Climate Change Topics

- Greenhouse gases (what are they, where do they come from)

- Greenhouse gas effect
- Anthropogenic problems
- Albedo effect
- Positive feedback loop
- Impact of natural disasters as well as human activity on the environment (volcanos,
burning fossil fuels, deforestation)
- Activities that impact our carbon footprint
- Indicators of climate change
- Weather vs climate
- Read and analyze climatographs

Climate Change Review Questions

1. What is weather? What is climate? Include an example of each.

2. What is the difference between weather and climate?

3.
a) What type of graph is shown above? ____________________
b) What two pieces of climate information are shown on the graph? ________________,
____________________
c) When did Vancouver receive the highest amount of precipitation? ____________
d) What is Vancouver’s average November temperature? (include units) ____________
e) What is Vancouver’s average May precipitation? (include units) _____________
f) Why are these graphs constructed from the average of many years of climate data
rather than just 1 year?

Greenhouse Effect

4. What is the difference between the natural greenhouse effect and the anthropogenic
Greenhouse Effect?

5. Identify 3 major greenhouse gases, and give 2 sources of each.

6. Why does the level of CO2 in the atmosphere fall in the spring and summer and then rise
in the fall and winter?

Clues to Past Climate

7. What climate information do ice cores give, and why are ice cores important as
records of past climate compared to other records of past climate (e.g. human
measurements of temperature)?

8. What might be 1 advantage of using tree rings as a record? What are 2 disadvantages
or limitations of tree rings?
Evidence for Climate Change
9. List 3 pieces of evidence that support the hypothesis of climate change.

10. What are 2 reasons that sea levels are rising?

11. Why do the records of increasing surface temperatures and atmospheric carbon
dioxide levels support the hypothesis of anthropogenic (human-caused or human
contributed) climate change over the last 150 years?

12. In what ways do ecosystem changes provide evidence of climate change?

Effects of Climate Change

13. For any 3 of the following areas, explain how climate change affects or might affect
them, and indicate what impacts these effects might have on humans, wildlife or
ecosystems: Extreme Weather Events, Freshwater, Forest Ecosystems, Glaciers and Polar
Ice Caps, Human health, Economic Activity (e.g. agriculture).

Taking Action on Climate Change

14. What are 3 types of action that individuals can do about climate change, and why
would these actions be useful?
15. What are 3 types of action that government, industry and businesses can take, and why
would these actions be useful for fighting climate change?