Discussion Questions

1. Do you believe global warming/climate change is happening?

2. Do you believe human activity is contributing to it?

3. What evidence do you have to support your answers to #1 and #2?

Yes No

28 2

Yes No

26 4

Get a computer and…..1. Go to class web site2. Go to “Links” and search for the four

“Climate Change” sites listed there.

Number stickers match Power cord plugged in

HW: Due Monday!

HW: Due Monday!

Carbon Cycle & Climate Change

Essential Question:How is human activity linked to

global climate change?

The Carbon Cycle

1. What’s the difference between climate and weather?Weather is short term (1 day, 1 year);

Climate is long term weather patterns (decades, centuries)

2. What evidence is there that climate is changing dramatically? Give at least 6 different examples.

1. Glaciers, ice caps melting.2. Sea levels rising.3. Atmosphere temperatures rising. 4. Ocean temperatures rising.5. Droughts longer and more extreme.6. Stronger hurricanes and other tropical storms such as…….

Oct. 29, 2012

3. What are fossil fuels? Give examples and explain why they are called fossil fuels.

• Coal, oil, natural gas.• Formed by bodies of dead animals and plants under ground,

under pressure for millions of years.• Our main source of energy for cars, homes, business, etc.

4. How is the burning of fossil fuels believed by scientists to be causing global climate change?

• Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide (CO2) to atmosphere.

• CO2 acts like a blanket, trapping heat in atmosphere, causing climate to change.

5. What evidence is there for scientists to conclude that burning of fossil fuels are contributing to climate change?

• Increases of CO2 in atmosphere correspond (match) with increases in CO2 emissions from burning of fossil fuels.

• No evidence that sunspots, earth’s orbit, or volcanic activity are causing it.

What happened in the early 1800’s thatCaused people to burn more fossil fuels?

6. What are the likely effects of climate change on people and the environment? Give at least 5 different examples.

1. Crop damage from heat, droughts, storms.2. Millions of people killed or left homeless by floods.3. Millions of people without water for drinking, farming.4. Terrorist attacks from de-stabilized countries. 5. Increased acidity of oceans harms sea life, ocean food chains.

Ocean acidification effects on sea urchins

A Pencil urchin under normal CO2 (left) and high CO2 (right).

“…. the report warns that as temperatures rise and severe weather increases, food, water and electricity shortages could create instability in many countries, spreading disease, causing mass migration and opening the door for extremists to take advantage of fractures in already-unstable countries.

7. What are some ways we can reduce our impact on climate change? Give at least 5 different examples.

1. Use less electricity; turn off lights.2. Switch to clean energy: solar, wind.3. Drive more fuel efficient cars, burns less gas.

Drive less.4. Recycle and Re-use, saves energy.5. Plant more trees, stop deforestation.6. Oppose coal trains, Keystone XL pipeline.7. Support politicians and policies to reduce fossil

fuel consumption.

Videos

Daily Show & Climate Change March (start at 3 min.)

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPgZfhnCAdI

Questions?

"A broad analysis of the climate scientist community itself, the distribution of credibility of dissenting researchers relative to agreeing researchers, and the level of agreement among top climate experts has not been conducted and would inform future ACC discussions. Here, we use an extensive dataset of 1,372 climate

researchers and their publication and citation data to show that (i) 97–98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field surveyed here support the tenets of ACC outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and (ii) the relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the researchers unconvinced of ACC are substantially below that of the convinced researchers."

What would happen if all the ice melted?

• http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/if-ice-melted-map

http://www.skepticalscience.com/big-picture.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/index.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/today/carbon-dioxide.html