Factors that Affect Climate
This is the word we use to describe the long-term weather conditions in a certain area.
What is climate?
These are gases in the atmosphere that trap and retain thermal energy close to Earth's surface.
What are greenhouse gases?
This is the phrase we use to describe the sudden or gradual increase in global temperatures.
What is global warming?
For coastal communities and ecosystems, this is the biggest threat posed by global warming
What is sea level rise?
This term describes a source of energy that does not rely on the burning of fossil fuels
What is alternative energy?
This word describes how high up in the atmosphere something is.
What is altitude?
This is the word for a period of geologic time when global temperatures are 5 - 15 degrees celsius lower than average.
What is an ice age?
This human activity is responsible for 91% of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans.
What is the burning of fossil fuels?
For the east coast of the US, this effect of climate change has resulted in the loss of both property and human lives.
What are stronger and more frequent hurricanes?
This term describes the obligation of citizens to make choices to reduce their carbon footprint.
What is Individual Responsibility?
This is the word for imaginary horizontal parallel lines that encircle the globe.
What are lines of latitude? (I would also accept latitude).
This is one this scientists can study to find clues about how Earth's climate has changed over time.
This is one activity OTHER THAN burning fossil fuels that contributes to the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
This is an unforeseen chain of events resulting from the disruption of a system
What is cascade effect?
This is the role private businesses have in promoting societal change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
What is Corporate Responsibility?
This climate factor describes an area's location in relation to the hydropshere.
What is proximity to water?
As Earth's climate warms, what must living things do in order to survive?
Adapt to the changing climate
This natural process is one way the Earth's climate could change independently of human activity.
Acceptable answers: an explosive volcanic eruption, an asteroid strike, tectonic plate movement. changes in solar radiation, changes in Earth's orbital path around the Sun
This is the approximate rate at which scientists expect global sea levels to rise (in meters per years)
What is 1m / 100 years?
This is the duty of lawmakers to enact legislation to mandate changes that will result in societal change
What is Government Responsibility?
This climate factor relies on the movement of global winds across bodies of water.
What are ocean currents? (I would also accept surface currents)
Increases in Earth's global temperatures are correlated with an increase in what?
Greenhouse gases/CO2 in the atmosphere
The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere now are about this much more than the highest recorded amount in geologi history.
This word describes a relationship like the one between increasing time and increasing sea levels - when the independent variable and dependent variable both increase together.
What is a proportional relationship?
This is one strategy that could be implemented to remove CO2 from the atmosphere that is already there.
1. Sequestering and storing CO2 in underground containment systems
2. Planting trees that convert CO2 to oxygen