(A) A warmer Scandinavia and Great Britain
(B) Freshwater fish moving into the open ocean
(C) A colder Scandinavia and Great Britain
(D) A saltier ocean
(E) A drier Scandinavia and Great Britain- The largest number of species are being exterminated per year in (A)
grasslands
(B) deserts
(C) forests
(D) tropical rainforests
(E) the tundra
FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION
By Brian Palm, Catholic Memorial School, West Roxbury, MA
A.B. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
MSc Oxford University, UK
(a) An April 2015 article in Nature described the likelihood of the “methane
time bomb” that would push our climate situation to a point of irreversible
change. This example of a positive feedback loop is one of many that
could occur in a “climate changed” world. Identify AND describe ONE
other positive feedback mechanism in an ecological system.(b) CCS stands for Carbon, Capture, and Storage, a process that utilizes a
number of technologies to capture and then store (hopefully for a long
time) the carbon dioxide produced through coal-fired electricity
generation. One of the major concerns about CCS is its cost. In 2009, a
Harvard University lab estimated that it would cost $150 to capture and
sequester one ton of CO 2 . If a single 500 MW coal-fired plant generates
about 3 million tons of CO 2 each year, calculate the additional, annual cost
burden for a single coal-fired plant of this size.(c) List AND describe ONE economic consequence of climate change, ONE
human health consequence of climate change, and ONE environmental
consequence of climate change.