Chapter 3 homework

Chapter 3, Section 1
1. Earth’s tilt causes certain areas to receive more direct sunlight that other places. This causes areas with more direct sunlight to have warmer temperatures than areas that receive little direct sunlight. Earth’s revolution and its tilt changes that amount of sunlight that reaches different locations, causing different seasons.

2.Global warming could cause water to evaporate more quickly from the oceans, increasing humidity and rain. Water evaporation from soil with cause land to dry out more quickly and the air will become more polluted.

Creative Writing: I do not believe global warming is a natural process. As the population rates have increases so has the temperatures and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Human activities such as burning coal and oil are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trapping heat. If people would decrease the amount of destructive actions they are taking against the Earth global warming would decrease too.

Chapter 3, Section 2
1. Within each latitude zone, climate follows general patterns. Places in the low latitudes have a warm or hot climate, areas in the high latitudes do not receive direct sunlight and have a cooler climate, and midlatitudes have a temperate climate that ranges from fairly hot to fairly cold. Earth’s atmosphere thins as altitude increases causing temperature to decrease, regardless of latitude.

2. Wind patterns, such as the polar easterlies, push cold air toward the midlatitudes. At the equator global winds are diverted leaving a windless band called the doldrums causing still, hot weather. Ocean currents affect the climate in the coastal lands along which they flow. Cold ocean currents cool the lands they pass and warm ocean currents bring warmth. Mountain ranges cause the windward side of a mountain to be cooler and more humid while the leeward side tends to be warm and drier.

Creative Writing:
The European climate would become much colder and drier without the current forcing Europeans to adapt.
Chapter 3, Section 3
1. Geographers classify the climate regions as tropical, midlatitude, high latitude, and highland. They then divide these major regions into smaller ones that have their own characteristic soils and natural vegetation.

2. Human interaction with the environment influences the climate over time. Burning fossil fuels releases gases that mix with water in the air causing acid rain. Acid rain destroys forests which can lead to a climatic change.

Creative Writing:
I live in a marine west coast climate where ocean winds bring cool summers and cool, damp winters. There are mixed forests that consist of coniferous and deciduous trees.