Reference no: EM133650152
1. List the five parts of Earth's climate system.
2. What are the two types of climate feedback loops? Give an example of each type.
3. An example of a feedback loop occurs when melting snow exposes more dark ground, which in turn absorbs additional heat and causes more snow to melt. Is this a positive-feedback look or a negative-feedback loop? Explain reasoning.
4. What are proxy data? List several examples of natural climate change. Do natural climate change mechanisms account for the recent climate changes that Earth is experiencing? Explain
5. Is there scientific consensus about human-caused climate change? Explain.
6. What is the IPCC? What role does it have in documenting human-caused climate change?
7. Describe the fundamental difference between solar radiation absorbed at Earth's surface and the radiation that is primarily responsible for heating Earth's atmosphere.
8. Discuss the greenhouse gases in terms of their relative concentrations in the atmosphere and their relative contributions to global warming.
9.Why has the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere been rising for more than 150 years?
10.Explain what a commitment to warming means. What commitment to warming will Earth Experience in the future?
11.Describe how atmospheric temperatures and other factors are likely to change as carbon dioxide levels continue to increase.
12.Describe several changes that are already occurring in the oceans because of global warming.
13. Why is the Artic one of the locations where the effects of global warming are being most keenly felt? Why are polar bears threatened by global warming?
14.Explain how excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affects the pH of seawater. Why is increasing ocean acidity such a problem in the ocean?
15.What factors contribute to worldwide sea level rise? Based on tide measurements, how much sea level rise has occurred in the past 150 years?
16.Hoe does the ocean's biological pump work to help reduce global warming?
17.How does the ocean act as a thermal sponge, helping minimize the amount of global warming experienced?
18. What strategies exist to reduce future warming?
19. What is the Kyoto Protocol? Why has the United States not agreed to support it?
20.What other international agreement have been established to reduce human emissions since the Kyoto Protocol?