IB Environmental systems and societies 6.2 Climate Change - Causes and Impact Key Definitions

Aerosols are tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere.

Biome shift refers to the movement of major vegetation and ecosystem types towards the poles or higher elevations due to long-term climate changes.

Climate describes the average weather conditions in a region over a long period, typically 30 years or more.

Climate justice refers to the fair treatment of all people and countries in policies and impacts related to climate change. It recognises that those who contributed least to the problem are often the most affected.

A critical threshold is the moment at which a system crosses a boundary, triggering rapid state change.

Ecosystem resilience refers to an ecosystem’s ability to recover from disturbances and return to its original state or adapt to a new equilibrium.

Hindcasting is a method for validating climate models by comparing their simulated past climate with actual historical records.

Ice cores are cylinders of ice drilled from glaciers or ice sheets that contain trapped gases and particles from past atmospheres.

Isotopes are atoms of the same element with different neutron counts; ratios shift with temperature, enabling paleoclimate reconstruction.

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of CaCO₃, formed through both biological and chemical precipitation processes.

Long-term climate data refers to environmental measurements collected over several decades or centuries, allowing patterns and trends related to climate change to be identified and analysed.

A planetary boundary is a threshold beyond which human activities risk causing catastrophic environmental change.

Societal resilience refers to the ability of communities to prepare for, absorb, recover from and adapt to climate-related hazards.

A tipping point is a critical threshold where small changes trigger dramatic, often irreversible shifts in an ecosystem.