Section 3.1 - Climate Change

The ______ occurs because of the water vapour in the atmosphere

Human activity has had a large effect on the three other greenhouse gases M causing the ______

Greenhouse gases (4):

Carbon dioxide has a global warming potential of ______ and a persistence of ______ years

Methane has a global warming potential of ______ and a persistence of ______ years

Nitrous oxide has a global warming potential of ______ and a persistence of ______ years

______ (GWP): is a measure of a greenhouse gases’ relative ability to trap thermal energy in the atmosphere

______ ______ is used as the reference to which the other greenhouse gases are then compared

______ is how many years each greenhouse gas will remain in the atmosphere

Analysis of ice core samples (to give us an idea about the distant past) and atmospheric conditions have shown that the levels of all 3 greenhouse gases in earth’s atmosphere are ______

Since the ______ ______ in the late 18th century, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has been increasing

Any process that releases Carbon into the atmosphere is called a ______ ______

Fossil fuels are formed from the ______ of living ______ material, so they contain a lot of Carbon, and when burned, they release Carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere

______ ______ also contributes to the level of greenhouse gases

Forests are called ______ ______ because photosynthesis ______ Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

The size of earth’s carbon sinks have been steadily ______ because human’s need for fuel and land for agriculture and industrialization

The combination of increased use of ______ ______ and the decrease in available ______ ______ has resulted in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide to increase by about 32% over the last 200 years

______ are another class of man-made chemicals that can ______ thermal energy in the atmosphere. They have a global warming potential of about 12,000

Scientists believe that human activity since the industrial revolution has led to ______ ______ (the overall increase in Earth’s average temperature)

More evidence of global warming: • Flowers in the northern hemisphere have begun to ______ earlier and earlier over the past century • The incidence of ______ weather events such as ice storms and floods have been on the rise • Snow cover in some regions has ______ • The average level and temperature of the Earth’s oceans have been ______

The ______ ______ ______ (GCM) reflects the world’s climate the best and it centres on the effects of changes that affect earth’s energy balance on thermal energy transfer un the atmosphere

The Montreal Protocol of 1987

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1994:

The Kyoto Protocol of 1988: