Transcript Introduction - San Jose State University

MET 112 Global Climate Change
Activities
Dr. Eugene Cordero
San Jose State University
Activity 0
You are watching your favorite news program (i.e.
CNN, BBC or NBC) and they are reporting on a
massive heat wave that is crippling the Midwest.
The news reporter states that this event is clearly
a result of climate change. Your roommate
laughs and remarks that the news reporter is ‘full
of it’. Who is right and why?
 Form group of two – names on the top of the
paper
2
MET 112 Global Climate Change
Activity 1
Answer each question and turn in at the beginning of next
class (Feb 7th)
1. If the earth’s albedo was to increase due to more
clouds, how would the Earth’s temperature change?
2. Today, greenhouse gases like CO2 are increasing in
the atmosphere. How would you expect that would
change the earth’s temperature.
3. If the earth’s temperature cools by 3C, how much is
that in degrees F?
Activity 2 Greenhouse Effect
Draw a diagram showing how
the earth is heated by the Sun.
Include arrows and/or lines to
indicate the ‘Energy Balance”
of the earth.
Energy Balance – Energy
coming in and energy going
out.
Clouds, and reflected energy
Climate Game
Names ___________________________
 Match the city with the corresponding climatology
by indicating the appropriate letter
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Sacramento, California (38°N)
Phoenix, Arizona (33°N)
Denver, Colorado (40°N)
Iquitos, Peru (4°S)
Mobile, Alabama (30°N)
Winnipeg, Canada (50°N)
Fairbanks, Alaska (65°N)
_____________
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_____________
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Activity 3: Water Concept Map
Draw a concept map using the following terms. You may
add additional terms if you wish.
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Water vapor
Ice
Liquid water
Condensation
Evaporation
Gas
High Cloud
Low Cloud
Precipitation
Condensation nuclei
Temperature
Warming
Cooling
Air
Activity 4
Consider the fact that today, the perihelion of the
Earth’s orbit around the sun occurs in the Northern
Hemisphere winter. In 11,000 years, the perihelion
will occur during Northern Hemisphere summer.
A) Explain how the climate (i.e. temperature of
summer compared to temperature of winter) of the
Northern Hemisphere would change in 11,000
years just due to the precession.
B) How would this affect the presence of Northern
Hemisphere glaciers (growing or decaying)?
Activity 5:
Questions from our Internet Readings. Answer each
question in 2-3 sentences.
1.
What is the main point Hal Harvey is making in regard the
economics of combating global warming?
2.
How and why is Sweden planning to be world’s first oil free
economy?
3.
Who is James Hansen and what are the circumstances
surrounding him, NASA and the Bush administration?
Activity 6
Imagine the Earth was to warm for some reason (initiating
mechanism or perturbation)
A) Identify two positive feedbacks that would influence
the earth’s climate and explain how each one works.
B) Identify two negative feedbacks that would influence
the earth’s climate and explain how each one works.
C) Rank each feedback by its strength (which one is the
strongest) and explain your reasoning.
D) Which feedback do you think is more uncertain.
Explain your reasoning.
Activity (groups of two) – clicker
Imagine that the global temperature were to
increase significantly for some reason.
1. How would the silicate-to-carbonate
conversion process change during this
warming period. Explain.
2. How would this affect atmospheric CO2
levels and as a result, global temperature?
3. What type of feedback process would this
be and why (positive or negative)?
Activity 7
Answer the following questions in groups of 2 (new partner
please!)
1. Plot out a graph of how you would expect the temperature of
daisyworld to change as solar luminosity increases from 0.5
to 1.5 (plot, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, …1.4, 1.5) without any daisies
on the planet.
2. Graph the temperature versus solar luminosity for daisyworld
with daisies (from computer program)
3. Explain how the daisies influenced the temperature. Hint:
Describe the relationship between the albedo, black daisies,
white daisies and the temperature.
4. If it takes 1 billion years for the solar luminosity to increase by
0.1, then for how many years are the daisies alive on
daisyworld?
5. If daisies could not influence climate, then for how many
years would daisies be alive on daisyworld?
6. What conclusions might you come up with in regards to how
the daisies affected climate?
7. Describe the feedback processes that occur during this
experiment. Hint: there may be more than one!