The document discusses climate change and its causes and impacts. It begins by defining weather and climate, then states that the planet is getting warmer due to the greenhouse effect trapping heat. It suggests this warming is being caused by human activities that release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane through processes like burning fossil fuels and cement production. This climate change is impacting various organisms, like causing sea turtle populations to become skewed in gender ratios and reducing suitable habitat for polar bears. The document also notes ways climate change can influence weather patterns and events like hurricanes or the Winter Olympics through altering temperature and precipitation levels.

1. Climate Change Ellie Myers

2. What is the weather?What is the climate? What is the weather? the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/weather What is the climate? the composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/climate

3. How is the global climate changing? Is it getting warmer or colder? How do we know? The planet is getting warmer which is now known as global warming. Something called the "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/global-warming/gw-overview/

4. What could be causing global climate change? Many people think that the current phase of global warming was directly caused by human beings who have invented such things as cement, electric power, internal combustion engines and furnaces and water heaters which use oil or gas as fuels. Cement is made by burning limestone, a process which generates so much carbon dioxide gas (CO2) that it has become one of the major pollutants of the Earth's atmosphere. Then the cement is used to make concrete to create huge and ever-growing cities with their associated urban infrastructure such as buildings, tunnels, roads, railways, sea ports, airports, etc.

5. What could be causing global climate change?Continued….. Electric power does not arise naturally: it must always be generated. Apart from the relatively small amount of electricity that is currently generated using river dams and waterfalls or using wind-generators, seawater wave-generators or solar cells, one of the main ways to generate electric power at present is to burn fossil-based fuels such as coal, oil or gas. Such fuel burning is another major source of pollution of the Earth's atmosphere. Human beings use internal combustion engines in vehicles such as cars, trucks, trains, ships and airplanes to travel about, both within and between those cities. They also use furnaces and water heaters, which use oil or gas as fuels, to heat the buildings in those cities. Even air conditioning systems that are used to cool buildings must use electricity, as must electric lighting and all the computer and communications systems we now use. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_global_warming_happening

6. How does the changing climate impact biota: turtles, polar bears, penguins, migratory birds, humans, food production? Turtles lay their eggs underground. The temperature underground determines the gender of the baby turtle. If the temperature underground is warmer because of global warming then all of the babies will be female leading to a decrease in the male population http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_global_warming_affect_sea_turtles Today's polar bears are facing rapid loss of the sea ice where they hunt, breed, and, in some cases, den. Changes in their distribution or numbers affect the entire arctic ecosystem. http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/polar-bears/bear-essentials-polar-style/human-interaction/climate-change

7. What are Differences between Climate and Weather? Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere, and its short-term variation. http://nsidc.org/arcticmet/basics/weather_vs_climate.html Climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html

8. How has the change in climate created a change in weather patterns?

9. Pick a biome and figure out if the overall temperature and precipitation has changed in the past 150 years: deciduous forest, rain forest, desert, boreal/ coniferous forest, tundra, or polar.

10. Is carbon related to climate change? Is water vapor related to climate change? How?

11. How does the changing climate impact abiota: weather patterns, jet stream, hurricanes, precipitation levels, human events (e.g. Winter Olympics)?