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The oceans' tides are affected by the phases of the Moon.

Evidence for Climate Change

This GCSE Geography quiz looks at evidence for climate change, from melting ice and sea-level rise to changing seasons, extreme weather and long-term temperature records.

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Fascinating Fact:

The timing of natural events, such as earlier spring flowering or bird migration, has changed in many regions, indicating shifts in seasonal climate patterns.

In GCSE Geography, you examine different types of evidence for climate change, such as temperature graphs, glacial retreat, sea-level rise and ecosystem changes. These help distinguish natural variation from human influence.

Key Terms

Climate change: Long-term changes in average weather patterns, such as temperature and rainfall, in a region or across the whole planet.
Global warming: The recent trend of rising average global temperatures, mainly caused by extra greenhouse gases from human activities.
Proxy data: Indirect evidence, like tree rings, ice cores or ocean sediments, used to reconstruct past climates.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What evidence shows that climate change is happening?

Evidence for climate change includes rising global temperatures, shrinking glaciers, sea-level rise, more frequent heatwaves and changes in plant and animal behaviour, such as earlier flowering and migration.

How do ice cores provide evidence for climate change?

Ice cores contain layers of compacted snow with trapped air bubbles. Scientists analyse gases and isotopes in these layers to reconstruct past temperatures and greenhouse gas levels over hundreds of thousands of years.

What is the difference between weather and climate in GCSE Geography?

Weather describes day-to-day conditions, like today’s temperature and rainfall. Climate is the long-term average of weather patterns over many years and is used to identify climate change trends.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

The extent and thickness of the Artic sea ice is reducing each year. But what other technique can be used on the ice to gather evidence for climate change?

Seal calving rates can be looked at

Soil trapped in the ice sheets can be monitored

The thickness of the ice above land at the North Pole can be measured

Ice cores can be studied

Ice cores can be used to show the amount of snow fall and the trapped air bubbles can be used to measure the atmospheric content going back thousands of years

2 .

What is the evidence for climate change from glaciers and ice sheets?

They are shrinking

They are expanding

They are remaining the same, with ice being formed at the same rate as it melts

They are moving faster, but not shrinking

Ice sheets are melting at an alarming rate. Greenland loses around 250 - 300 cubic kilometres of ice per year

3 .

Why can't NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer collect data on the snow coverage at the poles during their respective winters?

The extreme cold stops the sensors working

No one can practically work at the poles during the winter

There is no sunlight at the poles during their winters

The poles tilt away from the satellite

The lack of light means that for part of the year there is no way to gather the data on the poles, but at present scientists can still be sure that there is plenty of snow on the poles during the depths of winter

4 .

Extreme events are an obvious source of evidence for climate change. In terms of warmest summers on record what has been the trend in the twenty-first century?

There have been 2 of the warmest summers on records. 2 more have been the coldest on record

Only 1 summer has broken a record

5 summers have been the warmest on record

There has been a big increase in the number of warmest summers on record

Since 1981 twenty of the warmest years on record have occurred and ten of the warmest years on record occurred between 2002 and 2014

5 .

How much have sea levels risen in the past 100 years?

1.7 cm

17 cm

170 cm

1.7 m

Whilst 17cm might not sound like much, it's double the rise of the previous century

6 .

The Earth's oceans are becoming more acidic. How have human actions caused this?

Removing coral has lead to the sea being unable to buffer itself

Increased fossil fuel burning has released more CO₂ and other gases, making the oceans more acidic

Pollution draining off the land has included acids. These have lowered the oceans pH

Adding limestone and slaked lime to the waterways has dramatically lowered the pH

The amount of carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide) being absorbed by the upper layers of the ocean has increased by an estimated 2 billion tons per year

7 .

How might scientists monitor snow coverage?

Using satellites

Using anecdotal data from skiers and other mountain users

Using weather reports

Visiting all the places individually

NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer collects data on the snow coverage from the Terra satellite

8 .

What is the evidence that anthropogenic (man-made) causes are behind the rise in CO₂ levels?

CO₂ levels have risen above 300ppm slightly in the past 100 years, before dipping back below in 2005 after carbon emissions were reduced

There is no scientific evidence, but anecdotal observation suggests we are to blame

CO₂ levels have been rising since humans first appeared on Earth

CO₂ levels have risen dramatically since the beginning of the industrial revolution and are higher than they've been in 650,000 years

For the past 60 or so years the trend in the graph has been an almost vertical rise in the amount of carbon in the atmosphere

9 .

What part of the planet absorbs most of the temperature increase?

The core

The land masses

The polar icecaps

The oceans

The oceans are warming. Whilst the average rise is only very slight, it shows that the trend is that everything is getting warmer

10 .

Solar output is the amount of energy given off by the Sun. From 2007-2009 the solar output declined so much that this period is known as a solar minimum. What happened to the Earth's surface temperatures during this time?

They continued to rise

They fell slightly

They fell sharply

There was no change

Even during the solar minimum, average global surface temperatures continued to rise, demonstrating the insulating effects of the greenhouse gases

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Climate change

Author: Ruth M