EARTH SCIENCE
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Measuring the current outside temperature with a thermometer
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Collecting rainwater over the course of 10 years to determine average precipitation
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Estimating the growth rate of a tree by examining its rings
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These are all examples of proxies
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Detailed explanation-1: -Organisms, such as diatoms, forams, and coral serve as useful climate proxies. Other proxies include ice cores, tree rings, and sediment cores (which include diatoms, foraminifera, microbiota, pollen, and charcoal within the sediment and the sediment itself).
Detailed explanation-2: -Tree Rings Trees and their unique rings also serve as proxy data. Because climate conditions influence tree growth, patterns in tree-ring widths, density, and isotopic composition reflect variations in climate.
Detailed explanation-3: -But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
Detailed explanation-4: -A proxy climate indicator is a local record that is interpreted using physical or biophysical principles to represent some combination of climate-related variations back in time.