal sea levels? How else are they dangerous?

Hurricanes have extremely low atmospheric pressures, allowing the ocean to rise up. The strong winds and high waves cause the ocean to "surge" onto land.

Explain how the ice is examined for different isotopes oxygen:

Ice formed during cold periods has less O-18 as it is heavier and less likely to evaporate (so less likely to enter the atmosphere and fall as snow later).

What are the most important ways to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases?

Improve energy efficiency to reduce fossil fuel use (especially the use of coal). Shift from carbon based fossil fuels to low carbon renewable energy sources. Shift from coal to natural gas (emits much less carbon when it burns).

Where is sera level rising fastest, and why does pumping of groundwater and oil contribute to this?

In the Gulf of Mexico, due to land subsidence.

What was the cause of drastic increases of CO2 in the past?

Increased volcanic activity, release from deep ocean, increased weathering of rocks.

What is the IPCC and what does it do?

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assesses the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change

What does the gulf stream do?

It moderates the climate of northern Europe, keeping it from getting too cold. As the warm gulf stream water transfers heat to the atmosphere of N. Europe, it cools sinks, then travels southward along the floor of the Atlantic.

What does the Paris Agreement seek?

It seeks to hold temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius rise.

How is the Northwest passage a testimony of climate change?

It was a myth for a long time. a long searched for sea passage that recently opened in 2007 because enough sea ice has been lost recently.

What would a warmer climate change in the circulation pattern, the Oceanic conveyor belt?

It would prevent the sinking of cold water, shutting down the conveyor belt. This would cause Europe to cool, whereas the rest of the planet would warm. A shut down would also prevent the transport of CO2 to the deep ocean by the sinking process, causing a rise in CO2, which would cause more warming and a further shutdown of the conveyor. This is an example of positive feedback.

What are aerosols, how can they affect climate?

Liquid or solid particles that are small enough that they remain suspended in the atmosphere. Aerosols scatter solar radiation, preventing some of the incoming solar radiation from reaching the surface of the Earth.

Why is loss of carbonate ions in the ocean so important?

Many organisms use the carbonate ion to build a shell made of carbonate via: Ca2(+) + CO3(2-) - CaCO3. When the ocean is saturated with carbonate, the reaction goes to the right and calcium carbonate forms. When the ocean is under saturated due to ocean acidification, the reaction goes to the left, and calcium carbonate is dissolved.

What greenhouse gas is produced by landfills?

Methane gas.

What are some health effects on humans that are caused by Global Warming?

More deaths from heat waves expansion of the range of disease causing organisms and carriers to newly warm areas like malaria (mosquitoes like warm, shallow water), dengue fever, schistosomiasis. Tropospheric ozone will increase. Increased pollen allergies.

Explain how water vapor exerts a positive feedback on the climate that amplifies warming

More warming - more evaporation (increased evaporation causes increased vapor in the atmosphere which leads to even more warming because water vapor is a greenhouse gas) - even more warming.

What happened after the porter ranch gas leak?

People got cancer, babies were born with birth defects, showing that there are harmful effects on health by greenhouse gases.

What are some clean up strategies to "solve" climate change?

Plant more trees/plants, restore wetlands/forests.

How are polar bears especially disadvantaged in the world of rising sea levels?

Polar bears hunt seals on sea ice - they will have to travel farther to find food (they wait by breathing holes for ringed seals, but more open water means fewer breathing holes an more energy expended finding these holes.

Which organisms have a calcium carbonate shell?

Pteropods, snails, clams, oysters, and corals, sea urchins, sea stars.

Carbon capture and storage:

Removing CO2 from smokestacks and sequester it somewhere else in the environments.

How can you store or hide away carbon?

Sequester carbon in soil using bio char, which is a fertilizer produced by burning biomass in a low O2 environment. Bio char keeps carbon sequestered away in the soil for up to 1000 years.

How are whales endangered from sea temperature rise?

Shrimp rely on cold waters - so as they disappear, the whale's food supply will.

Examples of aerosols:

Sulfate particles from burning fossil fuels, soot from burning fossil fuels can actually warm the atmosphere, ash and sulfur dioxide particles from organic eruptions.

What program has slowed deforestation in Brazil by 40 percent?

The UN's REDD program, which helps farmers use forests more sustainably.

What is the greenhouse effect?

The electromagnetic radiation emitted from the sun is mostly in the UV, visible, and infrared wavelengths. when UV or visible light strikes the earth, it loses some of its energy and is radiated back towards space in the form of longer wavelength infrared radiation. greenhouse gases absorb these rays, preventing the heat from escaping. much of this absorbed infrared radiation is directed back towards earth, warming the troposphere.

Why does melting of sea ice not directly raise sea level? How does it indirectly?

The ice is already floating in the ocean and displacing its equivalent mass of water. It does lower albedo though, indirectly causing sea level rise by causing more land ice to melt.

Why are sea levels rising up in some places?

The ice that has weighed the mantle of continents/places like Alaska down is melting, causing them to slowly rise up.

How does the ocean water temperature rising contribute to global warming?

The ocean will give off more and more of its dissolved CO2, further increasing atmospheric levels of CO2.

Who are the first climate refugees of Louisiana?

The residents of Isle de Jean Charles, who belong to the Choctaw tribe who were forcibly relocated there. The island shrank in size by 98 percent.

What is the last, minor contributor to sea level rise? Where is it a major contributor?

The shift of liquid water from the land to the ocean, most of it due to pumping groundwater to the ocean. Eventually moves the water and lowering the land (this can also be caused by pumping oil and natural gas). It is a major contributor in Texas.

How did a sudden stratospheric warming event in January 2021 cause snow to fall in Texas?

The stratospheric polar vortex weakened, which disrupted the tropospheric jet stream (this allowed cold air that is normally bottled up near the polar cap to expand into middle latitudes).

How will wetland species and tundra species be lost due to sea level rise?

The tundra and wetlands will disappear as saltwater intrusion occurs.

How are huge water shortages gonna happen in California?

The winter snowpack that feeds the Columbia, sacramento, and colorado rivers is projected to shrink by 70 percent by 2050.

Why are a lot of big cities in danger in relation to sea level rise?

They are often low lying and they are pumping a lot of groundwater, so their land is sinking.

Cumulus clouds do what?

They are thick low altitude clouds, probably cool temperatures by reflecting more sunlight back into space.

Why do cirrus clouds probably warm temperature?

They are thin, wispy, high altitude clouds made of ice crystals, and they prevent some heat from escaping back into space.

Strictly regulating CO2 and methane as pollutants is difficult because...

US fuel and other industries will most likely not let this happen.

How are trees endangered from warm temperatures, apart from droughts?

Warm temperatures are good for bark beetles and many other insect pests like fungi.

Explain how precipitation patterns will change with warmer temperatures.

Warmer temperatures-more evaporation-less available freshwater-drought. Droughts will become more frequent and severe. Some places will receive less rain, others will receive more.

When do trees produce larger cells?

When conditions are better warmer or wetter.

How might permafrost contribute to Global Warming?

When global warming is expected to thaw out 10-20 percent of the Arctic permafrost, CO2 and methane hydrates will be released, triggering a positive feedback loop.

How does melting of land ice cause the sea level to rise?

When the ice melts, the amount of water in the ocean increases, raising sea level.

Most estimates say that by 2100 we are going to go up how many feet in sea level?

about 3 feet.

What is iron fertilization?

fertilizing surface ocean with iron causes blooms of phytoplankton, which take in CO2.

Industrial natural gas and petroleum emissions produce...

methane gas.

The use of synthetic fertilizers on crops produces which greenhouse gas?

nitrous oxide.

is climate change something new?

no, the earth has undergone climate change throughout geologic time

What is a way sediment cores reconstruct past climates?

oxygen isotope ratios of the calcium carbonate and silica shells of phytoplankton (high o-18:0-16 = cold temps).

Why do CO2 levels go up in the winter?

plants conduct more photosynthesis during spring and summer, removing CO2 from the atmosphere.

proxy data

preserved characteristics of the environment that can stand in direct measurements.

How does rice farming contribute to global warming?

rice farming in flooded rice paddies releases methane, and flooding creates anaerobic conditions in soil, after which anaerobic bacteria releases methane.

Permafrost thaw will cause a large amount of stored organic material to...

rot/decompose and release large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide.

the 18 warmest years on record have occurred since...

since 1990

Paleoclimatology

study of past climates

Radiative forcing

the capacity of a gas to affect the balance of energy that enters and leaves the Earth's atmosphere.

What is the albedo effect?

the fraction of incoming solar radiation reflected by a surface. albedo varies between 0 and 1.

how can we reconstruct past climates through ice?

the ice is drilled an a core is studied. bubbles of gases can be measured.

How is ice another positive feedback loop?

the melting of ice causes more warming which causes more ice to melt. less ice means warmer ocean as well, which causes more ice to melt.

Cloud seeding is...

the scattering of chemicals into clouds to bring about rain and reflect light.

how long is climate?

thirty years

Dendroclimatology

use of tree rings to infer past climates.

What are the principal greenhouse gases?

water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs.

what gas is responsible for the majority of earth's natural greenhouse effect?

water vapor, it's the most abundant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and counts for 66 percent of the earth's greenhouse effect, but it does not contribute significantly to global warming.

Ocean albedo...

0.06

Between 1901 and 2020, the sea level rose...

0.22 cm. 8.7 inches.

Bare sea ice...

0.5-0.7

How many degrees drop in celsius and fahrenheit did the eruption of mt. pinatubo cause.

0.6 degrees celsius, 1 degree fahrenheit.

Ice covered with snow albedo...

0.85

How long does an average CO2 molecule stay in the Atmosphere?

100 Years.

How much of GG emissions are due to deforestation?

12-17 percent.

How many gigatons of carbon emissions per year do we have to emit from now on to accomplish the goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5 percent?

15 gigatons, we're at 34 gigatons right now. 565 gigatons by 2050.

how many days has phenological spring advanced per decade in recent decades? how are they triggered?

2.8 days, warmth and light.

The predicted rate of warming today is how many times faster than in past global warming episodes?

20 times faster.

In the last 63 years CO2 has increased by...

32 percent.

Arctic sea ice has been decreasing at a rate of...

4 percent per decade, the volume of Arctic sea ice is 1/4 of what it was in 1979.

What is the present CO2 level

417 ppm.

What is the most probable scenario about how much the temperature increase over 188p values by the year 2100?

550-600ppm CO2 conc. = 2.5 C increase.

Why are the Maldives in extreme danger to sea level rise?

80 percent of their islands are below 1 meter above sea level.

How much of the Amazon may disappear if warming projections hold true?

80%.

Together, the Greenland and antarctic ice sheets contain more than how much of the freshwater ice on earth?

99 percent.

How does the sea level rise affect world rice?

A 1 meter rise by 2100 will cause the degradation or destruction of at least one third of estuaries, wetlands, coral reefs and deltas.

How does thermal expansion of the ocean cause the sea level to rise?

A liquid expands as it warms (molecules move faster and are farther apart) - the principal behind a thermometer. it has been overtaken by the melting of land ice though.