Chapter 11 Flashcards
What is the real cause of sea-level rise?
Thermal Expansion
What is the most likely cause of current climate change?
Increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases
What is the historical global temperature?
14 C
What are the 5 gases that regulate the greenhouse effect?
Water vapour, CO2, CH4, N2O, CFC’s.
What is albedo?
The reflectivity level of something (light = high, dark = low)
What are some catastrophic environmental changes?
Meteors, volcanoes, earthquakes
What are some human induced changes?
Global warming, acid rain, ozone depletion
How/when did the enhanced greenhouse effect begin?
It was anthropocentric (associated with the anthropocene, rise of human domination). Began with the industrial revolution.
What were the two main (human-caused) actions that caused enhanced greenhouse gases?
Burning fossil fuels for energy, deforestation
What were the secondary human causes of enhanced greenhouse effect?
Agriculture, industry
What is carbon leakage?
Carbon we used to emit here has leaked overseas due to offshoring.
What was the response to the Kyoto Protocol?
US failed to ratify, Canada ratified then reneged
What undermined the Kyoto Protocol’s effectiveness?
Inability to enforce targets and timetables.
What was the response to the Paris Accord?
The US joined, left, rejoined and left again. Canada has always been a part, but not close to meeting their goals.
The initiatives of the Paris Agreement are an example of which principle?
Precautionary Principle
What are the economic/political barriers to solving climate change?
Each stakeholder hopes for a different solution. No clear winner in the game no matter the action.
What are the two broad aims to address climate change?
Mitigation and Adaptation
What is geoengineering?
Absorbing or storing CO2 through sequestration, space mirrors, deposits of sulfate
What can individuals do to lower our ecological footprint?
Make informed choices about what we eat, transportation and who we vote for
What is the suspected cause of past climate changes (like ice age)?
Variations in the amount of solar radiation received by the atmosphere.
How does photosynthesis affect living organisms?
Reduces productivity in aquatic/terrestrial life, direct impact on human health, higher incidence of cancers.
What is the most important greenhouse gas related to human actions? Which human action is responsible for its increase, and where did it come from?
CO2, burning of fossil fuels notably combustion and cement manufacture.
What actions have led to an increase in methane concentrations?
Industrialization and food supply.
How much has the Earth’s temperature warmed 1880-2012?
+ 0.85 C
