Issues Questions

Please read each question below and type your response into each corresponding box. When you are finished, fill out your name, e-mail address, and instructor's e-mail at the bottom of this form, and click submit to send a copy to your instructor.

1: Identify an assumption in the previous quotation.

2: Given the mean depth of the ocean, 3,800 m, how much would a rise of seawater temperature of 1 °C cause sea level to rise? Hint: convert 3,800 m to centimeters, and then multiply this number by the coeffi cient of thermal expansion?

3: How much of global warming’s heat is going into the oceans?

4: What did the 3000-robot “array” of monitoring devices report about ocean warming over the period 2004 to 2008?

5: Why does sea level rise when the oceans warm?

6: How much has sea level risen over the period 2004–2008?

7: Describe the signifi cance of this rise, according to the interviewee.

8: How does the observation of sea level rise challenge the data from the robot array?

9: Why are clouds called a kind of “natural thermostat?”

10: Describe the level of scientifi c understanding of the role of clouds in climate change over the period of study.

11: Why is the recent observation that the ocean is “getting bluer” not good news?

12: How do phytoplankton help the planet “breathe?”

13: What has the recent change from a greener ocean to a bluer ocean coincided with?

14: What are long-term implications for a decline in phytoplankton?

15: How does the observed change in phytoplankton affect carbonic acid in seawater, and what are the implications?

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