The Atmosphere
This layer of the atmosphere, extending up to 16-17 km, is where most weather occurs and temperature decreases with altitude.
What is the troposphere?
This process describes how rising CO₂ levels increase plant productivity, leading to a 12% productivity increase worldwide between 1982-2020.
What is the carbon fertilization effect?
This 1987 international agreement successfully addressed stratospheric ozone depletion through binding commitments and financial assistance.
What is the Montreal Protocol?
This global environmental movement, abbreviated XR, uses non-violent protests and mass arrests to force government action on climate change.
What is Extinction Rebellion?
Costa Rica achieved 98.2% renewable electricity in 2016, but 64% percentage of total energy still comes from fossil fuels due to this sector.
What is the transport sector?
These two gases make up 99% of Earth's atmosphere but cannot absorb or emit long-wave radiation.
What are nitrogen (N₂) and oxygen (O₂)?
This greenhouse gas is the second largest contributor to global warming, with cattle converting up to 10% of their food into it.
What is methane (CH₄)?
Ozone in this layer of the atmosphere absorbs UV radiation and protects living organisms from harmful effects.
What is the stratosphere?
This author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist" argues that climate solutions are too expensive and supports modest carbon taxes while investing in green technology.
Who is Bjorn Lomborg?
This mitigation technology captures CO₂ from power plant smokestacks and stores it in saline reservoirs or depleted oil fields.
What is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?
This atmospheric circulation model redistributes heat from the equator to the poles through three cells in each hemisphere.
What is the tricellular model?
This process occurs when corals lose their symbiotic algae due to stress from unusually warm water.
What is coral bleaching?
These substances, abbreviated as CFCs, were commonly used in refrigerants and aerosol propellants before being banned.
What are chlorofluorocarbons?
This UN organization was established in 1998 to assess scientific, environmental, and socioeconomic impacts of climate change.
What is the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)?
The ozone hole is located in this region of Earth.
What is over the poles/above the Antarctic/Arctic (or at higher latitudes)?
This atmospheric boundary marks the top of the troposphere where rising air spreads out horizontally.
What is the tropopause?
Without the natural greenhouse effect, Earth's average temperature would be this frigid value instead of 15°C.
What is -18°C?
This amendment to the Montreal Protocol banned the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
What is the Kigali amendment?
This controversial geoengineering approach - abbreviated S R M - involves injecting aerosols into the stratosphere or using space-based reflectors to manage solar radiation.
What is Solar Radiation Management?
This phenomenon occurs when aerosols increase cloud cover and reflect solar radiation, causing industrial areas to warm less than expected.
What is global dimming (or regional dimming)?
On average, temperature falls at this rate per kilometer as you ascend through the troposphere.
What is 6.5°C per km?
Climate change causes this effect in seawater when rising temperatures cause water molecules to take up more space.
What is the steric effect (or thermal expansion)?
This type of chemical reaction allows a single halogen atom to repeatedly destroy ozone molecules after being regenerated.
What is a catalytic cycle?
The United States withdrew from this agreement in 2020, re-entered this agreement in 2021, then withdrew from it again in 2025
The Paris Agreement
Higher CO₂ levels have reduced concentrations of this macronutrient in wheat, rice, barley, and potatoes by 10-15%.
What is protein?