IB Geography Unit 2 Global Climate Change

Anthropogenic change

A change in environmental conditions related to or as a direct result of human activities.

Global dimming

A decline in the amount of incoming short wave radiation reaching the earth's surface due to increased cloud cover or aerosols within the atmosphere.

Tropical cyclone

A localized, very intense low-pressure wind system, forming over tropical oceans and with winds of hurricane force (also known as a typhoon).

Risk perception

A phenomenon, and related field of study, describing the tendency of people to evaluate the hazardousness of a situation or decision in not-always-rational terms, depending on individual biases, culture, or human tendencies.

Drought

A prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water.

Lithosphere

A rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust.

Risk

A situation involving exposure to danger. Exposure and vulnerability are two important determinants of this.

Cap and trade

A system for controlling carbon emissions and other forms of atmospheric pollution by which an upper limit is set on the amount a given business or other organization may produce but which allows further capacity to be bought from other organizations that have not used their full allowance.

Atmosphere

A thin layer of gases surrounding Earth.

External forcings

A type of climate forcing agent that impacts the climate system while being outside of the climate system itself.

Northwest passage

A water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific through northern Canada and along the northern coast of Alaska. Sought by navigators since the 16th century, but has been made more passable by climate change and the reduction in sea ice extent.

Kyoto Protocol

An amendment to the international treaty on climate change designed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by specific countries.

Thermal expansion

An increase in the size of a substance when the temperature is increased

Vector-borne disease

An infectious disease acquired from organisms that transmit a pathogen from one host to another.

Climate change

Any long term change in global climate

Milankovitch cycles

Changes in the shape of the earth's orbit and tilt that cause cyclical changes in the earth's temperature.

Carbon offsetting

Compensating for your emissions by doing something that takes carbon emissions out of the atmosphere elsewhere e.g. planting a tree.

Biosphere

Consists of all life on Earth and all parts of the Earth in which life exists, including land, water, and the atmosphere.

Sunspot cycle

Dark areas on the sun where intense magnetic storms are happening, causing an increase in solar output. Usually cycles over 11 years.

Desertification

Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting.

Greenhouse gases

Gases that absorb outgoing longwave infrared radiation and emit it back into the earth's atmosphere (includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapour)

Albedo

How much solar radiation a surface reflects.

IPCC

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, panel of scientists and researchers has been one of the main bodies in environmental control and standards in the international community.

Positive feedback

Knock on effects in natural systems which accelerate changes that have already started to occur (reinforcing).

Biome

Large plant and animal communities covering vast areas, e.g. desert, tropical rainforest, ocean.

Soil erosion

Movement of soil components, especially topsoil, from one place to another, usually by wind, flowing water, or both. This natural process can be greatly accelerated by human activities that remove vegetation from soil.

Permafrost

Permanently frozen layer of soil beneath the surface of the ground. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes (in and around the Arctic and Antarctic regions), but at lower latitudes alpine permafrost occurs at higher elevations.

Enhanced greenhouse effect

Rising global temperatures due to increased levels of greenhouse gases within the atmosphere, mostly caused by human activities.

Per capita carbon footprint

The amount of carbon dioxide emissions an average person in a country is responsible for.

Global energy budget

The annual balance between incoming and outgoing radiation.

Geo-engineering

The deliberate large-scale manipulation of an environmental process that affects the earth's climate, in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming.

Cryosphere

The portions of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form (ice).

Geopolitical

The study of the relationship among politics and geography, demography, and economics, especially with respect to the foreign policy of a nation.

Climate

The weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period

Water-borne disease

These are diseases such as dysentery and cholera, which are caused by drinking dirty water.

Negative feedback

When a system adjusts itself in a way that lessens or cancels out the effects of the original change, restoring equilibrium (balancing).

Eustatic sea level rise

Worldwide rise in sea level caused by melting glaciers and ice sheets and increases in ocean temperatures.