Global Change - Final Exam Review

How much of the Earth's land mass is covered by urban areas?

2-3%

According to the Scientific American article on climate change solutions, coal supplies approximately ______ of the electricity used in the United States.

50%

How much of the Earth's Fresh water is locked up in the Ice Caps and Glaciers?

69%

A Social Ecological system is:

A complex, evolving system with no equilibrium that has both human and natural components

Decades ago, the Soviet Union sent a series of space probes known as the Venera series to investigate the atmosphere of the planet Venus and discovered a very hot environment with surface temperatures nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit. What mechanism is responsible for keeping the planet this hot?

A dense atmosphere made up of mostly carbon dioxide

The Chesapeake Bay was once a ________ during the last ice age.

A regular river valley.

What caused the Year without a Summer in 1815-1816?

A volcano eruption of Tamobora in 1815 that occured the year before. The ash blocked sunlight.

What is the length of the delay between carbon emissions and their effects on oceans?

About 20 years.

How many types of precipitation are there?

According to the water cycle article, their are 6 types: Drizzle, Rain, Sleet, Snow, Graupel, and Hail.

Managing a system while simultaneously learning more about the system is known as:

Adaptive management

______ makes up 31% of water use in the United States in comparison to about 70% of water use in developing countries.

Agricultural use

Warming between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius could lead to changes in which of the following?

Agriculture, ecosystems, disaster risk, and water availability.

Although other planets likely have ongoing chemical reactions, they are extremely common on Earth because of what aspect of our planet? Select the best answer.

An abundance of liquid water

The geological age that human activity is currently in and a predominant influence on climate and environment is known as...

Anthropocene

Increasing air temperatures in cities have the potential to increase...

Anthropogenic Emissions, energy use for air conditioning, and biogenic emissions.

In the last Ice age, cold areas that were too dry to form glaciers, where covered by what?

Areas were covered by periglacial features, including: solifluction, pingoes, ice wedge polygons, and patterned ground.

When did global stratospheric ozone depleting substances peak?

Around 1997.

Why did sea level go down during glacial periods?

As glaciers stored more water as ice, sea level dropped.

Which option below INCORRECTLY pairs a step in the carbon cycle with the process taking place in that step?

Atmosphere to plants; exhalation. Instead of exhalation, it should be photosynthesis.

Factors that contribute to the generation of ozone in the troposphere include all of the following except...

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Ozone is formed in the troposphere as result of photochemical reaction involving oxygen, NOx, and VOCs. C02 does not get involved in a meaningful way.

Which of the listed examples below best encapsulates Dr. Sailor's thoughts on why effective urban air quality solutions require cooperation across political boundaries?

Because of local, regional, and intercontinental transport

Uses for geoengineering have been suggested for which technique by Faculty at Harvard, most notably David Keith

Blocking sunlight with vapors released by a balloon

What is true about ice sheets from 1992-2011?

Both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass.

according to this weeks lecture videos, a build-up of _________ in the atmosphere acts like a blanket, called the greenhouse effect and leads to ___________ in global temperatures. This causes increasing drought prone regions, shifting of climate zones, eroding of ice sheets and rising sea levels

CO2; an increase

In what way do carbon sinks play a part in the carbon cycle?

Carbon sinks can hold carbon for extended periods of time and are often in the form of underground fossil fuels..

Which of the following are examples of cities that may be at risk of urban flooding?

Coastal cities in Florida, inland cities such as Phoenix AZ, Cities such as New Orleans, LA that are at or below sea level and rely on extensive pumping infrastrucutre.

Which of the following phenomenon/events can result in climate change?

Contrails, Ozone hole, Changes in aerosols, greenhouse gases

Which of the following options provide(s) us with useful information about our climate?

Deep sea sediment analysis, Earth's paleoclimate, Ice core analysis and Satellite observations (i.e all of these provide useful information)

In this week's lecture, Lassiter expounds why different nations make differing energy choices. These choices are in part determined by:

Development of the country itself as a society, local climate, natural resources, and the country's physical location on the planet.

What aspect of a planet's atmosphere helps protect the biosphere by reducing the amount of ultraviolet radiation from reaching the planet's surface? Select the best answer.

Earth has an ozone layer in the stratosphere.

According to the IPCC, while climate change is readily apparent over the past several decades, the impacts on natural and human systems have not yet been felt.

False

It is relatively simple to compare current species loss rates with those of Earth's past before humans.

False

Regardless of regulations and the state of air quality in nearby cities, states, or countries, Local regulatory actions are all that are needed to fix air quality problems.

False

Climate change commonly alleviates inequality in the U.S.

False.

Global anthropogenic CO2 emissions have increased linearly from 1850 to the present.

False. According to the IPCC report for policymakers (Figure SPM.1) the anthropogenic CO2 emissions grew slowly from 1850 through about 1950 and then started to grow rapidly.

There are no direct man-made sources of ozone.

False. Air purifiers, copy machines, and various other equipment can directly produce ozone.

Atmospheric rivers exist high in the atmosphere and require weak winds and high amounts of moisture to transport moisture horizontally.

False. Atmospheric rivers do need lots of moisture, but they exist in the lower atmosphere and need strong winds. Atmospheric rivers are long plumes of moisture that stretch from the tropics to the subtropics.

Global climate change and the recognition of humans impact on the planet has lead to the idea of sustainable development but is insignificant in regards to resiliency.

False. Climate change is important to the concept of resiliency.

David Keith is a major proponent of geoengineering, and he notes no likely negative result of it.

False. David Keith recognizes many potential downsides (damaging the ozone layer and prompting international tensions, for example) to geoengineering, despite being such a large proponent of and having so much involvement in it.

Equilibrium in Ecological Resilience is when a perturbation to a system has a tendency to shift the system to a new state.

False. Equilibrium is the ability of the system to resist changes to remain in its current state.

As stated by Lassiter, the biggest killer in China currently is outdoor air pollution.

False. Indoor pollution because many of the population do not have clean cooking and heating fuels.

An interglacial is a warm period that separates each ice age and lasts approximately 100,000 years. (T/F?)

False. Interglacials last approximately 10,000 years while glacial period last approximately 100,000 years.

The El Nino event of 1982-1983 that killed 95% of the corals near the Galapagos islands was part of a cyclical event that happened periodically in the past.

False. It was a unique event.

The development of placental mammals was facilitated by the increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

False. Rather, they were facilitated by the decrease in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

The amount of the sun's energy that reaches the earth's surface, known as solar irradiance, is the main causation of climate change.

False. Solar irradiance is not directly related to earth warming. Instead, it has to do with earth's energy balance system.

Locations that are further away from an ocean and in a drier area have less variability in air temperatures?

False. They have more variability in their air temperatures.

According to the IPCC, sea level rise is likely to increase to an equilibrium level which will be reached in the next 100-200 years. The IPCC states in the next 100-200 years that sea levels will rise to a point and then balance out.

False. it is virtually certain that global mean sea level rise will continue for many centuries beyond 2100, with the amount of rise dependent on future emissions.

The term "committed warming" refers to which of the following?

Future climate will depend in part on past anthropogenic emissions

Earth's climate history has revealed a strong relationship between sea level, CO2 levels and _____________.

Global temperatures

Which of the following statements is true about clouds?

If present during the day, clouds block incoming sunlight and solar radiation. If present at night, they block outgoing radiation.

Please select the choice that most accurately describes the concept of using scenarios to understand climate.

In climate modeling, the introduction of various realistic events that can cause a change to the climate.

Which of the following options is a source of evaporation on Earth?

Lakes and streams, plants, soils, and the ocean.

What fraction of the world's population lives in cities?

More than 50%

In the context of environmental justice, meaningful involvement in decision-making related to urban environmental planning includes which of the following elements?

People have an opportunity to participate in decisions that affect their environment and/or health

In order to correct the long period of deforestation in the Amazon Basin, Brazil enacted which of the following?

Policy change, valuation of the earth's forests, increase in awareness of deforestation

Which of the following RCP scenarios represent the highest rate of increase in GHG emissions?

RCP 8.5

Why was the Earth's temperature much different in the early Precambrian period (~4.6 to 2.5 billion years ago) than it is today?

Radioactivity and meteorite bombardment.

The 4 components or stages or the Adaptive Cycle are: Growth/Exploitation phase, Conservation phase, Collapse/Release phase and the _______.

Reorganization phase

Which of the choices is not suggested in "Preparing for Resettlement Associated with Climate Change?"

Resettling communities in areas in which marginalized communities reside

The "westerlies" do not flow strictly in a west-east direction largely due to...

Rossby waves

Which of the following types of experts is not needed for effective communication of climate science, according to Pidgeon and Fischhoff?

Someone to organize the system and ensure everyone works well together and communicates properly on all fronts Scientists to determine what the public's beliefs are and how best to communicate with the public Scientists to determine and summarize the most relevant parts of climate science Experts in various fields, including climatologists, engineerings, ecologists, and possibly more.

This week's reading defines stages of ozone recovery. Which of the following options puts those stages in the correct order?

Stratospheric ozone decline starts to slow, stratospheric ozone itself increases, then ozone fully recovers.

Which interglacial period occurred most recently?

The Holocene. The Holocene is the interglacial period of the last 10,000 years, still occurring now. The Eemian occurred about 130,000 years ago. The Holsteinian occurred about 400,000 years ago.

The primary multilateral forum focused on taking on climate change, with nearly global participation is

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

What would be the best description of the global climate over the last 60 million years?

The climate gradually cooled.

Which of these answers is the best example of a positive feed back that then reaches an equilibrium in an Earth system?

The slow buildup and then maintenance of stratospheric ozone (at least until humans got involved).

Which of the following is true about climate and weather?

They use the same variables, they are based on different time scales, and they describe the state of the atmosphere. (I.e all choice at time were correct)

A regime change in Ecological Resilience is when a system loses flexibility in its current state and transforms to a new state.

True

According to the IPCC, the scientific consensus is that Earth's climate is definitely being affected by human activities.

True

According to the Peter Ward group--Kump et al Hypothesis--in the TED talk "Mass Extinction Events" the lowering of Oxygen levels and the increase of Carbon Dioxide has been the cause of most mass extinctions on Earth.

True

Aerosol-cloud interactions have a large influence on meteorological conditions, and meteorological conditions have a large influence on aerosol-cloud interactions.

True

As stated by Muggah, displaced refugees usually flee from poor cities to even poorer cities.

True

Based on Figure 2 in "Estimating economic damage from climate change in the United States," if you were to split the country approximately in half horizontally, the northern part of the country is projected to experience LESS total direct damages across all sectors as a result of global mean surface temperature increases than the southern half is.

True

Geoengineering dates back to around 1908, when there was debate of CO2 as a way to warm the atmosphere.

True

It appears that the ozone layer over the Antarctic is in the early stages of recovering from its depletion.

True

Mountains are a key feature related to topographical climate control, True or False?

True

No coral bleaching occurred during the summer of 2018.

True

One concern about increased use of photovoltaics in cities is that they can actually add heat to the urban environment.

True

The mean rate of sea level rise over the past 150 years or so has been faster than over the past several thousand years.

True

As shown in this week's lecture, a climate model is made up of many lines of code representing small scale properties such as cloud cover, ocean currents, and winds. When running the model, we notice different things happening that were not programmed in, such as cyclones and hurricanes. These are known as emergent properties.

True.

On average, extreme heat causes more deaths each year in the US than tornadoes.

True. According to Dr. Sailor's lecture, heat is the number one weather-related killer in the US.

One argument that having skillful models is important is that the additional information allows us to ask more complex and interesting questions.

True. The more skillful the model, the more information that it gives us that we didn't know before. This can then lead us to ask more complex questions leading to better information.

The tree rings on trees that grow in the tropics are more easily distinguishable than tree rings on trees that grow in the mid- to high-latitudes due to the large amounts of moisture that trees in the tropics receive.

True. Trees in the tropics have nearly-constant year-round growth rates, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the rings of different seasons/years. Trees in the mid- to high-latitudes have one growing season per year, so the rings between seasons/years are much easier to distinguish from each other.

In the past, Calcium Carbonate springs formed in paleolakes, the results evident today are:

Tufa Towers. Tufa is a type of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of water. In a lake this generates deposits under the water that appear as towers after the lake recedes.

These countries were examined and ranked as countries with the lowest risk and a high preparedness for climate change by the ND-GAIN matrix from Notre Dame (choose the best answer):

US and China

When collecting weather data, sometimes what we intend to measure differs from the actual observed measurement. For example, say a group of researchers wants to measure the ambient air temperature of the rural landscape in 4 locations. After reviewing the data, you notice that one of the locations is consistently warmer than the other locations, especially at night. Upon investigating, you discover that this particular weather sensor was placed above a slab of concrete. This is an example of:

Urban bias

The early precambrian period was characterized by which of the following:

Very hot conditions that resulted from a combination of factors including radioactive heat resulting from the Earth's formation

Which of the following are examples of factors that contribute to urban warming?

Waste heat emissions from energy use and lots of concrete and asphalt

This critical substance allows for chemical reactions to take place between the different spheres on Earth. What is this substance and which sphere is primarily made up of it?

Water; hydrosphere

Since the 1970s, approximately what portion of the additional energy stored in the climate system is in the oceans?

about 90%

Which of the following are factors that can affect ozone?

aerosol loading, stratospheric temperature, solar irradiance, stratospheric wind,

The Notre Dame Global adaptation Index list five countries that are most exposed and least prepared for climate change

are all in Africa

According to this week's readings, predictions suggest that global stratospheric ozone will be back at its 1980 amounts by

around 2030.

In his lecture about unintended consequences, Dr. Sailor argues that conversion of powerplants from coal to biofuels can have the following unintended consequence (choose the one best answer):

biogenic emissions from feed stocks can interact with other emissions from cities to adversely affect air quality

The geosphere (sometimes also called the lithosphere), the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the _______ are the four major subsystems of Earth. Select the answer that best fills in the blank.

biosphere

A decrease in ocean pH level leads to an increase in hydrogen ion concentration which...

can dissolve the shells/skeletons of certain marine species. Increases in hydrogen ion concentrations can dissolve calcium carbonate.

Vulnerability has three crucial aspects. They are:

exposure, sensitivity, and lack of adaptive capacity

Two key elements of the EPA definition of environmental justice are:

fair treatment and meaningful involvement

The IPCC Report for Policymakers states that under the worse of the current suite of IPCC RCP scenarios, global average temperatures are projected to

increase by between 2.6 and 4.8 deg. C by 2100 (relative to ~current conditions)

Glaciers leave behind a mass of rocks and sediment that they carry with them and deposit as they melt. These deposits are known as:

moraines - glacially formed accumulations of glacial debris (rock and sediment) that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions on Earth as glaciers melt and recede.

Late monsoons and low amounts of winter rainfall are _________ affecting Bangladesh crops.

negatively. Bangladesh farmers have had problems sowing their crops in winter and have had to resort to only one, instead of their usual two, rice crop during summer.

Resiliency is important because:

systems such as cities are in a state of constant transition., the future is uncertain, so we should maximize adaptive capacity, we need to be proactive and expect that the unexpected will happen.

Oreskes argues that science is the appeal to the authority of

the collective community