Abrupt Climate Change. Read the article below thena answer questions 1-4: 1. Wha
ID: 297916 • Letter: A
Question
Abrupt Climate Change. Read the article below thena answer questions 1-4:
1. What is the younger dryas? Briefly state the current thought as to why this occured.
2. Briefly discuss some of the other triggers for abrupt climate change listed in the report.
3. Why did the authors of this report point to global warming as a possible trigger for an abrupt event? How does this relate to the various triggers you listed above?
4. Briefly discuss some of the ecological and environmental impacts and likely adaptations in relation to abrupt climate change. What is meant by instituting "No-Regret Strategies"
reading below:
abruptclimatechange-br X file://C/Users/chenn/D ocuments/abruptclimatechange brief pdf IN BRIEF ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE: INEVITABLE SURPRISES ntil the 1990s, the dominant view ofclimate change was that Earth's climate system has changed gradually in reaponse to both natural and human-induced processes. Evidence pieced together over the last few decades, however, shows that climate has changed much more rapidly ometimes abruptly in the past and therefore could do so again in the future. Abrupt climate change generally refers to alarge shift in climate that persists for years or longer such as marked changes in average temperature, or altered patterns of atom flooda, or droughts-over a widespread area such as an entire country or continent, of Earth's best record keeper, revealing feature a that takes place so rapidly and unexpectedly that human the climate when the ice was deposited These deep or natural systems have difficulty adapting to it. In the stored in the archive the context of past abrupt climate change, rapidly typically National lea Core Laboratory in Denver means on the order of a decade Severe droughts and other past abrupt climate Some of the best known and most well etudied changes have had demonstrable, adverse effects on widespread abrupt climate changes started and ended human societies. While it important not to be fatalistic the younger Dryas terval global event that about the posed by abrupt climate change, denying began abruptly about 12,800 years ago and ended even threats the likelihood ordownplaying therelevance paetabrupt suddenly about 600 years ago (see Figure events could be costly. Increased knowledge is the best climate recor ehow that much of the northern way to improve the effectiveness of response, research hemisphere was affected by extraordinary cold, dry, windy into the causes, patterns, and likelihood of abrupt climate change can help reduce vulnerabilitee and increase our ability to adapt. Evidence of Abrupt Climate Change M Researchers first became intrigued by abrupt climate change when they discovered striking evidence of large abrupt, and widespread changes preaerved in paleoclimatic archives-the history of Earths climate recorded in tree rings, ice cores, sediments, and other Ice AgeExplanation / Answer
a) Younger Dryas cold interval - was a near global event that began abruptly about 12,800 years ago and ended even more suddenly about 11,600 years ago. Based on the climatic records, a major portion of the northern hemisphere was affected by extraordinary cold, dry, windy conditions; dust and other wind-blown materials were more abundant in Greenland by a factor of 3 to 7, and methane concentrations were lower indicating loss of wetland areas. According to scientists, these changes occur when the Earth's system is pushed across the threshold.
b) Other triggers resulting in abrupt climatic changes:
-massive volcanic eruptions
- accumulation of gradual forces such as
c) Global warming can trigger abrupt climatic changes and the probability of this happening has been linked to various instances in the past. Accumulation of greenhouse gases causing the rise in air temperature and subsurface ocean temperature. Related factors such as land-use changes, variability in precipitation patterns, stronger El Nino manifestations are also by-products of global warming.
d) Adapting no-regret policies is to foresee the future that may have abrupt climatic changes written. If not, that is, if there are no such changes, even in those circumstances these measures would prove to be viable and sustainable.