Test #1

Question 1

Earth’s climate includes interactions of these 5 subsystems

Answer 1

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Cryosphere, and Geosphere

Question 2

What is the possibility percentage that recent climate change is due to humans?

Answer 2

97%

Question 3

Are ecosystems able to adjust to this recent climate change?

Answer 3

Changes are happening too fast so no

Question 4

Difference between Weather and Climate?

Answer 4

Weather is something we can see right now and measure.
Climate is trends of weather over a period of time ie. a decade

Question 5

What 3 things do Earth’s temperature depend on?

Answer 5

1. Amount of sunlight received
2. Amount of sunlight reflected
3. Degree to which the atmosphere retains heat

Question 6

What is greenhouse effect?

Answer 6

Atmospheric gases act as the glass in a greenhouse: sunlight comes in through it but traps it inside making the earth warm up.

Question 7

Is the greenhouse effect natural?

Answer 7

Yes, it is a necessary process; without it Earth would be warmer, surface water would be frozen, little life would be able to exist, natural effect is from water vapor

Question 8

Gases involved in the absorption during greenhouse effect?

Answer 8

Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, CFCs, and ozone

Question 9

Difference between permanent gas and variable gas?

Answer 9

Permanent Gas is stable and takes thousands of years before it begins to change
Ex. Nitrogen and oxygen
Variable gas changes daily/yearly and is measurable
Ex. Carbon Dioxide, water vapor, methane.

Question 10

Where does most oxygen come from? Why?

Answer 10

Most oxygen comes from water due to plants, algae, and cyanobacteria in the ocean all create oxygen. They do this through photosynthesis. Using energy from sunlight, they turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen

Question 11

How can Carbon Dioxide be produced/released into the Atmosphere?

Answer 11

Can be naturally produced through volcanic activity, plant and animal respiration, wildfires, and decay of organic material.
The increase of the burning of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution by people

Question 12

What is the primary component of natural gas? How is it produced?

Answer 12

Methane.
Occurs naturally from bacterial decay, intestinal tracks of termites, cows, and sheep
Man-made sources- coal mines, oil wells, leaking natural gas pipelines, rice cultivation, landfills, and livestock

Question 13

Where is Ozone found in the Earth’s sub-systems?

Answer 13

Mostly found in stratosphere (layer in the atmosphere)

Question 14

What acts as a shield for ultraviolet light and is essential to life on Earth?

Answer 14

Ozone layer

Question 15

What did CFCs partially destroy and were some of the effects?

Answer 15

CFCs partially destroyed the ozone shield which caused an increase in skin cancer, cataracts, and caused local crop failures

Question 16

What are aerosols? What are the sources both natural and anthropogenic?

Answer 16

Aerosols are tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in air or as a gas ex. fog, clouds, etc.
Natural Sources- Desert dust, wildfires, sea spray, and volcanoes
Man-Made- Burning of forests and fossil fuels

Question 17

What is paleoclimatology?

Answer 17

The analysis of proxy data in order to reconstruct past climates

Question 18

What is proxy data and give examples?

Answer 18

Indirect evidence using natural recorders of climate variability.
Ex. seafloor sediments, coral deposits, glacial ice rings, tree tings, pollen, and historical documents

Question 19

What do tree rings tell us?

Answer 19

They can tell us what years were good for growing and what years were bad for growing. We can use trees to record data thousands of years back

Question 20

What do sediments tell us?

Answer 20

Tells a lot information due to it being barely touched/tampered with. Compacts together creating limestone and shows the direction of current and fossils.

Question 21

What do Ice Cores tell us?

Answer 21

Obtained by drilling into the ice and any small bubbles contained in the ice show the time of snow. The composition of this air bubble can be studied for past atmospheric gases.

Question 22

What do Coral Deposits tell us?

Answer 22

Similar to tree rings, can be used to determine the age of the coral skeleton. Variations in the chemical composition of the skeleton can show seawater temperature, salinity, and pH as the coral grows. Very sensitive so great way to tell what is happening in the world.

Question 23

What does pollen tell us?

Answer 23

Pollen can be found in many environments and the types of pollen found can reflect that climate. Preserved in sediment layers that can be independently dated and contain past atmospheric gases that can be studied now.

Question 24

What classifies as a historical document and what does it tell us?

Answer 24

Books, newspapers, personal journals, ship logs, crop records.
Shows temperature and precipitation dated to the late17th century.

Question 25

Is there a correlation between solar activity and average Earth temperature?

Answer 25

There is a lack of correlation, though solar energy changes it isn't a big contributor.

Question 26

What are Milankovitch Theories?

Answer 26

1. Eccentricity of Earth's orbit 2. Obliquity angle of Earth's axis 3. Precession wobble of axis

Question 27

What is the eccentricity of the Earth?

Answer 27

Eccentricity measures how much the shape of Earth's orbit departs from a perfect circle.

Question 28

What is the obliquity of the Earth?

Answer 28

Obliquity is the angle of tilt of the Earth's axis of rotation around the sun.

Question 29

What is the precession of the Earth?

Answer 29

The slow, conical motion of the earth's axis of rotation, caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon

Question 30

Which of Milankovitch theories cause the greatest impact on season lengths and instensity?

Answer 30

Obliquity- angle of earth to the sun Precession- wobble of earth to the sun Together they determine the length of seasons and the intensity of the temperature.

Question 31

What effect does volcano eruptions have on the atmosphere?

Answer 31

The ash from the eruptions becomes stuck in the atmosphere and reflects the sunlight creating a cooling effect on Earth

Question 32

What is the ocean conveyor belt?

Answer 32

It is the circulation of ocean water in oceans. Can cause fast changes in climate. Warmer water fuels hurricanes.

Question 33

Have hurricanes increased in numbers or severity?

Answer 33

Severity increased in hurricanes, we are now seeing more category 4 and 5.

Question 34

What are the 3 changes we are seeing in climate patterns?

Answer 34

1. Temperature and precipitation patterns 2. Increase in frequency or intensity of violent storms 3. Change in the frequency and strength of El Nino and La Nina events

Question 35

What is El Nino?

Answer 35

Occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. We know this WARM

Question 36

What is La Nina?

Answer 36

Opposite El Nino. The periodic cooling of ocean surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific. COLD

Question 37

4 main contributors to rising sea levels?

Answer 37

1. Melting of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets 2. Thermal expansion of ocean surface waters 3. Melting of land glaciers and ice caps 4. Thermal expansion of deep ocean waters

Question 38

What is Arctic amplification?

Answer 38

The Arctic is warming twice to three times as fast as the rest of the planet due to sea ice loss Loss of ice = enhanced warming due to lower albedo

Question 39

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was approximately 280 ppm in 1750. What is the ppm today and what is the expected ppm going to be in 2050?

Answer 39

Today the concentration is 413 ppm. By 2050 it's expected to reach 460 ppm.

Question 40

What are the hazards of climate change associated with desertification?

Answer 40

Human-induced degradation of productive land Preceded and accompanied by loss of vegetation and soil erosion Land may lose productiveness and not recover for decades or centuries

Question 41

What are the hazards of climate change associated with drought?

Answer 41

Could increase in length and severity Areas that become drier and warmer will have more droughts Drought in Canada could be exacerbated by a reduction in the amount of snow and glacier ice * Will have an effect on summer streamflow in many areas

Question 42

What is the Montreal Protocol?

Answer 42

1987 agreement to limit the depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs CFCs have declined since the protocol was implemented

Question 43

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

Answer 43

1997 agreement from the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change Establishes targets for nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 Canada was a signatory but recently withdrew after emission targets were not being met Withdrawal of the U.S. has severely reduced its effectiveness

Question 44

What is the Paris Climate Agreement?

Answer 44

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.

Question 45

What is carbon sequestration?

Answer 45

A process that refers to the capture and storing of carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere

Question 46

3 methods of Carbon Sequestration?

Answer 46

Biological- Planting more trees Oceanic- Injecting carbon dioxide into the ocean Geologic- Power plants and industrial facilities designed to capture CO2