Botkin Environmental Science Earth as Living Planet 8th txtbk

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CHAPTER 20 The Atmosphere, Climate, and Global Warming LEARNING OBJECTIVES Earth’s atmosphere—the layer of gases surrounding the Earth—is a complex, dynamic system that is changing continuously. After reading this chapter, you should understand . . . The basic composition and structure of the atmosphere; How the processes of atmospheric circulation and climate work; How the climate has changed over the Earth’s history; The years of the Medieval Warm Period, from about A.D. 950 to 1250, were good times for the people in Western Europe. Harvests were good, cultures flourished, the population expanded, and great cathedrals were built. In the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America, the same period brought persistent droughts that contributed to the collapse of some civilizations, including the Maya. What the term greenhouse gas means and what the major greenhouse gases are; What global warming is and what major kinds of evidence point to it; What effects global warming might have and how we can adjust to them.
CASE STUDY What Does History Tell Us about Global Warming’s Potential Consequences for People? 429 CASE STUDY What Does History Tell Us about Global Warming’s Potential Consequences for People? During an approximate 300-year period from a.d. 950 to 1250, Earth’s surface was considerably warmer than what climatologists today call normal (meaning the average surface temperature during the past century or some shorter interval, such as 1960–1990). This warm time is known as the Medieval Warm Period (MWP). With all the concerns today about climate change, perhaps we can learn some lessons from that time. Since weather records were not kept then, we do not have a global picture of what it was like. What we do know is that parts of the world, in particular Western Europe and the Atlantic, may have been warmer some of the time than they were in the last decade of the 20th century. However on a global basis the MWP was not as warm as it is today. In Western Europe, it was a time of flourishing culture and activity, as well as expansion of the population; a time when harvests were plentiful, people generally prospered, and many of Europe’s grand cathedrals were constructed. 1, 2 Sea temperatures evidently were warmer, and there was less sea ice. Viking explorers from Scandinavia traveled widely in the Far North and established settlements in Iceland, Greenland, and even briefly in North America. Near the end of the 10th century, Erik the Red, the famous Viking explorer, arrived at Greenland with his ships and set up settlements that flourished for several hundred years. The settlers were able to raise domestic animals and grow a variety of crops that had never before been cultivated in Greenland (Figure 20.1). During the same warm period, Polynesian people in the Pacific, taking advantage of winds flowing throughout the Pacific, were able to sail to and colonize islands over vast areas of the Pacific, including Hawaii. 2 While some prospered in Western Europe and the Pacific during the Medieval Warm Period, other cultures appear to have been less fortunate. Associated with the warming period were long, persistent droughts (think human-generational length) that appear to have been partially responsible for the collapse of sophisticated cultures in North and Central America. The collapses were not sudden but occurred over a period of many decades, and in some cases the people just moved away. These included the people living near Mono Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in California, the FIGURE 20.1 Remains of a Viking settlement in Greenland from the Medieval Warm Period. Chacoan people in what is today Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and the Mayan civilization in the Yucatán of southern Mexico and Central America. The Medieval Warm Period was followed by the Little Ice Age (LIA), which lasted from approximately mid-1400 to 1700. The cooling made life more difficult for people in Western Europe and North America. Crop failures occurred in Western Europe, and some mountain glaciers in the Swiss Alps advanced to the extent that they filled valleys and destroyed villages. Areas to the north that had enjoyed abundant crop production were under ice. 3 The population was devastated by the Black Plague, whose effects may have been exacerbated by poor nutrition as a result of crop failures and by the damp and cold that reached out across Europe and even to Iceland by about 1400. Travel and trade became difficult in the Far North. Eventually, the Viking colonies in North America were abandoned and those in Greenland declined greatly. Part of the reason for the abandonment in North America, and particularly in Newfoundland, was that the Vikings may not have been able to adapt to the changing conditions, as did the Inuit peoples living there. As times became tough, the two cultures collided, and the Vikings, despite their
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ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE Earth as a Li
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VICE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE PUBLIS
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About the Authors Daniel B. Botkin
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Preface vii Themes Our book is base
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Preface ix Updated Critical Thinkin
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Acknowledgments Reviewers of This E
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Acknowledgments xiii Karen Swanson,
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Contents Chapter 1 Key Themes in En
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xviii Contents Summary 125 Reexamin
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xx Contents Chapter 13 Wildlife, Fi
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xxii Contents CRITICAL THINKING ISS
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xxiv Contents Availability and Use
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2 CHAPTER 1 Key Themes in Environme
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10 CHAPTER 1 Key Themes in Environm
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over 4 million in 1950. In 1999 Tok
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CHAPTER 2 Science as a Way of Knowi
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24 CHAPTER 2 Science as a Way of Kn
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42 CHAPTER 3 The Big Picture: Syste
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60 CHAPTER 4 The Human Population a
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CHAPTER 5 Ecosystems: Concepts and
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82 CHAPTER 5 Ecosystems: Concepts a
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100 CHAPTER 5 Ecosystems: Concepts
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102 CHAPTER 5 Ecosystems: Concepts
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CHAPTER 6 The Biogeochemical Cycles
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106 CHAPTER 6 The Biogeochemical Cy
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128 CHAPTER 7 Dollars and Environme
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144 CHAPTER 8 Biological Diversity
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170 CHAPTER 9 Ecological Restoratio
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186 CHAPTER 10 Environmental Health
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212 CHAPTER 11 Agriculture, Aquacul
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236 CHAPTER 12 Landscapes: Forests,
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258 CHAPTER 13 Wildlife, Fisheries,
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CHAPTER 14 Energy: Some Basics LEAR
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288 CHAPTER 14 Energy: Some Basics
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304 CHAPTER 15 Fossil Fuels and the
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CHAPTER 16 Alternative Energy and t
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328 CHAPTER 16 Alternative Energy a
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346 CHAPTER 17 Nuclear Energy and t
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CHAPTER 18 Water Supply, Use, and M
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370 CHAPTER 18 Water Supply, Use, a
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478 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution The ga
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480 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution Table
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482 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution
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484 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution
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490 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution chimn
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494 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution SUMMAR
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496 CHAPTER 21 Air Pollution STUDY
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498 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments C
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500 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments I
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502 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments o
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504 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments K
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506 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments 2
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508 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments A
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510 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments F
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512 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments F
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518 CHAPTER 22 Urban Environments S
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520 CHAPTER 23 Materials Management
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552 CHAPTER 24 Our Environmental Fu
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Appendix A Special Feature: Electro
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Appendix A-3 VOLUME in 3 ft 3 yd 3
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Appendix A-5 Basic Chemistry
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Photo Credits CHAPTER 1 Ch Op 1: Im
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Glossary Abortion rate The estimate
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Glossary G-3 deposition of crustal
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Glossary G-5 high and the growth ra
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Glossary G-7 environmental impacts
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Glossary G-9 per unit time and some
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Glossary G-11 cooler than it is tod
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Glossary G-13 Nonpoint sources Poll
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Glossary G-15 Positive feedback A t
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Glossary G-17 Shelterwood cutting A
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Glossary G-19 Time series The set o
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Index Entries followed by an f may
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INDEX I-3 Sweetwater Marsh National
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INDEX I-5 dune succession, 96, 96f
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INDEX I-7 Colorado River, 114, 115f
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INDEX I-9 Lovelock, James, 10, 108
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INDEX I-11 Pelagic ecosystem, 85, 8
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INDEX I-13 Static systems, 44, 44f
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INDEX I-15 Watts, 291, 292t Weather
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N-2 NOTES 7. Schmidt, W.E. 1991 (Se
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N-4 NOTES 4. Christian, D. 2004. Ma
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N-6 NOTES 9. Collins, S.L., A.K. Kn
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N-8 NOTES 8. U.S. Department of Agr
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N-10 NOTES 19. O’Donnell, James J
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N-12 NOTES 19. Piore, 2002 (April 1
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N-14 NOTES application of secondary
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N-16 NOTES 22. Foukal, P., C. Frohl
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N-18 NOTES 54. Zummo, S.M., and M.H
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N-20 NOTES 38. Bullard, R.D. 1990.
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