Conceptualizing Climate Change
What are the four basic subsystems of Earth System Science?
geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, biosphere
Name ONE early agrarian society.
Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, the Americas
Who was a famous British writer during the Industrial Revolution?
Charles Dickens
What different subjects does the Earth System Science (ESS) consider on the view of Earth?
geology, biology, and meteorology
What is carbon footprint?
idea of individual people reducing their OWN fossil fuel emissions
What information does an ice core sample reveal?
atmospheric conditions of the past
What year is dubbed the "worst year to be alive"?
536 CE
What was a key factor for the "Great Acceleration"?
rise in human population
Name some new sources of energy
Hydrogen, solar power, wind power, and biofuels
Who led the creation of the field "climate history"?
Christian Pfister
What is climate determinism?
the argument that climate sets the course for human history
Extra: almost all studies reject this idea
How many years ago did the Holocene Epoch begin?
11,700 years
What percent did the burning of fossil fuels contribute to greenhouse gas emissions?
72 percent
What was the Kyoto Protocol?
an international treaty adopted in 1997 in which nations committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Who led the protests from 2016 and 2017 in North Dakota?
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
extra: halted construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline
What is the difference between historical climatology/paleoclimatology and climate history?
Historical climatology/paleoclimatology relies on archives of nature
Climate history relies on archives of society
What are the alternative names of the Early, Middle, and Late Holocene, respectively?
Greenlandian Stage, Northgrippian Stage, Meghalayan Stage
What are the 3 parts of the triple planetary crisis?
1. climate change
2. air pollution
3. biodiversity loss
What is the Justice40 Initiative?
40% of benefits from Federal investment in certain categories flow to underserved communities
What are the TWO reasons the US did not want to be involved in the Kyoto Protocol?
1. belief that countries of less wealth need to commit action before US
2. taking action to slow climate change will destroy US economy
What is the Milankovitch cycle?
intervals of several thousand years during which the Earth completes different-shaped cycles that influence which parts of the Earth receive more or less solar energy
The Little Ice Age can be divided into three periods of solar minima. Name the three solar minima in order.
Wolf minimum, Maunder minimum, Dalton minimum
What is the Anthropocene?
a new era in climate history that recognizes the central role of humankind in geology and ecology today
When did Bert Bolin travel to D.C., and why?
1959; to alert the National Academy of Sciences that increasing CO2 levels could have serious consequences
When was the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law? (must get the EXACT date :D)
August 16, 2022