12.7: Exercises

Chapter 12 Questions to consider

1. What are the components of Earth’s climate system?
2. List processes that cause interactions between the components: atmosphere-ocean, atmosphere-biosphere, atmosphere-cryosphere, ocean-biosphere, ocean-cryosphere.
3. Name three processes (forcings) that can cause the global climate to change?
4. What are paleoclimate proxies?
5. Which paleoclimate record has higher resolution: record A, which has data every 100 years, or record B, which has data every 1,000 years?
6. What is the Milankovitch theory?
7. How do we know the extent of glaciation during the last ice age?
8. By how much did global surface air temperatures increase during the last 100 years?
   1. How do we know?
   2. What was the average rate of change during that time?
   3. What was the rate of change for the last 50 years?
   4. Where was the warming larger over the oceans or over land, in the tropics or at high latitudes?
9. What are the two main reasons for the increase in historical carbon emissions?
10. List five things that can be done to mitigate climate change.