climate and change GEOGRAPHY

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  • Created by: Aine
  • Created on: 03-06-13 15:00
what is the difference between weather and climate?
weather is short term- day to day hnages in things like temperature, wind, cloud cover and climate is the average of these weather conditions measured over 30nyears.
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what is some physical evidence that climate was different in the past?
fossilised animals, plants and pollen that no longer live in the Uk. Landforms like u shaped valleys left by retreating glaxciers. samples of ice sheets of greenland.
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what are ice sheets useful for and how?
they are like time capsules. they contain layers of ice, oldest at the bottom. each layer is one year of snowfall. trapped in are air bubbles, these preserve air from the time the snow fell.
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how can climatoligists use ice ice sheets to reconstruct past temperatures?
locked in the air bubbles is carbon dioxide. they drill a core through the ice and measure the amount of trapped carbon dioxide in the layers.
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what are interglacials?
warm periods.
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what are glacials?
cold periods- some became ice ages.
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what is some evidence for climate change in more recent times?
old photos, drawings and paintings of the landscape. written records. recoded dates of regualr events such as harvests.
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why are the recent evidence for climate change not very accurate?
because they were not ever intended to record climate.
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what is the eruption theory?
volcanic eruptions produce ash and sulphur dioxide gas. if they rise high enough they are spread around the earth in the stratosphere by high level winds. the blanket of ash will stop sunlight reaching the earths surface. cools the planet and lowers.
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what happened in 1816 in indonesia?
the biggest eruption in human history in tambora. they called it a year without summer because temperatures around the world were so cold. people died and harvests failed.
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what is the sunspot theory?
black areas on the surface of the sun. sometimes it has lots, they tell us how active the sun is. lots means more energy is being fired out from the sun towards earth.
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what is the orbital theory?
scientists thought that big changes in temperature chnaged the way the earth orbits the sun.
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what do the 3 changes in the way the earth orbits the sun do?
they alter the amount of sunlight the earth receives. they effect where sunlight falls on the surface f the earth.
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what are MILANKOVITCH CYCLES?
changes that are enough to start and ice age or end one.
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how are ecosystems vunerable to climate change?
plants and animals all live together there and depend on eachother and the physical environment around them.
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what are two possible causes for dinosaurs becoming extinct?
a strike by a massive asteroid in mexico, a huge volcanic eruption in india lasting up to 1 million years.
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what is a megafauna?
big animals that weigh over 40kg.
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what happened to the megafauna?
victims of two stresses at once. humans and climate change. when the climate warmed up many had to move to new areas where the climate suited them. it was hard and they were left short of food.
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how did humans effect megafauna?
they migrated to new areas amd hunted some of th megafauna meaning less prey for carnivores.
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what is the atmosphere?
the layer of gases above the earths surface.
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what is the greenhouse effect?
the way that the gases in the atmosphere trap heat from the sun.
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what 4 gases make up the atmosphere, what is the most?
nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water vapour.
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what is nitrogen important for?
plant growth.
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why is carbon dioxide a very important gas?
it helps regulate the temperature of the earth because it is a greenhouse gas.
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what would happen without greenhouse gases?
most of the planet would be a frozen wasteland.
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what is global warming and how is it caused?
the waming of the earths temperatures. cause by the enhanced greenhouse effect. by the humans polluting.
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what is thermal expansion and what does it result in?
the sea expanding as it warms up, uit causes sea levels to rise.
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why is pedicting future global warming difficult?
because we dont know the future population, if we wil coninue to use fossil feuls or change to something more clean like wind or solar. people may change their lifestyles.
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what are 3 costs of a warmer UK?
in summer drought and water shotages could become common, more illnesses such as skin cancer,farmers will need to change crops to those that need less water and more sunshine.
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3 benifits of a warmer UK?
heating costs will go down, more people having holidays in the uk so more tourism which is good for the economy. more crop sales.
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extreme weather could become more common, meaning there would be...?
heatwaves like summer 3003 when temperatures reached 38 degrees.flooding, like summer 2007. storms.
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what is bad about extreme weather?
its hard to predict and can be costly.
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what did Sir Nichlos stern say in 2005?
the stern review- warned us that we should act now to reduce global warming. by spending 2% of our GDP reducing greenhouse gas pollution. SPEND NOW OR PAY LATER.
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how can we reduce greenhouse pollution?
reduce our fossil feuls and switch to green energy. recycle more. use public transport.
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what is desertification?
the gradual change of land to desert.
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what are the benifits and negatives of countires like uganda and sudan building dams and resovoirs?
will supply hydro-electric power (HEP) and ater for irrigation and drinking. however they could also have a serious impact on the amount of water reaching Egypt- leading to conflict.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

what is some physical evidence that climate was different in the past?

Back

fossilised animals, plants and pollen that no longer live in the Uk. Landforms like u shaped valleys left by retreating glaxciers. samples of ice sheets of greenland.

Card 3

Front

what are ice sheets useful for and how?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

how can climatoligists use ice ice sheets to reconstruct past temperatures?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

what are interglacials?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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