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Global Patterns
The Carbon Cycle
Upwelling
Ocean Currents
Abrupt Climate Change
Carbon Storage(sinks)
Carbon Cycle
Human Impact
Extraction of fossil fuels from the ground. Burning - called combustion. Deforestation - cutting & burning trees
– Trees can no longer remove carbon from the air
– Burning trees releases CO2 into the air
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas
Upwelling
Deep, cold and nutrient rich water rises up through the water column.
Happens along the eastern margins of oceanic basins
Wind and water current directions tend to be caused by the rotation of the planet
Upwelling Animation (NASA)
El Niño Happens in the Pacific, along the equator.
Caused by a change in the wind pattern
Changes how the Pacific distributes heat to other parts of Earth
A redistribution of rainfall around the Pacific Ocean
Can alter the weather in places far from the Pacific.
Normal conditions
Upwelling
Animals & plants
Winds
Water temperature
El Niño
Upwelling
Animals & plants
Winds
Water temperature
The Impact of El Niño A global connection
Normal Winter El Nino Winter
The El Niño years A weak, warm current
– annually around Christmas time along the coast of Ecuador and Peru and lasting only a few weeks
Every three to seven years, an El Niño event may last for many months,
During the past forty years, ten of these major El Niño events have been recorded, – the worst of which occurred in 1997-1998. – 1982-1983 was the strongest. – Some of the El Niño events have persisted more than one year.
La Niña
La Niña (female child) refers to an anomaly of unusually cold sea surface temperatures found in the eastern tropical Pacific. La Niña occurs roughly half as often as El Niño.
Global Ocean Currents(Surface)
Conveyor BeltA vast ocean current system
(Deep water)• Transports heat and moisture around the Planet
• Conveyor is delicately balanced
• Has shut down orchanged direction many times in Earth's history
Ocean conveyor beltDriven by salt and temperature differences
Sea ice is made Sea ice is made of fresh water -of fresh water -It leaves salt behindIt leaves salt behind
Salty water is Salty water is Heavier so it sinks.Heavier so it sinks.
What happens if thereWhat happens if thereIs less sea ice?Is less sea ice?
Impact of Conveyor changes Winter temperatures in the North Atlantic region would
fall by 20 or more degrees
Dublin would acquire the climate of Spitsbergen, 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Significant global temperature changes within decades, as well as large-scale wind shifts, dramatic fluctuations in atmospheric dust levels, glacial advances or retreats and other changes over many regions of the Earth.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/23/11/13.html
The Day After Tomorrow!the first "climate disaster movie"
Can it really happen?
http://www.thedayaftertomorrow.com/
Abrupt Climate Change• “Abrupt climate change" describes changes
in climate that occur over the span of years to decades
• Human-caused changes in climate that are
occurring over the time span of decades to centuries.
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/arch/
See the Movie
but remember what you learned in Earth System Science!
Earth: It’s all connected
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