EES 1080 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Continental Drift, Milankovitch Cycles
22 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Exam #2: thursday, october 12; chapter 1-7 inclusive, 15,16,17,and 18 lecture notes: basic concepts, 5 impacts on humanity, our response, examples of localized impacts, theories of climate change. Five different set of theories are blamed for climate change: astronomical : milankovitch cycles, atmospheric change: greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide / suspended dust / ozone, water vapor. Greenhouse effect: co2 levels are rising along with earth s temperatures: geophysical: continental drift / polar wandering, land / water changes, glaciological: surging glaciers. Limitations of climate changes dynamics on glacial processes. Our understanding diminished exponentially as we go back in time. Other factors may complicate the picture when dealing with climate change and social dynamics. Because the preservation of annual snowfall is critical for ice-growth and expansion processes, the role of temperature is a key element. Ice-forming processes are altered or short circuited by other dynamics.
