Week 13 Blog

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 Lab:

This week, in the lab, we learned the difference between climate and weather. Weather is what we see day to day, while climate is the average of weather over a 30-year period. Changes in climate affect plants and animals. For example, the change in temperature and precipitation affect Iowa's goldfinches. If it continues to change, the goldfinches will either move to another location or go extinct. At the end of lab, we continued our investigation on climate change. All of our groups had similar takeaways and results that all point in the direction of climate change. Some of my notes from class are pictured below:



Lecture:

In lecture this week, we continued our discussion about climate change. Although most people believe in climate change, many still don't. We also learned why some regions have specific climates (some have to be hot and some have to be cold). 


Pressbook:

The pressbook explains that the Earth's atmosphere, even though it's thin, blocks the harmful radiation from the sun. Without the protection from the atmosphere and the heat from the sun, the Earth wouldn't be able to regulate temperatures to support life. The albedo effect is the amount of energy reflected by a surface. Lighter colors reflect sunlight and energy but darker colors absorb the sunlight and energy. Earth's albedo is decreasing as the icecaps and glaciers continue to melt because of climate change. The melted ice warms the water because the blue water absorbs more energy than the white ice. 

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