6.2 Climate change — causes and impactsIB Environmental Systems and Societies SL: Flashcards
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Define climate.
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- Define climate.
- The typical conditions (temperature, rainfall, wind) resulting from physical processes in the atmosphere, averaged over a long period.
- What does 'anthropogenic' mean?
- Caused by human activity.
- Roughly how much has atmospheric CO2 risen since industrialisation?
- From about 280 ppm to about 420 ppm; the rate of emission has accelerated, particularly since 1950.
- Name three sources of evidence for past climate.
- Ice cores, tree rings and deposited sediments.
- What do ice cores show about CO2 and temperature?
- A positive correlation: higher CO2 concentrations coincide with higher temperatures.
- What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?
- Extra warming caused by additional greenhouse gases from human activities.
- What is a positive feedback loop? Give an example.
- A process that amplifies change, e.g. melting ice lowers albedo, more energy is absorbed, more ice melts.
- What is a negative feedback loop? Give an example.
- A process that counteracts change, e.g. higher CO2 boosts plant growth which removes some CO2 (limited).
- What is a biome shift?
- A movement of a biome's climate zone and vegetation, e.g. boreal forest spreading into Arctic tundra.
- Why can tundra specialists not simply move north?
- The tundra is already at the northern edge of the land, so habitat shrinks with nowhere to go.
- What is resilience?
- The ability of an ecosystem or society to withstand or recover from a disturbance.
- Why is Tuvalu less resilient than the Netherlands?
- It is very low-lying, relies on freshwater lenses and has a small economy, so it has less money to adapt.
- What is the planetary boundary for atmospheric CO2?
- 350 ppm; evidence suggests the boundary for climate change has already been passed.
- Contrast technocentric and ecocentric views on climate change.
- Technocentric: technology can solve it. Ecocentric: nature has intrinsic value and consumption must fall.
Written by the Exaim team, led by Shaun Daswani (Head of Upper Secondary, Improve ME Institute; MSc Financial Mathematics, Imperial College London; BSc, UCL) and Jason Daswani (operational lead, Improve ME Institute; LSE).