Climate Change

Question 1

Hot house conditions

Answer 1

150-200 Mya
2000 ppm
3-4 degrees warmer

Question 2

Icehouse conditions

Answer 2

4-5 degrees cooler
1.8mya-12kya
approximately 200ppm

Question 3

Mid cretaceous

Answer 3

100 million years ago. - 6-8 degrees higher

C02 levels 5 times higher

Question 4

Devensian period

Answer 4

20,000 years ago

Ice 1km deep

Question 5

Current interglacial period

Answer 5

Holocene

Question 6

Medieval warm period

Answer 6

900-1300 years ago

1-2 degrees warmer

Question 7

little ice age

Answer 7

Mean annual temps declined by 0.6 degrees
Tambora and Laki
Crop failures

Question 8

Increase in ocean temps

Answer 8

0.57 degrees

Question 9

Shrinking of glaciers

Answer 9

Valley glaciers to shrink 80-96 percent
1961-2005 - thickness of glaciers shrunk by 12 m
Melting of ice sheets adds 1mm to sea level rise per year

Question 10

Sea level rise

Answer 10

3mm per year

Question 11

Snow cover

Answer 11

Decreasing by 2 percent per decade
snow reflects 70-80 percent of radiation, vegetation reflects only 20%
Decline in sea ice by 8%

Question 12

Land use changes

Answer 12

Responsible 1850-1990 for 121 GtC

south east Asia accounts for half of deforestation in tropical forests

Question 13

Industrialisation

Answer 13

Factories Mathew Boulton

21.3% of global energy consumption in power generation

Question 14

Population growth

Answer 14

1800-1bn
2000-6bn
Top of the s curve - 9-12 bn

Question 15

C02 concentrations

Answer 15

280pp pre industrial, now at 400ppm

Question 16

UK emissions

Answer 16

1800 - 7 thousand thousand tonnes
1900 - 115,000 thousand tonnes
19 times increase

Question 17

UK reductions

Answer 17

Fell by 9% in 2014
35% natural gas
Kyoto - knocked of 12.5% of 1990 benchmark by 2012
Now aims for 80%

Question 18

China emissions

Answer 18

1900 - 26 thousand

2010 - 2,500,000 thousand tonnes of co2

Question 19

Why did chinas economy grow

Answer 19

economic liberalisation - command to fee market after Mao in 70’s

Question 20

Proportion of coal in chana energy mix

Answer 20

65% more than rest of the world combined uses

Question 21

Climate Change Deniers

Answer 21

Lord Lawson - BbC aired his sceptic views, absolute uproar
Bjorn Lomborg ‘the sceptical environmentalist’ - denies significance of climate change and finds there are benefits
James Inhofe - “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people - 2 million in payments from big businesses

Question 22

Percentage of scientists that believe in anthropogenic climate change

Answer 22

97% but 1000 don’t….

Question 23

Types of sceptics

Answer 23

trend, attribution and impact sceptics

Question 24

REDD

Answer 24

paying developing countries to look after forests

Question 25

Kivalina

Answer 25

Kivalina 50 feet of beech lost no sea ice to protect from winter storms uninhabitable in 10 years

Question 26

Tuvalu

Answer 26

10,000 environmental refugees | low lying achiapelago

Question 27

Bangladesh vulnerability to sea level rise

Answer 27

20m within 1 m above sea level - storm surges up the bay of bengal

Question 28

How many in poverty

Answer 28

60 million

Question 29

Flooding issues

Answer 29

80% floodplain, 70% floods annually 1/6 of land to be lost to sea

Question 30

Mitigation strats

Answer 30

2bn flood embankment project protection of mangrove swamps, flooding garden beds, houses on stilts, strains of resistant crops, swimming cows

Question 31

Australia GDP

Answer 31

49,000 dollars

Question 32

Percentage of population living near coasts

Answer 32

80%

Question 33

Australia risks

Answer 33

Desertification and flooding

Question 34

Costs for australia

Answer 34

Natural disasters cost 4.5 bn now, likely to be 9bn by 2030

Question 35

Australia weather events

Answer 35

Yasi cyclone, 45 degree heat wave in summer 2009

Question 36

Mitigation

Answer 36

$59bn in wetland and river management 1 billion sustainable cities fund carbon pricing mechanism applied to 60% of emmissions Relocation after Queensland bush fires