1. Unit four: climate change
Chapters 7, 8, & 9 in your textbook

2. BIG IDEAS: Climate Change
Earth’s climate is dynamic and is the result of interacting systems and processes
Global climate change is influenced by both natural and human factors
Climate change affects living things and natural systems in a variety of ways
People have the responsibility to assess their impact on climate change and to identify effective courses of action to reduce this impact.

3. FOCUS ON STSE Who is to Blame?
A group of students is meeting around a large conference table.
This is the First International Student Climate Change Congress.
Students from around the world have decided to meet by themselves, since they are the ones who will inherit the Earth.
The Canadian delegation is on edge because Canada’s production of greenhouse gases is under discussion.
Per person, Canadians produce the most carbon dioxide
Per person, Canadians are 1 of top 10 producer greenhouse gases
Canada as a country is the 8th largest producer of carbon dioxide
We are all in it together
Focus on STSE

4. D LOOKING AHEAD UNIT UNIT D Climate Change CHAPTER 7 Earth’s Climate
System and
Natural Changes
CHAPTER 8
Earth’s Climate:
Out of Balance
CHAPTER 9
Assessing and
Responding to
Climate Change

5. Chapter Seven
Earth’s Climate System

6. Introduction
Many people believe that the ability for humans to survive on earth is in danger because of climate change
While other people believe that only our lifestyle and the way we do things will change as we ADAPT to our ever changing plant
What do you think?

7. Weather or not it’s gonna rain today …
Our earth is surrounded by a layer of gases called the atmosphere
Without this layer, it would be extremely warm hot in the summer and freezing cold at night
The condition of the atmosphere in a specific place at a specific time is what we call WEATHER

8. Describing the Weather
Scientists who study the weather are called meteorologists.
Meteorologists usually provide the following information when they describe the weather:
temperature
type and amount of precipitation
wind speed
relative humidity
atmospheric pressure
presence of fog, mist, or cloud cover

9. What Is Climate?
Climate is the usual pattern of weather in a region over a long period of time
To determine the climate of a region, climatologists collect weather measurements made over 30 years or more and average the results
The climate of a region gives a range of temperatures that you might expect at a certain time of year
It also tells you whether to expect rain, snow, or high winds in certain seasons.

10. What Is Climate?
For example, the climate in southern Ontario is warm and humid during the summer and cold with snow during the winter.

11. What’s the Difference?
Weather describes the atmospheric conditions over a short period of time—an hour, a day, or even a week
Climate describes the typical weather you can expect in a region based on weather data gathered over many years
“Climate is what you expect, but weather is what you get.” - Robert Heinlein

12. Components of Earth’s Climate System
Suppose you want to understand why Earth is habitable to life as we know it, while Venus and Mars are not.
The answer is much more complex than simply distance to the sun.
To answer this question, you need to consider each planet as a system.
A system is made up of interrelated parts, called components, that function as a whole.
Scientists construct models as a way to describe and understand complex systems.

13. Components of Earth’s Climate System
Earth’s climate system makes Earth unique among the planets
It keeps the global temperature constant and maintains the conditions needed for life
There are 4 main components of Earth’s climate system:

14. Components of Earth’s Climate System
Video (3:50)

15. Factors Affecting Climate
Climate in a region is caused by a variety of factors:
the distance from the equator (latitude)
the presence of large bodies of water
the presence of ocean or air currents
land formations
the height above sea level (altitude).

16. 1) Factors Affecting Climate: Sun & Earth
Energy from the sun is the single most important factor that affects climate on Earth
Solar energy travels through space as light & heat
The intensity of the energy that reaches earth’s surface changes based on solar activity
The amount of solar energy also depends on the shape of the planet and on Earth’s angle of tilt and orbit around the sun

17. 1) Factors Affecting Climate: Sun & Earth
The sun may appear unchanged, but the amount of radiation it produces does in fact vary, on the record for changing the amount of energy approx. every 11 years
Some scientists believe these variations may have caused the climate to change in the past
The earth rotates (spins) every 24 hours around its axis
The earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at ~ 24° perpendicular to the orbital plane
The combo of earth’s orbit around the sun and the tilted axis results in our changes in season

18. 1) Factors Affecting Climate: Sun & Earth
So why is it hotter in Brazil than Canada?
You probably learned this in elementary school: but the “equator” is not a grade 10 answer
Instead we see that:
the shape of the earth’s surface in relationship to the incoming solar rays result in more of the sun’s rays hitting the equator perpendicular to the earth’s surface
Because of this angle, the energy radiates over the larger area (hotter near the center than the poles)

19. 1) Factors Affecting Climate: Sun & Earth

20. 2) the presence of large bodies of water
When the sun's energy strikes land, a small amount of heat is absorbed by the top layer of matter quickly and the rest is reflected back into the atmosphere.

21. 2) the presence of large bodies of water
However, a large body of water, has a surface made of molecules that are constantly in motion, allowing warmer water to circulate away from the surface and bringing cooler water up to absorb more heat
This causes the water in the large body to heat up slower

22. 2) the presence of large bodies of water
This allows oceans and other bodies of water to absorb much more heat than land masses do
During the summer, the ocean absorbs heat from the atmosphere, cooling the air that flows from the sea onto the land.
In the winter, stored energy from warmer months works its way to the surface, warming the breezes that pass onto the shore.

23. 2) the presence of large bodies of water

24. 3) the presence of ocean or air currents
Currents in the ocean are also very important to world climate.
Each ocean has its own set of circular currents that flow throughout the body of water, many extending from the tropics well into the colder latitudes.
This system transports warm water into oceans that would otherwise remain frigid, allowing them to moderate climate even in countries near the poles.

25. 3) the presence of ocean or air currents

26. 3) the presence of ocean or air currents

27. 4) land formations
Landforms affect climate by altering the wind and rate of evaporation, which can cause changes in the temperature, humidity and precipitation of a region

28. 4) land formations
When storm fronts run into landforms, such as mountains or high plateaus, rain clouds are sometimes blocked
This causes the upwind side of the landform to receive plentiful rainfall, while the downwind side of the structure remains dry.

29. 5) Altitude Altitude is the subject's distance from the sea.
Altitude affects climate in that the higher up you get, the more the temperature drops
The temperature goes down roughly 15 °F for every 1,000 feet you climb.
This is why a lot of high-up places like mountaintops often get snow for most of the year when other places do not, no matter how low the temperature drops.

30. 5) Changes in Sea Levels
Sea level can rise by two different mechanisms with respect to climate change
First, as the oceans warm due to an increasing global temperature, seawater expands —taking up more space in the ocean basin and causing a rise in water level

31. 5) Changes in Sea Levels
The second mechanism adding to rising sea levels is the melting of ice over land, which then adds water to the ocean.

35. Climate Zones
To compare the climates of different region more accurately, scientists use a special tool called a climatograph to graph the data for a specific area over many years
A climatograph includes information for average monthly temperatures and an average of total monthly precipitations

36. Climate Zones
In the early 1900s, a scientist named Vladimir Köppen used temperature, precipitation, and plant communities to identify climate zones
Köppen’s system has been revised since then, but current systems are similar to Köppen’s original zones.

37. Earth’s Climate Zones Below is a map of the Earth’s main climate zones
In which climate zone do we live? Can you find another country containing the same climate zone?

38. Ecoregions
Are new climate zones, which focus on the ecology of the region
Ecoregions are based on landforms, soil, plants, and animals, as well as climate
They also consider human factors like crops and urban centres.

39. Bioclimate Profiles
An ecoregion describes the climate and ecosystem of a region in its current state.
A bioclimate profile is a series of graphs that show temperature and moisture conditions at a given location
The difference between ecoregions and bioclimate profiles is that bioclimate profiles only describe climate.

40. Bioclimate Profiles – Toronto

41. Videos 1.3 hrs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcVwLrAavyA
Global warming - videos/global-warming-101
Climate Change - forward-climate