Global Climate Change - Introductory

You'll be in hot water if you don't review this list of terms related to global climate change. Study climatology as you explore the four major Earth systems — atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere — and consider human impacts on global warming.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aerosol
    a cloud of solid or liquid particles in a gas
  2. agriculture
    the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock
  3. atmosphere
    the mass of air surrounding the Earth
  4. biosphere
    the regions of the Earth where living organisms exist
  5. carbon cycle
    the organic circulation of carbon from the atmosphere into organisms and back again
  6. carbon dioxide
    a colorless, odorless greenhouse gas essential for photosynthesis
  7. climate
    the weather in some location averaged over a period of time
  8. climate change
    a shift in the world's average weather and temperature
  9. climatology
    meteorology of climates and their phenomena
  10. combustion
    a reaction of a substance with oxygen to give heat and light
  11. coral reef
    a reef consisting of coral consolidated into limestone
  12. desertification
    a gradual transformation into arid, uninhabitable land
  13. earth
    the solid part of the earth's surface
  14. emission
    a substance that is released
  15. fossil fuel
    energy-producing substance derived from preserved organisms
  16. geosphere
    the solid part of the Earth
  17. glacier
    a slowly moving mass of ice
  18. global warming
    a rise in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere
  19. greenhouse effect
    warming due to solar radiation trapped by the atmosphere
  20. greenhouse gas
    a substance in the air that warms a planet by trapping heat
  21. hydrosphere
    the watery layer of the earth's surface
  22. ice cap
    a mass of ice and snow that permanently covers a large area of land (e.g., the polar regions or a mountain peak)
  23. impact
    a forceful consequence; a strong effect
  24. methane
    a colorless, odorless gas used as a fuel
  25. population
    a group of organisms of the same species inhabiting an area
  26. precipitation
    the falling to earth of any form of water
  27. sea level
    level of the ocean's surface
  28. solar radiation
    radiation from the sun
  29. temperature
    the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment
  30. volcano
    a fissure in the earth's crust through which gases erupt
  31. weather
    atmospheric conditions such as temperature and precipitation
Created on Thu Jan 26 16:07:07 EST 2017 (updated Wed Apr 12 13:28:44 EDT 2017)

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