Climate Change

• Regions with severe climates tend to have fewer people than regions with more moderate climates.
• Climates affect the type of shelter people require.

  • warm heating devices and/or air conditioning depending on their geographic location
  • homes must be able to withstand the amount and type of precipitation of a climate zone.
• Climate can determine the types of foods and their coast available for a particular region.

  • expensive fresh fruits in Alberta due to our extreme winter season
  • cost of transport increases the price
• Economic opportunities of an area can also be affected by climate.

  • regions with colder climates have little to no agricultural components
  • tourism and recreation industry are heavily reliant on climate to attract consumers.
• Climate affects all organisms:

  • they have adaptations that make them more suitable or less suitable to a particular climate
  • plants undergo dormancy during the winter
  • food webs supply food energy to all other organisms therefore support different species of animals
  • Grizzlies --> unable to find food in a desert; their fat layer helps insulate their organs from the cold winter
• Climate Change: change that occurs in the climate of a region over time (minimum of 30 years)
• Global warming refers to the observes increase in Earth's avegrae temperature
• The average surface temperature of Earth is increasing according to two kinds of evidence: anecdotal evidence & scientific evidence
• Anecdotal evidence: relies on reports from people about particular weather events and how they interpret these events over time

  • useful, but somewhat biased
  • e.i. farmers reporting that the growing season began earlier than last year
• Scientific evidence: evidence collected in a manner unbaised and reflects general situations instead of just particular events
• The four main greenhouse gases: water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide
• The enhanced greenhouse effect is the change in Earth's net radiation budget caused by the increase in human-generated greenhouse gases
• The Greenhouse Effect:

  • absorption of the gases increases Earth's surface temperatures
  • carbon dioxide is the most significant greenhouse gas contributing to the enhanced greenhouse effect
• carbon source is any process that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

  • combustion of fossil fuels, cellular respiration
• Carbon sink is any process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

  • photosynthesis, oceans, lakes