US GEO Unit Test Review PDF

Topic: Consequences of Climate Change /vulnerability and resilience https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v57Gz2P4tg1XavU_9O9aDz2WShM 8SU3C7oTdqMsYaxg/edit?tab=t.0 Brief - What to Know - Carbon sinks - Global dimming - Albedo - Waves - Short and Long - Carbon seques...

Topic: Consequences of Climate Change /vulnerability and resilience https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v57Gz2P4tg1XavU_9O9aDz2WShM 8SU3C7oTdqMsYaxg/edit?tab=t.0 Brief - What to Know - Carbon sinks - Global dimming - Albedo - Waves - Short and Long - Carbon sequestration - Greenhouse Gas emissions - Biomes - Carbon Trading - Spatial Variation - The degree to which it impacts (regional, local, national, global.. - 4P’s - Spatial/Scale Impact of [Causes, Consequences, Responses] - What are methods to decrease carbon in the ozone layer TIPS for the test ↪︎Remember to define the word in the extended answers before answering the actual questions. ↪︎Be as detailed as you can ↪︎Review sections named “EXAMPLE (SHOULD REMEMBER)” before the test to refresh memory Q/A / Notes Question/Vocab/Topic Answer/Definition/Explanation Q. Suggest methods to decrease carbon - Vertical farming - Carbon Sinks in the ozone layer. Ex: a. Plants photosynthesis b. Ocean mangroves can displace carbon in coastal areas to the offshores c. Soil absorbs the carbon - Carbon offset a. Reforestation  b. Making countries consider to use renewable energies c. Investing money for countries that are acting upon climate change - Carbon Sequestration a. In the arctic, due to extremely low temperatures, it slows decomposition b. In oceans, they are stored as dissolved gas on the seafloor. Q. How is carbon causing a temperature - Greenhouse gas (which is carbon) rise? trapping heat within the earth’s atmosphere - Carbon absorbs and radiates heat Q. Suggest how globalization leads to an - Have to link with enhanced greenhouse increase in climate change. effect Globalization is how people get more connected across international borders, and become more interconnected. - Since people ship and deliver many products abroad, the transportation emits a huge amount of CO2 which leads to enhanced greenhouse effect. This process also causes things such as pollution and ocean acidification. THe process of making the products can emit CO2, as well as the ships that use enormous amounts of oil, can cause oil spill in the ocean, raising the acidity of the ocean. - This leads to an enhanced greenhouse effect, as the human activities are adding on to the carbon emission that nature has been balancing out. The carbon released by those human activities creates a much thicker layer of carbon in the atmosphere which traps more heat directly leading to increase in temperature. - EXAMPLE (SHOULD REMEMBER) [Positive feedback loop] - In the poles, the ice caps are melting, which leads to sea level rising, then since the sea has lower albedo, it absorbs more heat leading to increase in temperature. Increase in sea levels would also cause more tsunami, flood coastal erosion to occur. = Cause natural disasters more frequently - Explain how the greenhouse effect and - Enhanced GHE caused by human enhanced greenhouse effect contributes activities which breaks the balance of the greenhouse effect nature is causing. to climate change. Extensive amounts of carbon would lead to more heat trapped within the earth’s atmosphere leading to climate change. - EXAMPLE (SHOULD REMEMBER) - Due to the increase in temperature, the ice caps melt, and the sea level rises. Then the potential wave formation rises, which breaks many glaciers, again contributing to increase in sea level. = Higher sea level causes a bigger portion of ocean to cover the earth’s surface, which has low albedo, and would absorb more heat. Suggest the power lobby groups have to - They can make the changes easily, but prevent climate change. they don't for their own benefit - Smaller companies can cope with climate change, but don't make much of an effect upon it. Explain the impacts that humans would Negative effect experience caused by climate change. +Increase in shipping is also causing peak water. This is when the amount of freshwater declines due to pollution of human activities. Water is considered a renewable resource, but many countries are reaching their limit since people are polluting them. Ships and factories can cause oil spills, and can easily pollute rivers and oceans. This causes less water accessible for people, which can cause water wars and dehydration within nations. - The long term effect would be that there would be more natural disasters that occur frequently. This can easily wash off planting crops, as well as animal/human shelters. - - Positive effect - As human activities accelerate climate change, higher carbon rate can be beneficial for some plants. Plants are said to grow efficiently if there is more carbon accessible in the atmosphere. - The humidity of the atmosphere increases, which indicates that there is more water vapor that plants can reach out to. We can all benefit from more plants growing, as it can supply food for the animals increasing biodiversity, as well as the plants which can be our food… Explain how the climate could change if - Ice caps melt, which releases water the albedo of an environment is changed. vapour in the atmosphere, and it absorbs/reflects the heat from the sun’s radiation. This prevents the insolation directly hitting the earth's surface allowing the albedo to increase. =Negative feedback loop, as it decreases the temperature. - Rather climate change depends on albedo - Cooler if there's low albedo - EXAMPLE (SHOULD REMEMBER) - There are programs called “White roof project” where people paint roofs of their houses white, so it would increase its albedo, and would receive less heat. This allows less heat to be obtained, and would allow us to maintain a cooler temperature. In addition, people would not have to use air conditioners, which would lessen GHG emissions, also leading to a cooler environment. - HIGH albedo areas a. Sand b. Snow c. Concrete - LOW albedo areas a. Ocean b. Dark forests c. asphalt Outline the groups of people most vulnerable - Varies depending on a person’s location (environmental factors), social status, and to global climate change social difference: age, gender, race - Indigenous people - Inuit people: They are very deeply connected to their habitat, However, over the years there has been a significant temperature rise and it has disrupted their environment. From changing ecosystems, and lack of water availability, to causing permafrost to melt and other natural disasters. This has not only led to their suffering but also the biodiversity in the area, such as the muskrat population which has become very vulnerable due to the lack of water resources. Ultimately this forces them to abandon their cultural roots and traditional lifestyle and adapt to a new life in urban areas. - Bangladesh (LEDC’s) - Much of the country is not that  high from sea level so its land is very susceptible to floods, and the potential of sea level rise. This contributes to the riverbank erosion and increased intensity of precipitation, which significantly affects densely populated communities in the region. In regards to that, the population is very low income so the resources available to them are not diversified enough to cope with the effects of climate change they are affected by. - Coastal communities - They are highly exposed to high sea level rise, and frequent & intense floods/cyclones. Also, these communities are quite populated are are heavily reliant on the coastal ecosystem: fisheries, so it is a struggle as they constantly are at risk of flooding and erosion. For example, Naranyanpur Islands, due to the sea level rise disrupts their agricultural land. Another thing is the decline in freshwater availability since much of the water resource gets contaminated by saltwater. As well as that, these places attract tourism, however, due to the disruption of their fisheries and ocean conditions by environmental factors, tourism declines and it affects their economy. Explain the factors that increase the vulnerability to global climate change. Explain the difference between adaptation Adaptation means Anticipating the harmful and mitigation effects of climate change and taking action to reduce the damage or make the most of any benefits. Mitigation is making the impacts of climate change less severe by preventing or reducing the emission of greenhouse gases The difference is that Adaptation prepares for impacts, while mitigation addresses the root causes Explain how carbon taxes work - A government-imposed fee that charges groups/individuals for CO2 emissions produced from burning fossil fuels, so the more emissions -> more taxes to pay. This system aims to encourage cleaner energy resources (sustainability) and reduce emissions, by making carbon-intensive tasks more expensive to perform. Carbon-intensive activities produce CO2 emissions for energy and electricity for manufacturing production in factories, etc. Ultimately, the taxes are used for renewable energy and environmental projects or contribute towards carbon offset. Explain the impact of excess carbon in an environment Explain the process of decarbonization Process of reducing CO2 emissions. It involves improving energy efficiency - using less energy to do tasks which helps reduce energy consumption. As well as, reducing the emission of CO2 per MWh of electricity by shifting to using cleaner energy sources such as wind and solar rather than burning fossil fuels. This ties in to the fuel shift which is transitioning from high-carbon energy sources to alternatives of renewable energy. Term/Vocab DEFINITION Carbon Sinks Naturally occurring things that absorbs carbon and converts it to other gas forms Global Dimming Helps with cooling effect Waves Positive Feedback Loop (more climate change) Negative Feedback Loop (cooling) Carbon offset Any actions that leads to reduction of greenhouse gas Carbon Sequestration Process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from factories and power plants and storing it underground, to prevent it from releasing into the  atmosphere. This helps mitigate climate change - lowers GHG concentration in the atmosphere by reducing the amount of CO2 in the air. Causes Place Power - Poles - Process Possibility Spatial Scale Consequences Place Power - South Sudan, Pakistan, Sudan, Chad, Somalia, Process Possibility  - High concentration rainfall but low frequency - unpredictable weather, cyclones, droughts Spatial Scale Response Place Power Process Possibility Spatial Scale