General
What are some causes of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect?
Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural and industrial practices.
Melting sea ice has the potential to raise sea level by several meters. True or False?
False. Melting sea ice cannot raise global sea level since the ice is already floating (think of an ice cube floating in a glass full of water). Ice from glaciers and ice sheets, which form on land, does add water to Earth’s ocean when it melts and contributes to sea level rise.
Historically, there has been a correlation between carbon dioxide, methane and temperature.
What is albedo?
Albedo is the reflectivity of a surface.
Which is the primary source of energy in Earths climate system?
The sun.
What percentage of atmospheric carbon is absorbed by the ocean?
30-40%
It's released during the drilling of natural gas wells, and through natural processes like in cows and decomposition in flooded rice fields.
Snow/Ice
Where have some of the strongest and earliest impacts of global warming occurred? In the tropics, in the northern latitudes, or impacts are distributed evenly across the globe.
In the northern latitudes.
Other than melting glaciers and ice sheets, what other factor has made the largest contribution to the rise in sea level over the past 100 years.
Thermal expansion of the ocean. As the ocean warms, it expands and sea level rises, accounting for about a third of the approximately 20cm of sea level rise seen in the last century.
This has multiple sources, including the production and application of nitrogen rich fertilizer and car exhaust.
This would cause sea level to rise 60 meters.
Greenhouse gas that humans produce the most of, mostly from burning fossil fuels.
Which of the following gases do not trap heat – carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor, methane?
Stopped production in the 1980s because they were found to be depleting the ozone layer.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
It is an underwater current fueled by the mixing of warm and cold salt water.
Great Ocean Conveyor Belt
Why is carbon dioxide a bigger concern as a greenhouse gas then methane?
Carbon dioxide is released in much greater quantities than methane.
The climate period the Earth is currently in.
An interglacial period within an ice age.