ES MODULE 2 chapter 16 CLIMATE CHANGE

Describe how solar insolation, temperature and ice volume are correlated with the concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide?

As solar insolation warms the planet and melts ice, this melting increases the flow of carbon dioxide from the ocean to the atmosphere and the flow of methane from the soil to the atmosphere. Because these gases trap outgoing long wave radiation, they amplify the effect of solar insolation on temperature

Three aspects of the Earth's orbit determine the amount of solar insolation received by any given location at any point in the year. What are they? Describe them.

Eccentricity: a measure of how an orbit deviates from circular Obliquity: The angle between the planes of the earth's equator and orbit Precession: The orientation of earth's rotational axis

What is the main source of energy to Earth's surface?

Electromagnetic radiation from the sun

Attribution

Establishing a cause-and-effect relationship between human activity and the observed change in climate

How do trees 'move' as a result of climate change

Seedlings that are scattered in a northerly direction must succeed in areas where they previously unsuccessful. tree movements take a long time cause trees take a long time to grow.

Our climate is relatively new? explain what that means and why?

The earth used to be sooo much colder! Chicago was covered by ice! -The amount of energy coming into the atmosphere has been more than the amount leaving. -Changed in solar insolation are responsible for much of this change in climate!

Isostatic adjustment

The rise of land masses that were depressed by the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period.

We create three computer models which simulate climate in three different scenarios. On e where human intervention has no effect on climate. One where human intervention is the only thing that effects climate. One where both human intervention and natural factors effect climate. Which model showed data that is most consistent with our actual observed data?

The third model

Kyoto Protocol and Beyond

Under this treaty, industrialized nations are obligated to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions below 1990 levels by between 2008 and 2012 -Bush took the US out cause he was mad about China and India not having to participate

Why is it vital that the radiation leaving the sun contains a lot of energy and has a short wavelength?

because gases in Earth's atmosphere can not absorb significants amount of radiation with short wavelengths which will allows the sun's radiation to reach the ground if it is not scattered or reflected.

Why is sea level is rising most rapidly in the United States Gulf coast?

because that is where the nation gets much of its oil so land is subsiding as humans extract underground supplies of oil and gas

Proxy data

data that paleoclimatologists gather from natural recorders of climate variability, e.g., tree rings, ice cores, fossil pollen, ocean sediments, coral and historical data.

Policies to address climate change vary between two extremes; doing nothing and stopping all emissions immediately: Explain why neither option is viable

doing nothing: Does not make economic sense. damage functions, which show the percentage reduction in GDP that is associated with a given temperature change show us that the damage from rising temperatures lowers economic output Eliminating emissions immediately: society would have to eliminate the use of coal, oil, and natural gas and stop converting forests to agriculture, residential, and commercial uses. But such measures would impose huge costs on society

Climate change mitigation

includes actions that limit the magnitude and/or rate of anthropogenic climate change. Most often, mitigation focuses on actions that reduce or slow the emissions of gases that cause anthropogenic climate change

Activites that increase the amount of greenhouse gases and sulfate aerials emitted as a result of a growing population and rising incomes

increasing rates of energy uses, burning of fossil fuels, land use change, agriculture.

Policy that focuses on adaption

seeks to reduce the vulnerability of human and biological systems to the negative effects of anthropogenic climate change.

Carbon capture and storage describe it and the issues with it.

separating pure carbon dioxide from the waste stream of facilities such as natural gas and oil processing plants, transporting the CO2 to a disposal site, and then injecting it deep underground into stable geological formation such as depleted oil and gas wells or deep saline aquifers. -political talk about CCS has advanced faster than the technology it self. -Also, will the carbon really remain deep underground to could it 'leak'

Efforts to attribute climate change to human activities use two methodologies. what are they

statistical analyses of historical data and computer models of the climate system

What human behavior will have the greatest effect on the atmospheric concentration of CO2

the rate at which society uses fossil fuels

As the climate warms, do biomes move towards the poles or towards the equator?

towards the poles. Ex: Boreal forests shifted north out of the US into canned when the climate warmed.

Characteristics of warm periods versus ice ages

warm: high temperatures, high concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, and low volumes of ice ice: low temperatures, low concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane, and large volumes of ice

Sensible climate policy

would have consumers stop activities that generate economic benefits that are smaller than the economic damages they cause by changing the climate

Ice cores what are there how do scientists use them

-A core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet, most commonly from the polar ice caps of Antarctica, Greenland or high mountain glaciers. -The ice holds several pieces of climatic information -Tiny bubbles trap carbon dioxide and methane that allow scientists to reconstruct their historic atmospheric concentration -The ratio of oxygen isotopes is used to estimate temperature

How does a nations contribution to climate change differ form a nations responsibility?

-A nation's contribution measures how it's emissions have increased radiative forcing -A nation's responsibility differs from its contribution in two important ways. -First, responsibility implies a certain level of control over actions that emit carbon dioxide (sometimes greenhouse gases are emitted to provide basic needs like food, housing, and clothing). -Secondly, a person is responsible for enhanced forcing only if he/she is aware that emitting carbon dioxide causes climate to change.

2 Positive feedback loops that make climate change worse

-As heat accumulates in the atmosphere, it triggers a variety of positive feedback effects that amplify the effects of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases -One of these positive feedback loops is water vapor: Higher temperatures increase the atmosphere's ability to hold water vapor. Water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas so it raises temperature. -Another one if the positive feedback loop of melting snow and ice: as temp rises, ice and snow melt, which reduces Earth's albedo. Lower albedo increases the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's surface which increases the amount of outgoing long-wave radiation that can be captures by greenhouse gases.

Even if we can't say for sure that climate change is responsible for certain natural disasters, in what ways are we certain that climate change exacerbates the effects of these storms

-By raising sea levels, climate change increases the inland reach of the most powerful storm. -This increases the area that is vulnerable to storms. -Higher sea levels also increase the reach of any particular storm. -This increases the frequency of severe storm damages

Why did the Norse inhabitants of what is now Greenland disappear?

-Changes in climate are partially responsible for the early success and ultimate failure of the settlements. -Climate started to cool and shorter growing seasons forced Norse farmers to change their techniques and farming became more difficult. -They started to hunt more -Climate continued to cool and storms in the ocean made it difficult to hunt seals and walrus.

How will climate change impact human health?

-In general, mortality rates increase at very cold and hot temperatures, with higher temperatures having a much greater effect than lower temperatures (heart attacks, strokes, respiratory failure, and heat stroke) -A combination of higher temperatures and humidity will likely reduce labor productivity -Animals moving north will bring diseases to new areas. -Reduced food supplies potentially

In what situations will food production decrease as a result of climate change?

-Many of the world's best agricultural areas are located in the middle of continents, which are forecast to warm and receive less rain. Drying includes less precipitation and more evaporation, both of which will reduce water supplies to plants -Climate change could also reduce food supplies by providing more suitable habitats for pests and diseases that attack crops -Extreme events, especially floods and droughts, can harm crops and reduce yields

What is the difference between market-cases and command and control strategies to limit the emissions of gases and aerosols.

-Market based strategies include carbon taxes and cap-and-trade system. A carbon tax is a charge added to the price of coal, oil, and natural gas that is based on the amount of carbon they emit -Command and control strategies: the government specifies the amount of emissions that are allowed by specific activities, such as driving a car. These limits are imposed by efficiency standards, which dictate the maximum amount of energy that a technology can use

What about sulfur? Do we know if sulfur emissions will increase or decrease?

-No, not really. -We have shifted from using coal to using oil and natural gas so sulfur emissions have decreased on that front. -Sulfur emissions would grow if nations increase their use of coal as the world depletes its inexpensive sources of oil and natural gas.

Greenhouse effect

-The atmosphere's ability to absorb energy with longer wavelengths and convert it to heat - Makes the atmosphere warmer than it would be if the outgoing long-wave radiation passed through the atmosphere in the same way as incoming shortwave radiation -Natural greenhouse warming is essential to life, but it can get out of hand

Sea levels are rising. No doubt. How will this affect us?

-The effect of this rise depends on the number of people living along the coast, the slope of land, and amount of infrastructure in place -First, rising sea levels can drown land, which would destroy infrastructure such as homes, factories, bridges, and roads -Rising sea levels also can kill people and destroy infrastructure and by increasing the destructive power of storms, such as hurricanes. Storm surge (how a storm pushes the sea above the current sea level)

Another indication of a warming climate is provided by rising sea levels and shrinking glaciers. What are sea levels and how are they rising?

-The level of the ocean's surface, especially the level halfway between mean high and low tide, used as a standard in reckoning land elevation or sea depths -The two major causes of global sea-level rise are thermal expansion caused by the warming of the oceans (since water expands as it warms) and the loss of land-based ice (such as glaciers and polar ice caps) due to increased melting

Detection? What is it? What are the three steps?

-The process of determining whether climate is changing. 3. choose an indicator that represents some aspect of Earth's climate, such as temp or precipitation 2. measure its mean natural variability 3. determine whether recent changed are greater than expected based on natural variability

Anaerobic decomposition Relation to carbon emmissions

-The process of harnessing energy by oxidizing nutrients using an external electron donor other than oxygen -Methane is produced by this!

Potency represents Radiative forcing per molecule

-The strength of the greenhouse effect -A gas's amount and frequencies it can absorb -the total amount of energy that is absorbed by the gases that lie above a square meter of earth's surface, from ground level to the top of the atmosphere

Residence time relation to greenhouse gases

-The time an atom spends in a storage pool (ex: atmosphere) -Greenhouse gases often have residence times of decades or longer -This means that the concentration of greenhouse gases in a given layer in the atmosphere is relatively equal throughout that layer -On the other hand, short residence times prevent complete mixing in the atmosphere.

What determines radiative forcing?

-The types and quantities of gases and particles in the atmosphere -Key factor is those gases abilities to absorb energy

Humans have also reduced the amount of carbon stored by terrestrial biota. What does that mean?

-This is land use change -When humans replace a natural ecosystem with lets say cropland -Cropland stores less carbon than the natural ecosystem

What are three greenhouse gases and compare them?

-Water vapor is most abundant. -CO2 is the next most abundant -Chloroflurocarbons(CFC) can absorb the most energy, but the concentration of CFC is much lower than H2O or CO2.

Clean Development Mechanism

-allows a nation to earn credit for reducing emissions in another nation. -developed nations can invest in energy-efficient equipment in developing nations and allow the developed nations to count these reductions in emissions toward their emission reduction target

In what situations will food production increase as a result of climate change?

-an increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide may act as a fertilizer and increase the production of wheat, rice, and other crops -Higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide may also allow farmers to increase production in arid areas. Plants lose water through their stomata when they take in carbon dioxide. If plants can take in more carbon dioxide (due to the increased concentration) each time they open their stomata, the stomata will be open for less time. This would reduce water loss and allow plants to produce more biomass per unit of water, which is known as water use efficiency. This would increase yields in areas where water is the limiting factor -General warming increases the length of the growing season (more crops can be grown in more areas).

Weather

-atmospheric conditions at a particular place and point in time and how they change from DAY to DAY. -Measurements such as temperature, precipitation, wind speed, cloud cover, and humidity -Weather can change by the hour even.

Why are the concentration of CO2 and methane so much higher than they used to be?

-burning fossil fuels, clearing land, and agriculture -These activities disrupt the global biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur by accelerating some existing flows and creating entirely new flows

What factors dictate the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth's surface?

-clouds reflect sunlight and therefore increases in cloud cover reduce the amount of solar energy that reached the surface. -Particles and aerosols that are suspended in the atmosphere reflect or scatter light in different directions before it reaches Earth's surface (ex: sulfur emitted by volcanoes which will reflect light and form clouds that will also reflect light)

Use IPAT equation to answer the question: How quickly will carbon emissions grow in the next century?

-emissions (I) will depend on population growth (P), economic development (A), and changes in energy efficiency (T). -Population will increase -incomes (affluence) are rising. as peoples income's rise they use more energy and emit more carbon. -Increases in energy efficiencies (t) may slow emissions if people make them and people produce them. -We don't know the exact values for any of these variables, but we know that carbon emission are going to increase

So, we don't really know the effect of climate change on land-based agriculture. We are pretty certain what will happen to food supplied from marine fisheries. What is that conclusion?

-food production will be reduced. -As the climate warms, ocean waters will warm and hold less oxygen. Because most fish are ectotherms, higher ocean temperatures will increase their metabolic rates. At the same time, lower oxygen contents will slow fish growth -Also fish are moving away from the equator. -smaller body size and changes in the availability of fish will reduce the biomass that can be caught

How does burning fossil fuels cool the environment?

-generating aerosols (sulfur) -By building taller smokestacks the aerosols hare injected higher into the atmosphere so they remain longer which increases their cooling effect

What happens to radiation wavelength as it moves form the sun to the earth's surface? Why is this significant?

-goes from short-wave to long-wave -Greenhouse gases (H2O,CO2,CH4,and more) can absorb much of this long wave radiation. -These gases absorb and reflect radiation and therefore affect the energy balance of the atmosphere

How to species adapt to the warming climate? What do these adaptions represent?

-growing their leaves earlier, changing the time of migration. Birds breed earlier cause they need the cooler air to regulate body temperatures -a change in phenology, which is the relation between climate and a species' periodic biological phenomena.

How have humans (anthropogenic) altered the Earth's heat balance

-human activities increase the concentration of greenhouse gases -This reduces the amount of long-wave radiation that leaves the atmosphere. Trapping more energy in the atmosphere warms the planet. On the other hand, human activities increase the concentration aerosols in the atmosphere. This reduces the amount of short wave radiation that reaches the ground. Less incoming energy cools the planet -In general the warming effect of greenhouse gases is stronger than the cooling effect of aerosols. -So the radioactive force of the atmosphere generally increases

What are negative feedback loops

-increase in water vapor in the atmosphere could increase cloud cover, which would tend to cool the planet. -Warmer temperatures could enhance plant growth, which could cause more carbon to flow from the atmosphere to the biota.

What are the negative sides of these phenological adaptions?

-natural selection has synchronized the life cycles of many plant and animal species -Disrupting this synchronicity will reduce food supplies, which will reduce reproductive success

Geoengineering is one type of adaption. Describe it.

-refers to a broad set of methods and technologies that aim to deliberately alter the climate system in order to alleviate the impacts of climate change -accelerating the rate at which carbon is removed from the atmosphere (replanting forests or adding iron to the ocean to increase net primary production) -reducing the quantity of solar energy that reaches the Earth's surface (adding particles or small mirrors to the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight back to space. painting roofs white reflects sunlight). But this could also affect the amount of light available for photosynthesis and thus net primary production. Could also alter the amount of water that evaporates

climate

-repeating pattern of weather that represents the average weather conditions over a long period. -For example, weather includes the temperature on November 3, 1957 in New York City. Climate describes the average temperature on November 3 between 1850 and 2013 in New York City

Climate envelope -Are they fixed for a given species? Can species change their climate envelope?

-represents the conditions under which populations of a species can persist in the face of competitors and natural enemies. -recent studies speculate that species may be able to change their climate envelope (natural selection tends to increase the abundance of heat resistant algal species following bleaching events) -Scientists suppose that a climate change will alter the composition and location of reefs, rather than causing them to disappear

Climate change (short definition)

-shift in the long-term average weather -changes in the energy balance of Earth -When more energy enters the atmosphere than leaves the atmosphere, the energy SURPLUS warms the climate. Opposite the net loss of energy cools the plant.

What are fossil fuel?

-the carbon remains of plants and microscopic organisms that accumulated in the crust over millions of years. - The accumulation has been partially reversed by the burning of fossil fuels (industrial revolution) -This RETURNS carbon to the atmosphere in the from of CO2, methane and black carbon

How has a change in climate caused species to go extinct?

-the effect of climate change on biological organisms depends on the rate of change -Global and ocean temperature bands are moving towards the poles fast, terrestrial communities can't move that fast. If communities are not able to keep up with the changes in temp, they could become trapped in areas where the climate cannot support them. This could cause exticntions

Phenology how do changes in phenology indicate that the climate is changing

-which is the seasonal relation between climate and biological phenomena such as animal migration or the flowering of plants -The length go the growing season has increased -the times at which animals start or finish their migrations or begin their breeding seasons have been changing as a result of a warming climate

Politicians needs to implement short-term, flexible, cost-effective polices. What are the 4 categories:

1. reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases 2. research and development for new supply and conservation technologies that lower the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 3. research to reduce critical areas of uncertainty 4.investment in actions that help human and natural systems adapt to climate change

Describe the market-based approach tactic called cap and trade

A market-based approach that is used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.