Week 13

    In Monday's lab, we discussed in more detail the ideas discussed in Week 12 about how agriculture is affected by climate change and higher precipitation levels. We talked about how Iowa has a longer growing season, wetter spring, more simmer precipitation, higher humidity, and drier autumns. We then moved back to the idea on the key question: how does climate change affect the sea level? We came to the conclusion that land glaciers will cause sea levels to rise because water runoff will enter the ocean, but sea ice will not cause it to rise because the volume in the water is already accounted for. We then debated how melting impacts further melting. We learned that as white ice becomes blue water, it absorbs more sunlight and melts faster. Once there is no ice left, the ocean will no longer be a convection cell and nutrients will no longer be able to be distributed between the poles and the equator. We then moved into the specifics of the Paris Climate Agreement about keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius, financial obligations, differentiation, emissions objectives, burden-sharing, climate damage, and when the next review was set to be necessary. 

    In Thursday's lecture, we began by learning the difference between public perception and scientific agreement when it came to climate change. Since 3% of scientists don't agree on global warming, the public perception is that there is not enough evidence to support it due to the fact that they don't know that only 3% of scientists disagree. We moved on to the idea of air masses and that an air mass is a large volume of air that takes on the climatic conditions of the area it was formed. This is affected by elevation because higher altitudes have colder temperatures due to the air expanding due to low air pressure. Rain shadow areas occur on the opposite side of a mountain because when air masses rise up a mountain, the air cools and condenses water vapor. 

    The textbook this week focused on the idea of climate and how greenhouse gasses affect the atmosphere. The atmosphere protects the earth from harmful radiation while also making sure enough heat passes through to keep the planet at a livable temperature. The main greenhouse gasses that destroy the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, water vapor, and ozone. The asymmetrical shapes that carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane have absorbs infrared radiation then releases it into the atmosphere to keep the planet warm enough for survival. The issue with these, however, is when the greenhouse effect (the release of infrared radiation to create heat) gets out of control due to the imbalance of earth's systems. If too much heat is produced, the climate warms and the atmosphere cannot release the heat to keep earth from overheating. It ended with the albedo effect, which is the idea lighter surfaces have a high albedo, or reflection rate, and darker surfaces have low albedo, meaning a higher absorption rate of radiation.