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