Meh SS Flashcards
(146 cards)
1
Q
What age did humans spend thousands of years living in
A
Pleistocene Era
2
Q
Did humans migrate in the the Pleistocene era
A
Yes they migrated around the world
3
Q
True or False Humans of the Pleistocene era left many traces of their existence
A
False
4
Q
When did the Pleistocene end
A
11,700 years ago
5
Q
How did the Pleistocene end
A
Through several thousand years of melting
6
Q
True or False After the ice age (pleistocene) ended the weather has stayed pretty much the same
A
True
7
Q
What have humans done in 10,000 years
A
Built great societies, developed new technology, and traveled to the moon
8
Q
Do we know if the changing climate was a factor in this remarkable transformation
A
No we do not know
9
Q
Why can’t we prove that our changing climate caused this remarkable change
A
Because if two events happen one after another we cannot be sure that the first event caused the second one
10
Q
What change has happened to humans societies since the last ice age
A
A growth in number and capability
11
Q
What is happening to our climate today
A
It is changing again
12
Q
How is the changing climate of today different than it is supposed to be
A
We are supposed to be heading back for another ice age but the Earth is getting warmer
13
Q
When did the brief era of human growth start
A
less than 12,000 years ago
14
Q
Do we know what life will be like for our descendants if the Earth gets warmer
A
No we do not know
15
Q
What moment may we be living in
A
the end of the brief era of human growth
16
Q
Did our ancestors have control of their changing climate
A
No they didn’t
17
Q
What is causing our changing climate
A
We, humans
18
Q
How are we changing the climate
A
through the burning of fossil fuels
19
Q
Why do we burn fossil fuels
A
for electricity, heat, and transportation
20
Q
What is the big question about fossil fuels
A
Will we stop burning them
21
Q
Climate change
A
term used to describe a complex process of changes in the natural world
22
Q
What does ESS stand for
A
Earth System Science
23
Q
Earth System Science
A
A new scientific approach that looks at all of the different parts of Earth as one connected system
24
Q
What does ESS do in relation to climate change
A
It will help us understand climate change as a natural part of our world
25
What can we do once a baseline understanding of climate change is established
We can add additional layers that consider the relationships between climate change and human society
26
What specifically does ESS look at
the interactions between air,water,land and living organisms
27
Is ESS new
Yes it is relatively new
28
What does ESS do
it puts the complex factors that shape the climate into a orderly system
29
What can the basics of ESS provide non-specialists
an easy-to-understand way for them to obtain an accurate, but simplified, picture of how climate works
30
How does ESS think of the world
a single system
31
What is the single system of the world broken down into
different parts called subsytems
32
How many subsystems are their
four
33
What are the four subsystems
geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere
34
What is the Geosphere
All of the Earth and rock on the planet
35
What is the hydrosphere
all of the water and ice on the planet
36
What is the atmosphere
all of the air on the planet
37
What is the hydrosphere
all of the water on the planet (including water's various forms)
38
What is the biosphere
it is all of the living organisms on the planet
39
Forcings
external forces that alter the stability of the weather and climate
40
What is created when a forcing impacts the climate
A feedback
41
Are there different scales on which interactions between subsystems can occur
yes there are
42
Large or small scale: an entire ocean warming
Large
43
Large or small scale: a stream drying out
Small
44
Synonym for geosphere
lithosphere
45
Lithosphere
Same meaning as geosphere however it incorporates the Greek work for earth
46
Geological Time Scale
can encompass millions or billions of years
47
Plate tectonics
shifting of the Earth's plate
48
What did plate tectonics create
Mountains, Volcanoes, and oceans
49
Volcanic Eruption
Can created enough gases and particles to create short periods of global cooling
50
Where do most of the reaction betwe3en the geosphere and the earth's other subsystems take place
the crust of the Earth
51
Do living organisms affect the soil composition
yes
52
Mountain ranges cause what to form
clouds to form causing rainfall
53
What are some of the things that the hydrosphere includes
oceans, freshwater rivers, lakes, clouds, water vapor, and ice
54
What do some scholars consider ice as
its own subsystem
55
What is the "subsystem" of ice called
the cryosphere
56
What is the cryosphere part of
the hydrosphere
57
Which subsystem has the most well publicized details of climate change
the hydrosphere
58
In what subsystem does the melting of the ice caps take place
the hydrosphere
59
What does the Atmosphere consist of
various gases
60
Have scholars defined atmospheric countries
No, they have defined atmospheric layers
61
What are the layers of the atmosphere lowest to highest
the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, thermosphere, and the exosphere
62
Troposphere
lowest level of atmospehre
63
Stratosphere
Second lowest level of atmosphere
64
Mesosphere
middle layer of the atmosphere
65
Thermosphere
Second farthest layer of atmosphere
66
Exosphere
Farthest layer of atmosphere
67
Height of the troposphere
0 to 12-18 (km)
68
Height of the stratosphere
11 to 50(km)
69
Height of the mesosphere
40-50 to 80-90(km)
70
Height of the thermosphere
80-90 to 800(km)
71
Height of the exosphere
800-3000(km)
72
Greenhouse gas effect
occurs when gases in the Earth'
s atmosphere trap this heat inside the atmosphere.
73
Light from the Sun is either ___________ or _____________
absorbed by Earth's surface/reflected as heat
74
Is some amount of the greenhouse effect good?
yes, because it keeps our planet warm
75
What happens if there are too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
temperatures on Earth may become too hot
76
What is the influence of life on Earth
It influences the thermal and chemical makeup of the subsystems of Earth
77
What has the use of fossil fuels accelerated
the carbon cycle
78
Solar energy
energy from the sun that heats the Earth up
79
What did cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in the late
1600s and early 1700s correspond with
a period of
fewer sunspots and low solar activity
80
the movement
of the Earth and its relation to the Sun has been a
driver of what
climate change
81
Milankovitch cycles
a cycle in which at different times the Earth receives more or less sunlight
82
Intervals of the Milankovitch cycles
100,000,41,000,26,000
83
How powerful is the Milankovitch cycle
it can pull the Earth in and out of ice ages
84
What happens when large volcanoes erupt
They can cause widespread cooling and if multiple erupt in the same time frame they can cause global cooling
85
How does a volcanic eruption cause cooling
by emitting a layer of dust and particles in the atmosphere that creates a lot shade
86
What does the term greenhouse gases refer to
it reefers to green houses
87
What are greenhouses
buildings that capture the heat of the sun, they are commonly used for agriculture.
88
What is one way that many people have experience the greenhouse effect
when you sit in a car that has been in the sun for a long time and it is really hot
89
What are the some of the gases that produce a greenhouse effect around the surface of the Earth
Water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane
90
DO positive and negative feedbacks have a relation to "good" or "bad" feedbacks
No
91
positive feedbacks
push the climate towards the change
92
negative feedbacks
pushes the climate away form the change
93
tipping point
when the climate reaches a point of no return and cannot be saved
94
Archive
Something that holds information, usually a collection of written documents
95
Human made places that have information about the climate
Archives of Society
96
Places in nature that have information about the climate
Archives of Nature
97
Where can traces of certain climatic conditions be found
In the natural world
98
Proxy
Natural features that show evidence of being impacted by specific climatic conditions
99
What can scientists do if they isolate and date these proxies
they can gain an idea of what the climate was like in the past
100
What are three revealing sources of climate history
ice, trees, and soil
101
Ice core sampling
technique of drilling long cores of ice from glaciers
102
How are ice cores analyzed
In layers
103
How can an Ice core from an old glacier reveal clues about the past climate
Because as the snow fell to make the glacier they trap particles in the atmosphere
104
How far back can ice core samples reveal atmospheric data
as far back as hundreds of thousands of years
105
How can one identify the age of a tree
when you cut the rings of a tree when you cut it open
106
How can scientists analyze tree rings to find about past climatic conditions
Because of the small variations in the rings due to the climate
107
What is the practice of gathering information from trees called
dendrochronology
108
Meaning of the words that make up Dendrochronology
Tree and Time
109
What do the layers of sediment at the bottom of lakes hold
the historical composition and content of past waters
110
Coral Sampling
reveal the historical composition, content, and temperatures of past waters
111
What is a downside to the archives of society
they do not go back very far in the climate history of the earth
112
When do the oldest instrumental records date back to
the 1700s
113
Which is an area that the archives of society are more precise than the archives of nature
precisely dating something
114
What did Phoenix, Arizona gain fame for in 2023
For a record breaking heat index
115
Ship logbooks and weather diaries are examples of
narrative records
116
How do scholars treat the information contained in narrative records
Proxies for estimating the information that modern scientific instruments can record
117
Scholarly field
a group of scholars who share common ways of studying the type of evidence they analyze
118
Historical climatology and paleoclimatology
Are the same field
119
Climatology
the study of the climate that relies primarily on the archives of nature
120
Paleo meaning
ancient or old
121
Free Card
Yay
122
Christian Pfister
influential pioneer in the field of climate history
123
History of Climate and Society
looks at the relationships between climate and society
124
What does HCS scrutinize when put simply
Casual claims
125
What does HCS scrutinize
scholarly claims about climate's past impact on human society
126
What is scale in the context of HCS
the area of ones investigation
127
What does HCS emphasize about scale
that it should be very precise
128
Are there gaps from the climate today and from the past
Yes there is a major gap between the climate of today and the climate of the past
129
What emphasis does the Anthropocene place
the emphasis that humans are the current cause of climate change
130
Anthro meaning
Human
131
Cene
Designates periods of geological time that occur within the Cenozoic era
132
When did the Pleistocene start
| How many years ago - Andrew
2.58 million (This is copy pasted from the study guide)
133
When did the Anthropocene begin
1950
134
What time period are we living in according to the geological community
the Holocene
135
When was climate included in the traditional histories of the world
two and a half decades ago
136
Converged
Crashed together at once
137
What have attempts to combine climate history and human history raised
challenging interpretive issues
138
Why is it hard to prove that an event was the effect of the changing climate
because it is really hard to prove a cause and effect relationship
139
Modern studies have cast doubt that climate and _______ has a strong link
the development of human culture
140
Climate determinism
argument that climate sets the course for humans history
141
How big is the difference between the size of human history and the history of the Earth
the history of Humans is like a blink of an eye for the Earth
142
Which book is credited with helping humans develop an awareness of how much we could alter the environment
Silent Spring
143
When did Carson write Silent Spring
1962
144
When did Humans become the last surviving member of their genus (BONUS What was their genus)
40,000 years ago (Genus: Homo)
145
What was the likely population cap before the Holocene
it was 10 million
146
Where can traces of Human manufacturing be found
nearly every where on earth
