GEOG 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Organofluorine Chemistry, Lyme Disease, Coral Bleaching
1 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
A changing climate: an introduction to climate change. Climate change has the potential to threaten life as we know it & we"re already beginning to see impacts. An increase in average temperature of the earth=global warning. Without ghgs the earth"s average temp. would be -18. Original ghgs function to heat earth so that it is habitable. Ghgs trap heat (absorb heat re-radiated from the earth) Human enhanced: burning fossil fuels (excess production of co2) Result is the increasing of earth"s average temperature. Changes to polar ice caps & the oceans. Melting glaciers +warmer oceans: rising sea levels: low-lying island countries. More damage from natural disasters on coastal zones. Other changes in the oceans: average temperature of the ocean has increased through to a depth of 3000m. Coral bleaching: increased co2 in the ocean. Changes to precipitation: precipitation overall but distributed unevenly, more wet & dry extremes: more downpours, more drought (especially in driught prone areas, more frequent and intense storms.
