Changing Climates Key Words And Concepts

Question 1

What is climate change ?

Answer 1

Any significant change in the earths climate over a long period of time

Question 2

What is the Quaternary period?

Answer 2

The most recent geological time period

Question 3

How long did it last?

Answer 3

About 2.6 million years until the now

Question 4

What was the climate like before the quaternary ?

Answer 4

Warm and stable

Question 5

What happened to the climate during the quaternary ?

Answer 5

Global temperatures shifted between cold glacial periods and warmer interglacial periods

Question 6

How long do the cold glacial periods last ?

Answer 6

100,000 years

Question 7

How long are the interglacial years ?

Answer 7

10,000

Question 8

When did the last glacial period end ?

Answer 8

15,000 years ago

Question 9

What had happened to the climate since ?

Answer 9

It has been warming up

Question 10

What is Global warming ?

Answer 10

The term used to describe the sharp rise in global temperature over the last century

Question 11

What is an ice core?

Answer 11

A long cylinder drilled out of the ice layers

Question 12

How is it reliable evidence of climate change

Answer 12

By analysing the gases trapped in the layers of ice scientist can tell what temperatures were like

Question 13

What does more co2 in ice cores show ?

Answer 13

A warmer period

Question 14

How does sea ice position around the poles help scientist prove that climate is changing ?

Answer 14

By observing the maximum extent of the sea ice in the winter months which is getting smaller

Question 15

What is the problem with this data ?

Answer 15

It has only been collected since the 195Os

Question 16

Name two other sources of evidence for climate change

Answer 16

Diaries and paintings and temperature data from weather stations

Question 17

What are the Milankovitch cycles ?

Answer 17

Variations in the way the earth moves around the sun

Question 18

Name the three variations

Answer 18

Stretch , wobble and tilt

Question 19

How do these cycles affect climate ?

Answer 19

Because they effect how far the earth is from the sun and the angle the suns rays hit the earth so will affect temperature

Question 20

Stretch also know as orbital changes was probably responsible for what ?

Answer 20

Glacial and interglacial periods

Question 21

What is a sunspot ?

Answer 21

A cooler area of the sun’s surface

Question 22

What do they do and how does this affect climate ?

Answer 22

Increase the suns output/energy the more sunspots the warmer it will be

Question 23

How do volcanoes effect climate ?

Answer 23

The ash and dust they eject into the environment reflect the suns rays and the earth cools

Question 24

What is the greenhouse effect ?

Answer 24

Gases in the atmosphere trap some of the heat escaping from earth helping to keep the temperatures up ( like a greenhouse)

Question 25

What is the enhanced greenhouse effect ?

Answer 25

Humans have put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than occur naturally, this makes the layer of greenhouse gases thicker and means more of the suns energy is trapped increasing the Earth’s temperature and causing climate change

Question 26

Human activities have made the greenhouse effect stronger by creating to many greenhouse gases manly by burning fossil fuels, what is this known as ?

Answer 26

The harness greenhouse effect

Question 27

Name four processes that are contributing to global farming

Answer 27

Farming , cement production, burning fossil fuels and deforestation

Question 28

How does farming contribute to global warming?

Answer 28

Cows produce methane which is a greenhouse gase cows lone to fart !