Lecture 2 Earth System and Planetary Boundaries Flashcards
(13 cards)
What effect does this average temperature rise have?
drought index value, negative values indicate drought, many clustered together, increasingly low negatives.
What factors cause the forest fires?
Environmental factors
abiotic factors
What are environmental factors that cause the fires?
Environmental conditions of california were already extremely dry and hot.
What abiotic factors contribute to forest fires?
Forest fires are natural, but abiotic factors that try to surpress them increase build up of fuel (wood etc)
What are the 9 planetary boundaries
- Climate change
- novel entities
- ocean acidification
- aerosol loading
- ozone depletion
- biogeochemical flows
- fresh water use
- biosphere integrity
- land system change
Define planetary boundaries
Planetary boundaries are early warning systems
Define resilience
ability of a system to maintain function and processes in the face of pressure and stress
What are tipping points/thresholds
When systems are pushed too far back from their regular state may lose resilience by reaching tipping points/thresholds, which they cannot recover.
comes after planetary boundary
What are the spheres?
- lithosphere
realm of rocks; fossil fuels, etc - hydrosphere
realm of water
cryosphere (realm of frozen water) - atmosphere
realm of air - biosphere
realm of life
Main characteristics of an anthropocene
proposed epoch/era where humans determine and control the environmental fate.
time where human activities have had a significant impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems.
Define pressures on the earth system to make up the “Quadruple squeeze”?
Human growth
Climate change
Ecosystem
Surprise
the degrees of freedom for sustainable human exploitation of planet Earth are severely restrained.
Which planetary boundaries have been crossed?
biogeochemical flows
biosphere integrity
land system change
climate change
What is environmental science?
The study of the natural environment. How humans affect the environment and how it affects us.
