- What is the most likely cause of current climate change?
increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases ( or human activity )
- What was the suspected cause of past climate changes like the ice ages that have occurred
variation in the amount of solar radiation received
- Give an example of how changes to photosynthesis may affect living organisms.
it could reduce the productivity
- What is albedo? How does it affect rainfall?
it is the reflexion of light, it affect the amount of solar energy absorbed by the surface. for example, more albedo= cooler surface so less rainfall
- What are the most important greenhouse gases? What do they do with respect to global
temperatures?
carbon dioxide, methane, water vapour and nitrous oxide
- What is meant by “radiative forcing”?
a measure of how the energy balance in the earths atmosphere
- Which is the most important greenhouse gas with respect to human actions? What human action is
the most responsible for its increase in the atmosphere? Where have these emissions come from?
carbon dioxide, the burning of fossil fuel are the cause
- What actions have led to an increase in methane concentrations?
industrialization and increase in food supply
- According to the evidence, how much has the earth’s temperature warmed in the years between
1906 and 2005?
about 0.85c
- Most of the warming over the past 150 years or so has occurred since________.
14-15 years
- Highly___________regions appear to be warming at a slower rate than less_____________
regions. How can this be explained?
Industrialized and industrialized possibly due to the atmospheric and oceanic circulation
- What is the IPCC? How has its position on warming changed since it’s first report in the 1990s?
intergovernmental panel on climate change ( IPCC ) is an international body of scientists set to look at issues of climate change. they said that global warming is normal but now the human impact is too great.
- What are AOGCMs?What factors affect their use as predictive tools?
GCM ( general circulation models ) predict conditions of a warmer planet. it is very costly and the results are approximate
- How might climate change be positive for some human activities?
more rainfall in some places, more fertile days for farmers
- How might the hydrological system be affected?
more water in the atmosphere so dry places will be more dry and wet places more wet, less rainfall and more flood
- What will the effects in northern regions? Explain the positive feed back we can expect in this region
more growing seasons and less ice in water so better transportation
- What are the implications for marine environments?
more iceberg, less hard ice for animals and flood
- What are SIDS? How will they be affected by climate change?
Small island developing states, they will be affected by sea level that rises
- What are the policy responses to climate change?
migration and adaptation
- How could climate change be considered a“global scale environmental justice”issue?
if all countries would actually be a problem
- What undermined the effectiveness of the Kyoto agreement?
the inability to enforce target and timetables
- What is emissions trading?
trading of emissions between countries
- How will our energy future play an important role in future climate change?
every use of energy will be multiple with pop growth
