By Alfie, Chris and Daniel Climate and change What does it mean

Download Report

Transcript By Alfie, Chris and Daniel Climate and change What does it mean

By Alfie, Chris and Daniel
What does it mean?
‘Climate’- The weather conditions prevailing
in an area in general or over a long period
of time.
‘Change’- The ongoing changes.
So ‘Climate and change’ is then ongoing
changes in the weather conditions
prevailing in an area in general or over a
long period of time.
Natural changes
The climate is always changing naturally and
some examples of these natural changes include:
• Ice ages
• Medieval warming period
We have evidence for these changes in: ice
cores and fossils.
The last major ice age was known as the
Pleistocene and the most recent 10,000 years
is know as the Holocene and both of these are
part of the Quaternary period of Earth’s history.
Long
Time Span
Shorter
What are the causes of natural
climate change?
Volcanic activity
Solar output
Orbital changes
Natural changes in more recent
years
Evidence for this
Medieval warming period – Some evidence is the
fact that they had a brilliant harvest the years
when the temperature had risen.
Little ice age – Some evidence includes that a lot
of paintings around that time are related to this
little ice age (as seen above)
The megafauna
The megafauna included the:
– Sabre-toothed tiger
– Woolly mammoth
– Giant beaver
The extinction of the megafauna
Human
intervention
Slow
adaption
rate
Climate
change
Extinction
Lack of
food
Starvation
Disease
Peat bogs
Causes of climate change
Gases
Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide
are all greenhouse gases.
Graph showing the rises in greenhouse
gases from 1800-2008
Impacts
Climate change leads to:
– Droughts
– Floods
– Rising sea levels
– More severe and more frequent natural
disasters
Greenhouse effect
1. Enables us to stay alive.
2. Our increasing production of
greenhouse gases leads to
increased temperatures as more
of the sun’s energy is trapped.
3. That is global warming.
Future changes
In future the temperature will continue to rise
with the prolonged and increasing burning
of fossil fuels.
Global temperatures are
currently going off the scale!
Future changes
New crops – More money
Changing Species
Increase erosion
Increase in coastal tourism
Melting of Scotland’s ski resorts
Temperature increase so more air
conditioners sold – Boosting economy
Case studies
Remember
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The definition of climate change
Natural changes over time
The megafauna and their extinction
Causes of climate change
Impacts of climate change
Greenhouse gases and the effect
Future changes
Correlation between CO2 and temperature
Evidence for the ice age and medieval warming period
The periods of time we’re in and have experienced
Quiz
What period of the Earth’s history are we in?
Name the three natural causes of climate change.
What happened first the little ice age or the medieval
warming period?
4) Name one piece of evidence for the medieval warming
period.
5) Name two of the extinct megafauna.
6) Name 5 causes for their extinction.
7) What is the largest factor affecting climate change?
8) Name 3 greenhouse gases.
9) Name 3 examples of increasing temperatures.
10) Name an important case study.
1)
2)
3)