Exam 21: Climate Change

Plate tectonics has no effect on climate change.

The last glacial maximum ended _____ years ago.

Without this, the Earth would warm up rapidly due to the absorption of solar radiation.

In the last century, human activities have caused dramatic increases in concentration of many greenhouse gases.

The mesosphere contains the ozone layer.

At this point in time global mean temperatures begin to increase substantially and quite rapidly.

Albedo is the percentage of radiation reflected from the surface.

The _____ is an international panel of scientists that assesses the evidence for and effects of climate change.

An increase in greenhouse gas concentrations corresponds to a positive forcing.

The Earth is warm due to _____.

The percentage of radiation reflected from a surface is referred to as its _____.

_____ works by measuring temperatures deep in the ground and using our understanding of heat transfer in materials to infer what the surface must have been in the past.

The last glacial minimum ended approximately 15,000 years ago.

One way in which concentrations of CO₂ millions of years ago can be reconstructed is from the density of stomata in fossilized leaves.

The roundness of the Earth's orbit is known as it's _____

_____ is the increase in the volume that results from increased ocean temperatures.

_____ are important concepts in climate science. They are factors that amplify or decrease the rate of a process.

Geoengineering refers to large-scale intentional efforts to modify the climate.

As more CO₂ dissolves in the ocean the _____ increases.

Why is water vapor an extremely important greenhouse gas?