How should future solar evolution affect climate and life here on Earth?
What will be an ideal response?
As the sun ages, it becomes brighter. This results in a higher incoming solar flux at Earth orbit. The carbonate-silicate cycle dictates that this higher solar flux will lead to decreased CO2 concentrations, stabilizing the surface temperature. Eventually, the CO2 concentration will fall below the CO2 compensation point and photosynthesis is no longer energetically favorable. This could result in the end of life as we know it, as the primary producers currently on Earth will likely go extinct. Sometime after this, Earth's oceans should be lost as the planet develops a wet stratosphere, and water vapor is photolyzed, with the hydrogen escaping into space. This can all be greatly postponed, though, if we build a solar shield at the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point.
You might also like to view...
Explain how eating fish or poultry leads to more sustainable agriculture.
What will be an ideal response?
If the tangential velocity of the Moon about Earth slowed to zero, the Moon would
A. crash into Earth. B. spiral away from Earth C. continue in a straight-line path. D. slow.
Sensible heat:
A) travels by convection through the laminar boundary layer. B) is released or absorbed when a substance undergoes a phase change. C) is dependent upon the specific heat of the substance involved. D) does not involve changes in temperature.
Most of the world's ethanol is produced in the U.S. and ________
A) the Maldives B) Mexico C) Brazil D) Tuvalu E) China