Biology 2485B Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Atmospheric Methane, Smog, Lithosphere
4 Jan 2019
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Lecture 6 textbook notes our climate change (pg. Moreover, scientists agree that human activities, notably fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, are largely responsible: understanding how and why climate is changing requires understanding how our planet"s climate functions. The sun and atmosphere keep earth warm: 3 factors exert more influence on earth"s climate than all others combined: Sun = without it, earth would be dark and frozen. Atmosphere = without it, earth would be as much as 33oc colder on average, and temperature differences between night and day would be far greater than they are. The 70% that is absorbed into the system powers a wide variety of earth"s processes, from photosynthesis to winds, waves, and evaporation. Greenhouse gases warm the lower atmosphere: as earth"s surface absorbs the incoming short-wavelength solar radiation, surface materials increase in temperature and emit infrared radiation, radiation with longer wave- lengths than visible light.
