Unit 2 Global climate: Causes of climate change
14 revision questions with answers for Unit 2 Global climate: Causes of climate change, marked SL and HL. Read them here, or play the set as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.
Proportion of incoming solar radiation reflected by a surface?
- Insolation
- Emissivity
- AlbedoRight answer
- Radiative forcing
What this set covers
Energy balance and feedbacks drive this set. It covers albedo, insolation, terrestrial radiation, the greenhouse effect, carbon sinks, permafrost, tipping points and why rice paddies and volcanoes matter.
- Common mix-up
- Students often mix up the greenhouse effect and the enhanced greenhouse effect: the first is natural and keeps Earth habitable, the second is extra warming from human emissions.
- Revision tip
- Draw a loop for melting ice and albedo, label it as positive feedback, then sketch a negative feedback beside it and explain how the two differ.
All 14 questions and answers
Proportion of incoming solar radiation reflected by a surface?
Answer: Albedo
Incoming short-wave energy from the Sun reaching the Earth?
Answer: Insolation
Long-wave energy emitted by the Earth's surface and atmosphere?
Answer: Terrestrial radiation
Natural warming as atmospheric gases absorb and re-emit outgoing long-wave radiation?
Answer: Greenhouse effect
Extra warming as human emissions raise concentrations of heat-trapping gases?
Answer: Enhanced greenhouse effect
Reduction in sunlight reaching the surface caused by aerosols and particulates?
Answer: Global dimming
Melting ice exposes darker surfaces that absorb more heat and melt more ice: an example of…?
Answer: Positive feedback
Change that counteracts a disturbance, returning a system towards equilibrium?
Answer: Negative feedback
Threshold beyond which a system shifts, often irreversibly, into a new state?
Answer: Tipping point
Ground below 0 °C for years, whose thawing releases stored CH₄ and CO₂?
Answer: Permafrost
Gas that makes the largest contribution to the natural greenhouse effect?
Answer: Water vapour
Flooded fields of this crop are a major farming source of methane?
Answer: Rice
Store such as an ocean or forest that absorbs more CO₂ than it releases?
Answer: Carbon sink
Volcanic eruptions cool global climate briefly, mainly by injecting these into the stratosphere?
Answer: Sulfate aerosols
Play it as a class game
Play this set opens it in splycr, where you can host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account: put the room code on the projector, and students join from a phone with the code and their first name. Each question plays as multiple choice, and the three wrong options were written for that question.