Guide
This page is not intended to be modified, and is based directly on the self-study document.
Adult game
Card #1 : Human activities
Description
This is where it all begins...
Causes
None
Consequences
Card #2 : Industry
Description
Industry uses fossil fuels and electricity.
It accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Causes
Consequences
Card #3 : Building Usage
Description
The building sector (housing and commercial use) uses fossil fuels and electricity.
It accounts for 20% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Causes
Consequences
Card #4 : Transportation
Description
The transportation sector is highly dependent on oil.
It accounts for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Causes
Consequences
Card #5 : Fossil Fuels
Description
Fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas.
They are used mainly in buildings, transportation, and industry.
They emit CO2 when burned.
Causes
Consequences
Card #6 : Deforestation
Description
Deforestation consists in cutting or burning trees beyond the ability to restore the forest.
80% of the deforestation is related to agriculture.
Causes
Consequences
Card #7 : CO2 Emissions
Description
CO2 (or carbon dioxide) is the first anthropogenic (ie linked to human activity) greenhouse gas in terms of emissions.
These emissions come from our use of fossil fuels and deforestation.
Causes
Consequences
Card #8 : Agriculture
Description
Agriculture does not emit a lot of CO2, but is responsible for the emission of large quantities of methane
(from cows and rice paddies) and of nitrous oxide (from fertilizers).
In all, agriculture amounts for 25% of GHGs if we include induced deforestation.
Causes
Consequences
Card #9 : Other GHGs
Description
CO2 is not the only greenhouse gas (GHG). Among others are methane (CH4 ), and nitrous oxide (N2O),
two gases mainly emitted by agricultural activities.
Causes
Consequences
Card #10 : Aerosols
Description
Nothing to do with aerosol spray cans.
Aerosols are a type of local pollution that comes from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels.
They are bad for human health and they contribute negatively to radiative forcing (they cool the climate).
Causes
Consequences
Card #11 : Concentration of CO2
Description
About half of our CO2 emissions are captured by natural carbon sinks.
The other half remains in the atmosphere ; the concentration of CO2 in the air has increased
from 280 to 410 ppm (parts per million) in 150 years.
Causes
Consequences
Card #12 : Carbon Sinks
Description
Half of the CO2 we emit every year is absorbed by carbon sinks :
- 1/4 by the vegetation (through photosynthesis)
- 1/4 by the ocean
The remaining half (1/2) stays in the atmosphere.
Causes
Consequences
Card #13 : Additional Greenhouse Effect
Description
The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon – and incidentally, the first of the GHGs is water vapor.
Without greenhouse effect, the planet would be 33°C colder and life as we know it would not be possible.
But CO2 and other GHGs related to human activity increase the natural greenhouse effect and unbalance the climate.
Causes
Consequences
Card #14 : Energy Budget
Description
This graph explains where the energy accumulated on Earth due to radiative forcing goes :
it warms up the ocean, melts ice, dissipates into the ground, and warms up the atmosphere.
Causes
Consequences
- Melting of Glaciers
- Increase in Water Temperature
- Melting of Sea Ice
- Melting of Ice Sheets
- Temperature Rise
Card #15 : Radiative Forcing
Description
Radiative forcing represents the difference (caused by humans) between the energy that arrives on Earth each second and the energy that is released.
In the 5 th assessment report of IPCC, it is rated at (Watt per square meter).
Causes
Consequences
Card #16 : Melting of Glaciers
Description
Almost all glaciers have lost mass. Hundreds of them have already disappeared.
These glaciers play a regulating role in the provision of fresh water.
Causes
Consequences
Card #17 : Increase in Water Temperature
Description
Oceans absorb 93% of the energy accumulated on Earth.
Their temperature has therefore increased, especially in the upper layers.
The water expands as it warms up.
Causes
Consequences
Card #18 : Melting of Sea Ice
Description
Sea ice melting does not make the sea level rise (just as a melting ice cube does not make a glass overflow).
However, when it melts, it gives way to the much darker sea, which goes on to absorb more sun rays than white ice.
Causes
Consequences
- No main consequences
Card #19 : Melting of Ice Sheets
Description
Continental glaciers (or ice sheets) are in Greenland and Antarctica.
If they melt completely, they will cause a rise in ocean levels of 7 meters for Greenland and 54 meters for Antarctica.
During the last ice age, ice sheets were so much larger that the sea level was 120 m lower than today.
Causes
Consequences
Card #20 : Disruption of the Water Cycle
Description
If the oceans and the atmosphere are hotter, the evaporation that takes place at the ocean surface increases.
This means more rain clouds and more rain. If this happens on land, then the soils dries out.
Causes
Consequences
Card #21 : Temperature Rise
Description
Here we are referring to the average temperature of air above the ground on Earth.
It has increased by 1°C since 1900. Depending on the scenarios, the rise in temperature could reach 2°C to 5°C by 2100.
At the end of the last ice age years, the average temperature was only 5°C lower than today... and deglaciation took 10,000 years!
Causes
Consequences
- Disruption of the Water Cycle
- Terrestrial Biodiversity
- Decline in Agricultural Yields
- Heat Waves
- Human Health
- Permafrost
Card #22 : Sea Level Rise
Description
Since 1900, sea level has risen by 20 cm.
Sea level rise is caused by the thermal expansion of ocean waters, and the melting of glaciers and continental glaciers.
Causes
Consequences
Card #23 : Hindered calcification process
Description
When the pH drops, the formation of calcium carbonate (and more specifically, of calcified shells) becomes more difficult.
Causes
Consequences
Card #24 : Ocean Acidification
Description
When CO2 dissolves into the ocean, it turns into acid ions (H2CO3 and HCO3–).
The effect of this transformation is ocean acidification (the pH decreases).
Causes
Consequences
Card #25 : Terrestrial Biodiversity
Description
Animals and plants are affected by the changes in temperature and the disruption of the water cycle.
They may migrate, become extinct or, more rarely, proliferate.
Causes
Consequences
Card #26 : River Flooding
Description
The disruption of the water cycle can bring more water or less water. More water can lead to river flooding.
If the soil has been dried out by a drought, it makes things worse because the water runs off.
Causes
Consequences
Card #27 : Marine Biodiversity
Description
Pteropods and coccolithophores are at the base of the ocean food chain.
Therefore, if they disappear, all marine biodiversity is threatened. The warming of ocean waters also threatens marine biodiversity.
Causes
Consequences
Card #28 : Vectors of Disease
Description
With global warming, animals migrate. Some of them carry diseases and can reach areas where the population is not immunized against these diseases.
Causes
Consequences
Card #29 : Pteropods and Coccolithophores
Description
Pteropods are a kind of zooplankton and coccolithophores a kind of phytoplankton. These organisms have a calcified shell.
Causes
Consequences
Card #30 : Droughts
Description
The disruption of the water cycle can bring more water or less water. Less water is a drought. Droughts are likely to become more frequent in the future.
Causes
Consequences
Card #31 : Freshwater Resources
Description
Freshwater resources are affected by changes in rainfall and by the disappearance of glaciers that regulate the flow of rivers.
Causes
Consequences
Card #32 : Decline in Agricultural Yields
Description
Food production can be affected by temperature, droughts, extreme weather events, floods and marine submersion (e.g. the Nile Delta).
Causes
- Temperature Rise
- Terrestrial Biodiversity
- River Flooding
- Droughts
- Freshwater Resources
- Marine Submersion
- Cyclones
Consequences
Card #33 : Marine Submersion
Description
Cyclones and weather disturbances bring wind (therefore waves) and low pressure conditions.
1 hectopascal less means a 1 cm sea level rise.
Therefore cyclones can cause marine submersions (or coastal flooding), amplified by the sea level rise already caused by global warming.
Causes
Consequences
Card #34 : Cyclones
Description
Cyclones use energy from warm waters at the ocean surface. Because of global warming, they are becoming stronger.
Causes
Consequences
Card #35 : Forest Fires
Description
Forest fires start more easily during droughts and heat waves.
Causes
Consequences
No direct consequences.
Card #36 : Heat Waves
Description
A manifestation of temperature increase is the multiplication of heat waves.
Causes
Consequences
Card #37 : Starvation
Description
Starvation can be caused by lower agricultural yields and by the reduction of marine biodiversity.
Causes
Consequences
Card #38 : Human Health
Description
Starvation, displacement of disease vectors, heat waves and armed conflicts can affect human health.
Causes
Consequences
Card #39 : Climate Refugees
Description
Imagine that you live in a place that has been miraculously spared by climate change. Several billions of human beings might want to share this space with you.
Causes
Consequences
Card #40 : Armed Conflicts
Description
This is how we shouldn't let it end...
Causes
Consequences
Card #41 : Permafrost
Description
Permafrost is permanently frozen ground.
Permafrost thawing leads to the decomposition of organic matter previously frozen underground, a phenomenon that releases methane and CO2 into the atmosphere.
Beyond +2°C, it is almost certain this phenomenon will accelerate and make the climate spiral out of control.
Causes
Consequences
Card #42 : Weakening Gulf Stream
Description
The Gulf Stream is part of the ocean's thermohaline circulation. It could weaken in response to freshwater input from Greenland's melting ice sheet.
This could disrupt the water cycle even more and reduce the ocean's capacity to absorb more carbon and heat.
Causes