Global Climate Change

Global Climate Change Handout—PDF document

“Global Climate Change” Worksheet

1.  Referring to the graph on page 13, for at least how long in the past was the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere between 170 and 300 parts per million (ppm)?  What is the CO2  concentration now, and where is it headed by 2100?


2. What is the “greenhouse effect” and how does it work?


3. What is “the principal factor causing [global] warming over the past 50 years”?


4. Referring to the graph on page 14, what pattern do you see among the concentrations of the 3 gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O) over the last 2000 years? About when did the concentrations start to change, and why?


5. What are the six main heat-trapping gases listed in the article?

    a. Which one is the most important and abundant?
    b. Which one is produced by cow farts and decomposing garbage?
    c. Which one also protects life from UV radiation from the sun?
    d. Which one increases with deforestation?
    e. Which one comes from refrigeration chemicals and damages ozone?

6. For how long do carbon dioxide and methane gases remain in atmosphere?


7. What are two important natural factors that influence Earth’s climate? Could they be responsible for the warming that’s occurred in recent decades?


8. According to the chart on page 16, what has the greatest warming and what has the greatest cooling influence? Does ozone contribute more to cooling or warming?


9. How much of the carbon emitted by human activities over the last 50 years is still in the atmosphere, and how much has been absorbed by the ocean or stored in plants?


10. When the ocean absorbs more CO2, a chemical reaction takes place with water, making carbonic acid (H2CO3). Why is ocean acidification a problem?


11. Looking at the figure on page 17, what is the relationship between CO2 concentration and global temperature? Do they match exactly?


12. What are the two principal ways that global warming causes sea levels to rise?



13. According to the top figure on page 18, do the observed changes in global temperature seem to match up better with predicted temperature values based on “human affects” or “natural forces only”?


14. Referring to the bottom figure on page 18, is there a strong correlation (relationship) between changes in the sun’s energy and the global surface temperature? Thus, would it make sense to argue that changes in the sun’s energy are responsible for global warming?


15. The term “feedback loop” was used several times in the article (pages 15, 16, and 17), and it’s an important concept in biology and climate science. What does the term “feedback loop” mean?