Science

Air Pollution & the Atmosphere

100

This pollutant binds to hemoglobin and reduces oxygen delivery in the body.

What is carbon monoxide?

200

• Fine particulate matter smaller than this many microns can enter deep into the lungs.

• What is 2.5 microns?

300

• This act, passed in 1970, authorized the EPA to set national air quality standards.

• What is the Clean Air Act?

400

• This type of inversion traps pollutants and can lead to dangerous pollution events.

• What is a thermal inversion?

500

• Photochemical smog forms primarily from this human-produced class of compounds.

• What are volatile organic compounds (VOCs)?

Energy & Sustainability

100

• This renewable energy source uses Earth’s heat for electricity and heating.

• What is geothermal energy?

200

• Coal with the highest energy content and lowest abundance.

What is anthracite?

300

• Defined as the ratio of usable work output to total energy input.

What is energy efficiency? 

400

• A hydroelectric system that does not rely on a reservoir or dam.

What is run of the river hydroelectricity?

500

• This form of transportation consumes about 4,550 Btu per passenger mile.

• What is a single-occupancy car?

Climate Systems & Feedbacks

100

• The four Earth subsystems are the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and this one.

What is the biosphere?

200

• Feedback that amplifies climate change in the same direction as the original change.

What is positive feedback?

300

• The melting of Arctic ice accelerates warming by reducing this.

• What is albedo (or reflectivity)?

400

• The greenhouse effect traps this type of radiation in the atmosphere.

What is infrared radiation?

500

• A negative feedback where warmer Great Lakes lead to more snow cover and cooling.

What is lake-effect snow?

Historical Climate Archives

100

• These cylinders drilled from glaciers preserve atmospheric particles.

What are ice cores?

200

• The study of tree rings to determine past climate is called this.

• What is dendrochronology?

300

• Sediment layers at the bottom of lakes and oceans can reveal this.

• What is past water composition or pollen levels?

400

• This kind of record includes temperature logs and barometric pressure.

What are instrumental records.

500

• Human-written records describing past weather are part of this archive.

• What is the archive of society?

The Anthropocene

100

• This revolution marked the beginning of the Anthropocene.

What is the Industrial Revolution?

200

• The massive increase in fossil fuel use since the mid-20th century is called this.

What is the Great Acceleration?

300

• These three gases are the most prominent greenhouse gases.

• What are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane?

400

• The term for a human-driven geological epoch.

• What is the Anthropocene?

500

• This term refers to when climate change passes a point of no return.

• What is a tipping point?