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67 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is the difference between troposphere and stratosphere?
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Troposphere is immediately next to the earth's surface and the stratosphere is right above that. Troposphere is denser than the other layers. Weather occurs in the troposphere. Stratosphere has lots of ozone and ozone is good in this level.
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Explain the greenhouse effect and how it is changing our climate.
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Light and heat comes in through the clouds and atmosphere. Then the heat stays in the atmosphere, but the light is reflected out. We are slowing the rate of heat loss, this increasing heat storage, by adding CO2, CH4 and N2O.
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How do we know the cause of recent climate change?
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Climatologists using ice core samples with air samples in them. The air samples are then tested for CO2 concentrations.
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What are some strategies for minimizing global climate change?
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Shifting energy from burning coal to wind, solar, ect.
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In what ways can air pollution affect human health?
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Cause cancer,
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What are the main sources and effects of air pollution?
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Burning coal and other fossil fuels, mining and manufacturing. Creates acid rain, eutrophication of inland waters
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Has world air quality been getting better or worse? Why?
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Better many agencies have started cracking down on big business to make things cleaner.
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Daily temperatures, wind and precipitation?
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Weather
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Long-term temperatures and precipitation trends?
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Climate
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Minute particles and liquid droplets
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Aerosols
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How the air circulates in the troposphere?
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Convection Currents
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Order of levels in the atmosphere
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Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere
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Reflectivity
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Albedo
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Black soil, asphalt and water have ___ albedo, while fresh snow and clouds have ___ albedo.
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Low and High
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H2O, CO2, CH4 (Methane) and N2O are important for what?
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Important for trapping heat in the greenhouse effect.
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Surface and deep-water circulation system, like the Gulf Stream, the movement is controlled by the density of the water which is effected by its temperature and its salinity.
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Thermohaline
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Modest repeated climate changes that are periodic and associated with shifts in the earth's orbit and tilt.
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Milankovitch Cycles
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IPCC
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, reviews scientific evidence on the causes and likely effects of human-cause climate change,
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Permafrost is melting, ice shelf is half as thick, glaciers retreating, sea level risen, droughts occur more, coral bleaching occurring.
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Evidence of Climate Change
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Controlling ____ is cheap compared to _____ .
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Emmisions, climate change
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reduce dependence on coal, could institute fees for selling fossil fuels, invest in new technologies and energy efficiency, can institute emissions trading, by instituting a legal cap on emissions
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Ways We Can Control Greenhouse Emissions
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Pacala and Socolow
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Came up with the wedge system, where we split up the the emissions that would cause the CO2 concentration to double.
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Doubling fuel economy, cut annual travel per car, improve efficiency in heating, cooling, lighting and appliances, update all building insulation, boost efficiency of coal burning plants, replace coal plants with gas burning plants, add windmills, generate hydrogen from windmills to fuel cars, capture CO2 and store it securely, use more solar panels, expand ethanol production, stop tropical deforestation and replant, apply conservation tillage to cropland
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14 Wedges of the stabilization triangle created by Pacala and Socolow.
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It may be cheaper to clean up fossil fuel effluents than to switch to renewable energy sources.
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Carbon Management
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According to the EPA Americans release about how many metric tons of air pollution?
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150 million metric tons
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Since 1990 air toxic emissions have been reduced by how much every year?
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1 million tons per year, ten times the reduction in the previous 20 years
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How many people in India die every year from air pollution
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2 million
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Asian Brown Cloud creates what?
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El Nino
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A smokestack or some other concentrated pollution origin?
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Point source
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Identifies and regulates principal pollutants?
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Clean Air Act
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Pollutants are released in a harmful form?
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Primary Pollutants
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Pollutants that become hazardous after reactions in the air?
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Secondary Pollutants
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Compounds created by reactions driven by solar energy
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Photochemical oxidants
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Pollutants that do not go through a smokestack, examples are dust from soil erosion, strip mining, rock crushing, and building construction.
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Fugitive or non-point-source, emissions
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Seven Major pollutants, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulates, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides, ozone and lead) contribute the largest volume of air-quality degradation and are considered the most serious threat of all air pollutants to human health and welfare.
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Conventional or criteria pollutants
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Dominant sources of most criteria pollutants?
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Transportation and power plants
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The air around us
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Ambient Air
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Compounds that are produced in less volume than conventional pollutants but are especially toxic or hazardous
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Unconventional Pollutants
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Asbestos, benzene, beryllium, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls and vinyl chloride are all examples or what?
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Unconventional Pollutants
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2/3 of the 188 air toxins in the Clean Air Act are what?
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Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
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A colorless, corrosive gas that damages both plants and animals, can also be further oxidized to sulfur trioxide, which reacts with water to form acid rain. Second only to smoking as causes of air pollution related health damage/
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Sulfur Dioxide
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Highly reactive gasses formed when combustion initiates reactions between atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen. Also are a component of acid rain
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Nitrogen oxides
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Odorless colorless gas, but highly toxic produced by incomplete combustion of fuel. Inhibits respiration in animals by binding irreversibly to hemoglobin in blood
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Carbon monoxide
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Dust, ash, soot, lint, smoke, pollen, spores, algal cells and many other suspended materials. Aerosols, or extremely minute particles or liquid droplets suspended in air.
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Particulate material
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____ are organic (carbon containing) gases. Plants, bogs and termites are the largest sources of ______. Generally oxidized to CO and CO2. Principal sources are incompletely burned fuels from vehicles, power plants, chemical plants, and petroleum refineries.
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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
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Highly reactive toxic elements, (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine), mainly mined and used in manufacturing
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Halogens
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Metals that occur commonly from burning coal?
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Lead and mercury
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What is more dangerous, indoor or outdoor air?
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Indoor air, because people generally are inside more. Compounds can sometimes 70 times higher indoors.
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Propellants and refrigerants are also implicated in ozone depletion?
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Chlorofluorocarbons
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World Health Organization estimates how many people are adversely affected by pollution from this source.
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2.5 billion people or 1/3 of the world's population
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Billions of tons of sand and dust blow around the world every year?
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3 billion tons
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1% loss of ozone can account for how many extra cases of skin cancer world wide?
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1 million
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_______ help break down ozone?
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Antarctica's very cold winters
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Can concentrate dangerous levels of pollutants within cities. Cool dense air lies below a warmer, lighter layer. A very stable condition, cool air tends to remain in place, and pollutants accumulate near the ground where they irritate the eyes and lungs.
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Temperature Inversions
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Why is Los Angeles ideal for temperature inversions?
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Mountains on three sides, which reduces wind movement. Large amounts of traffic and industry create pollutants. Skies are clear at night creating rapid heat loss from the ground, keeping the air cool. Higher layers stay warmer trapping the cool air in place.
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Cities having low albedo, from concrete and brick buildings, absorb large amounts of solar energy. A lack of vegetation or water results in very slight evaporation.
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Heat islands
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Injury cause by two factors combined is more than the sum of exposure to two factors together is more than the sum of exposure individually
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Synergistic effects
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pH of acidic rain
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4.3
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What kind of forests are highly affected by acid rain?
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High elevation forests
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Air pollution control idea
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Dilution is the solution to pollution
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Filtering air emissions
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Particulate removal
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How to reduce sulfur in the atmosphere?
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Switching from coal to oil or gas, making coal cleaner. Beneficial, but expensive.
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Sets maximum emission levels for pollutants, facilities can buy and sell emission credits from each other. Allows companies to decide if its cheaper to install pollution control equipment or buy someone else's credits
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Cap-and-trade
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Great landmark in improving air quality by eliminating CFCs?
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Montreal Protocol
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Water evaporates from moist surfaces, falls as rain or snow, passes through living organisms, and returns to the ocean
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Hydrologic Cycle
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_____ drives the hydrologic cycle by evaporating surface water, which becomes rain and snow.
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Solar energy
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Leeward sides of mountains
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Rain shadows usually cause deserts.
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