Download Met 112: Final Exam Study Notes Part I: Climate Change: Natural

Met 112: Final Exam Study Notes
The final exam will be of a similar format as the midterm and will be on Tuesday May 15th at 6pm. To prepare
for the final, I would suggest that you review your lecture notes carefully, the reading in the book, internet
articles and your previous study guides. To help in your studies, I’ve included the following. From Part I and
II, I’ve highlighted some of the important questions we covered. For Part III (since Midterm 2), I’ve included
review questions. At the end of this guide, I’ve also included some ‘overview’ type of questions. Of course,
this list is not intended to be comprehensive, rather some good points to focus your studies.
Part I: Climate Change: Natural Forcing
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What is the greenhouse effect?
How would the earth’s radiation budget change if the Earth’s albedo were to increase or decrease?
What role do clouds play in the Earth’s climate?
What is the difference between climate variability and climate change?
What is the carbon cycle? Why is it important to climate change?
What are positive/negative feedbacks and how can they impact climate?
What are some natural factors that affect climate change?
Part II: Anthropogenic Forcing and Future Climate (Summary only)
8. How has temperature changed over the last 150 years?
9. How have CO2 concentrations changed over the last 1000 years?
10. Aerosols: What are they, and what affect do aerosols have on climate?
11. What does the chart of radiative forcing tell us about climate change over the last 100 years?
12. Why have greenhouse gas concentrations increased over the last 150 years?
13. How is the carbon budget changing as a result of the burning of fossil fuels?
14. Why did the IPCC run climate models using different scenarios?
15. What is the role of natural versus anthropogenic forcing on the climate of the last 150 years?
16. How and why will sea levels change in the future?
17. What are the uncertainties in relation to predicting future climate change?
Part III: Mitigation (Since Midterm 2)
18. What is the Kyoto Protocol?
19. Why did the US not sign onto the Kyoto Protocol?
20. What is the current status of the protocol?
21. What countries will be most affected (positively and negatively) by climate change?
22. What changes might cities take to reduce CO2 emissions?
23. What challenges would countries like the US have in reducing CO2 emissions?
24. What steps might an individual take to reduce CO2 emissions?
25. What steps might government take to reduce CO2 emissions?
26. Why do food choices affect energy consumption?
27. What role does consumption have on global warming?
28. What is ozone and why is it important?
29. What are CFC’s, and what is their role in ozone depletion?
30. What has been done about ozone depletion, and what is going to happen in the future?
31. How are ozone depletion and global warming related?
32. What lessons can we learn from ozone depletion in relation to global warming?
Finally, here are some core questions to help focus on the main concepts covered in the course. Note: The
short answer section of the final will contain at least some of these questions.
1. What is climate change?
2. How does one detect a change in climate?
3. What can cause the climate to change?
4. What role do feedbacks play in climate change?
5. How has the climate changed over the last 150 years, and what role have humans played in this change.
6. What are greenhouse gases, and how have humans changed their concentration in the atmosphere.
7. What are today’s signals that the climate is changing?
8. What is going to happen to climate in the future?
9. Why do we have confidence in climate model predictions?
10. What are the main uncertainties related to climate change?
11. What challenges are there in terms of eventually reducing CO2 concentrations and stabilizing climate?
12. Why would the availability of fresh water change due to climate change.
13. What are the main ideas that came out of the ecological footprint analysis?
14. There is a good chance there will be a question from the last article we read by Thomas Friedman,
columnist from the New York Times.
A summary of some of the ‘main points’ from this class is given below:
Over the last 100 years and especially over the last thirty-five years, the Earth climate has experienced a
significant warming trend.
Current levels of greenhouse gases are higher than anytime over the last 400,000 years and likely longer.
Science is confident that humans are responsible for a majority of the warming observed over the last 50 years.
The Earth’s climate will continue to warm in the future and this warming will place significant stress on
biological and social systems throughout the world.
Significant climate change mitigation is urgently needed to reduce negative impacts and there are a variety of
strategies that can be implemented to achieve the goal of reducing emissions.