STS FINALS 08

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a United Nations body that evaluates climate change science,
• world's climate has changed significantly over the past century; the significant change has human influence; using climate models and if the trend continues, the global mean surface temperature will increase between 1 °C and 3.5 °C by 2100
• global climate change - According to experts, ___ could have a greater potential to change life in our planet than anything else except a nuclear war.
• Climate change -refers to the statistically significant changes in climate for continuous period of time.
• natural or human activities -The causes of climate change could be _ or _ _. 
• volcanic eruption - Thiscan cause a cooling effect to the lithosphere because its emitted aerosol can block a certain percentage of solar radiation. This cooling effect can last for one to two years.
• equator -Volcanoes located near the _ are more likely to cause global cooling because of the wind pattern.
• north or north poles -Volcanoes located near to _ or _ are less likely to cause cooling because of pole wind pattern, the sulfurous aerosols are confined in pole area
• Mount Tambora of Indonesia erupted in 1816.
• Mount Tambora of Indonesia erupted in 1816.
• Mount Tambora of Indonesia - It was considered as the largest known eruption in human history. The eruption caused snowfall in the northeastern United States and Canada.
• Krakatau Pinatubo -The eruptions of Mount _ of Indonesia in 1883 and Mount _ of the Philippines in 1991 contributed, too, to the cold years of planet Earth. 
• Mount Krakatau of Indonesia in 1883
• Mount Pinatubo of the Philippines in 1991
• Perihelion -This refers to the point in a planet's orbit where it is closest to the Sun
• Aphelion -This is the opposite of perihelion; it's the point in a planet's orbit where it is farthest from the Sun
• 98,000 - The time frame for the Eccentricity  cycle is approximately _ years
• Obliquity -is the variation of the tilt of Earth's axis away from the orbital plane.
• 40,000 -The obliquity changes on a cycle taking approximately _ years.
• Precession is the change in orientation of Earth's rotational axis.
• The precession cycle takes about 19,000 to 23,000 years.
• Obliquity -affected the tilt of Earth's axis, 
• precession affects the direction of Earth's axis.
• perihelion -closest distance from Sun 
• aphelion -farthest distance from Sun
• Carbon dioxide is added when power and heat are produced by burning coal, oil, and other fossil fuels.
• Carbon dioxide -is transparent to sunshine but not invisible to infrared (heat) radiation leaving the ground.
• Carbon dioxide -absorbs part of the infrared radiation in the air and returns it to the ground keeping the air near the surface warmer than it would be if the carbon dioxide did not act like a blanket.
• Doubling the carbon dioxide raises the temperature to 2 °C to 3 °C.  
• fossil fuels -Human activities contribute to climate change. The largest known contribution comes from the burning of _ _ , which releases carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere.
• Greenhouse gases and aerosols - affect climate by altering incoming solar radiation and outgoing infrared (thermal) radiation that are part of Earth's energy balance.
• Earth's orbit can also cause climate change. This was proposed by the Milankovitch theory
• Milankovitch theory -states "that as the Earth travels through space around the Sun, cyclical variations in three elements of Earth-Sun geometry combine to produce variations in the amount of solar energy that reaches Earth
• Eccentricity -is a term used to describe the shape of Earth's orbit around the Sun
• perihelion -around January 3
• aphelion around - July 4
• Since the start of the industrial era (about 1750)
• industrial era - The human impact on climate during this era greatly exceeds that due to known changes in natural processes, such as solar changes and volcanic eruptions.
• Human activities result in emissions of four principal greenhouse gases: 

  • carbon dioxide 
  • Methane
  • nitrous oxide
  • halocarbons
• Halocarbons a group of gases containing fluorine, chlorine, and bromine)