By the way, if you want to read a really good book about the role of Carbon Dioxide in climate change, I highly recommend CO2 Rising, by Tyler Volk. Volk traces the lives of CO2 molecules from various sources to show how they interact with the environment. It’s a great read. 3/3
Basically, putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is like putting a blanket on the Earth. The more of those gases are in the atmosphere, the thicker the blanket, and the more the Earth will heat up. 2/3
The greenhouse effect is the overall warming of the Earth’s lower atmosphere mainly due to carbon dioxide and water vapor, which permit the sun’s rays to heat the Earth, but which then block some heat energy from escaping back into space. 1/3
Next question: What’s the greenhouse effect?
Again, the point is to answer these without looking anything up. It’s interesting to see what facts or “facts” have stuck in your brain over the years from various sources. Be wrong. It’s cool. We’re all learning together.
Note that all the answers I’ll provide are my interpretation of material compiled by my instructor, Therese Zarlengo, for the course “Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment”, which I’m taking through UCLA Extension. Any errors in fact have likely been introduced by me. 3/3
The American Meteorological Society defines climate as “the slowly varying aspects of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, land, and surface systems.” Climate measurements are typically taken over a month or more, considering the variability over time of these averaged quantities. 2/3
Okay, y’all are smart. Lots of good answers to the difference between climate and weather. I think everyone got that weather is what’s happening now (or relatively soon), and climate is what tends to happen over time. 1/3
First question: What’s the difference between climate and weather?
I had to write a climate quiz for a class project. The small group I gave it to did pretty well, so I thought I’d ask the questions here, too. I’ll post one question per day, and post answers the next day. You’re on your honor to answer without looking anything up.
I’m almost 4/5 of the way through my Sustainability Certificate, and have hit on a new way to process and review the instructor’s weekly lectures. I’m recording the audio of the lectures from Safari using Audio Hijack, and then converting speech to text using MacWhisper. I then re-read the transcribed lecture and take notes. MacWhisper has become astonishingly good. In the first few weeks of class, the text output was pretty accurate, but it was delivered as just a bunch of lines of about the same length, with no regard for where sentences began or ended.