Greenhouse Effect
Definition of Greenhouse Gases
Gases within the atmosphere that absorb the infrared radiation emitted by earth's surface.
What is Carbon Sink
Forests, oceans, or soil that absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases playing a vital role in regulating the climate and mitigating global weather.
the consistency and stability of data or findings obtained from a study
What are the Greenhouse Gases?
carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor.
What is the difference between weather and climate?
Weather is short term atmospheric conditions, climate is the average weather over a long period of time
definition of bias
any systematic, often unintentional, error in the design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation of research that causes results to deviate from the truth
What are some Methane Sources?
Rice Fields, Livestock, Landfill
What causes sea levels to rise?
Melting ice sheets and the thermal expansion of seawater as it warms
examples of misuse of data
ignoring outliers, image manipulation, exploitation of data
Steps of the enhanced greenhouse effect.
Human activities (burning fossil fuels, deforestation) release higher concentration for greenhouse gases. Sunlight primarily in form of shortwave radiation. The earth's surface absorb's this solar radiation and warms up. Warmed surface radiates this energy back towards space as heat in the form of longwave. Higher concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb more of this outgoing heat. The greenhouse gases re-radiates this heat in all directions.
What is the main reason for biodiversity loss?
Habitat destruction which is accelerated by climate change
examples of unreliable data
data entry errors, missing data, outdated information, biased samples
Difficulties in predicting climate change?
Climate models struggle to accurately represent feedback loops.
Global climate models generally operate on coarse scales, often representing earth in roughly 100-square kilometer pixels.
How much has the Earth warmed?
Earth has warmed by roughly 2 degrees farenhite since 1880 due to climate change
development of historical climate data
combining direct instrumental measurements (thermometers, barometers) with natural proxy records (ice cores, tree rings, sediment) to reconstruct past conditions