Forcings
Any gas that absorbs and re-radiates heat, thereby trapping heat in the atmosphere
What is a greenhouse gas?
Money that the government pays to help private companies; most of it goes to fossil fuel companies
What are subsidies?
When a person considers PRIMARILY whether an environmental decision is good for humans, they have this worldview
What is anthropocentric?
This gas is the main product of burning fossil fuels
What is carbon dioxide?
When the oceans warm, it makes these storms stronger
What are hurricanes?
When the sun's visible energy strikes the earth and is absorbed, it is transformed into this.
What is heat (infrared)?
This is one of most important civic (= citizen) actions that everyday people can take to fight climate change
What is voting?
What is Love Canal?
Approximately 3/4 of the world's greenhouse gas emissions come from this source.
What is fossil fuel burning?
When glaciers and ice sheets melts, it contributes to this problem
What is sea level rise?
A measure of the reflectiveness of the earth
What is albedo?
The international agreement to limit climate changing pollutants
What is the Paris Agreement?
Came between the Russian whaling ships and the whales
What is Greenpeace?
When increasing temperature on earth have an impact that then makes the temperature warm even more, and on and on, we get one of these.
What is an amplifying (positive) feedback loop?
This is a natural forcing that puts particulate matter and aerosols into the air, blocking the sun and cooling the earth.
What are volcanoes?
This bill is widely considered to be the most significant investment in climate ever passed in the United States
What is the Inflation Reduction Act (2022)?
This experiment in the 1980s failed to keep people alive in an artificial habitat.
What is Biosphere 2?
When climate change makes it impossible for people to farm, fish, or find water in the places where they live, they must do this.
What is migration?
These cycles describe the earth's orbit, tilt and wobble
What are the Milankovitch Cycles?
Electric power plants can buy and sell "credits" that allow them to release a given amount of a pollutant
Emissions trading ("Cap-and-trade")
This type of ecosystem service provides primary productivity (photosynthesis), nutrient cycling, soil formation, and many others.
What are supporting ecosystem services?
This man-made chemical is used as a refrigerant and in aerosol spray cans and styrofoam.
What are CFCs (or halogens)?