Climate
What is weather?
Weather describes the conditions outside right now in a specific place. For example, if you see that it’s raining outside right now, that’s a way to describe today’s weather.
Name 2 Greenhouse Gases
Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Water Vapor
What is the #1 thing we need to do to reduce the effects of climate change?
Reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
What % of scientists agree that we are causing climate change?
97%
What is the chemical formula for Methane?
CH4
What is climate?
Climate describes the weather conditions that are expected in a region. A region’s climate is determined by observing its weather over a period of many years. Generally 30 years or more is used.
What are the main sources of greenhouse gases?
Scientists have found that over the last 100 years extra greenhouse gases have mainly come from a few sources. These are things like burning coal and oil for energy or burning gasoline to run cars and planes. Other sources, such as erupting volcanoes, have also added some greenhouse gases to the air. But those natural additions have been too small to account for the amount of greenhouse gases we measure in the air today.
Name 3 consequences of climate change related to the ocean
Rising sea levels
Melting ice sheets
Ocean warming
Ocean acidification and coral bleaching
How many ppm of Carbon Dioxide is currently in our atmosphere.
428 ppm
BONUS 100: What does ppm stand for and mean?
How do scientists know climate change is happening?
Scientists use instruments in space, on airplanes, and the ground to track Earth. These can be things like weather stations or even space lasers that measure the height of land and ice. When collected over time, these measurements help scientists understand what changes are happening.
To better understand how changes today compare to those in the past, scientists have to dig a little deeper. Earth keeps its own climate record for us through things that have been around a really long time. These are things like the bottom of the ocean or the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Over time, these places build layers that capture information from when they formed. Scientists will drill down and take cylinder-shaped samples. These are known as sediment cores and ice cores. Sediment cores come from the bottoms of lakes or the ocean floor. Ice cores are from deep — sometimes miles deep — below the surface of the ice in places like Antarctica.
True or False: Earth's climate has always been changing.
True: Earth’s climate has constantly been changing — even long before humans came into the picture. However, scientists have observed a shift in the speed at which Earth’s climate is changing. Previously, it has taken thousands of years for Earth’s climate to switch between more ice and less ice. But now, observations show that Earth's temperature is increasing much more quickly.
BONUS 100 POINTS: What is the difference between previous changes to earth’s climate and the changes scientists are observing now?
True or False: Greenhouse gases make it possible for us to live on Earth
True: Greenhouse gases make it possible for us to live on Earth. Otherwise the planet would be too cold for us.
What is the difference between previous changes to earth’s climate and the changes scientists are observing now?
Scientists have observed a shift in the speed at which Earth’s climate is changing. Previously, it has taken thousands of years for Earth’s climate to switch between more ice and less ice. But now, observations show that Earth's temperature is increasing much more quickly.
How long has it been since CO2 levels have been above 300 PPM?
600,000 years
What is causing global warming? Be specific.
There are lots of factors that can contribute to changes in Earth’s climate. However, scientists agree that Earth has been getting warmer over the past 100 years. They found that this warming is due to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Specifically, things we do, such as burning fuel to power factories, cars and buses, are changing the natural greenhouse. These changes cause the atmosphere to trap more heat than it used to, leading to a warmer Earth.
Give an example of weather in a specific location, and then give an example of climate in that same location.
Rain, snow, wind, hurricanes, tornadoes — these are all weather events.
Is it usually rainy or usually dry? Is it typically hot or typically cold? That is the climate of an area.
What reduces the greenhouse effect on Earth?
To reduce the greenhouse effect, greenhouse gases need to be taken out of the atmosphere. Earth has a few ways it does this with plants, soil, and oceans.
All plants — from tall trees to blades of grass, and even the tiny plant-like phytoplankton in the ocean — take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. They do this in a process known as photosynthesis. This is when plants take carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight and change it into food (sugar) and oxygen.
The soil and ocean also absorb carbon dioxide from the air. It changes into other things over time through chemical reactions. It can also make the soil and ocean more acidic, which can impact plants and animals. For example, ocean acidification can be harmful to many ocean creatures, such as shellfish and coral, as it weakens their shells and skeletons.
Name 3 consequences of climate change related specifically to the weather.
Melting glaciers
Changes in flower and plant blooming times
More intense and more common heat waves
More intense droughts and floods
More intense and frequent natural disasters in general
Of the 9 planetary boundaries, how many have we breached as of 2025?
7
Bonus 200: Name the 2 that we haven't
What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
“Global warming” refers to the long-term warming of the planet. Global temperature shows a well-documented rise since the early 20th century and most notably since the late 1970s. Worldwide since 1880, the average surface temperature has risen about 1°C (about 2°F), relative to the mid-20th century baseline (of 1951-1980). This is on top of about an additional 0.15°C of warming from between 1750 and 1880.
“Climate change” encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet. These include rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower/plant blooming times. These are all consequences of warming, which is caused mainly by people burning fossil fuels and putting out heat-trapping gases into the air.
What is climate change?
Climate change describes a change in the average conditions over a long period of time. These include changes to things like temperature or rainfall. For example, 20,000 years ago during the last ice age, much of the United States was covered in glaciers. That would be a much colder climate than what we are used to today.
When changes happen that impact the entire planet, it is called global climate change. These changes include warming global temperatures and shifts in precipitation.
Explain the Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the heat from the sun near the surface. This process keeps Earth’s surface warmer than it would be without it. It is similar to how a glass greenhouse keeps plants warm.
During the day, sunlight travels through the atmosphere and warms Earth’s surface. Some of that sunlight bounces, or reflects, off the surface back into space. The rest of it gets absorbed and heats up the surface. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing this heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That's what keeps our Earth warm enough to support life as we know it.
Why are small increases in global average temperature significant?
A one-degree global change is significant because it takes a vast amount of heat to warm all of the oceans, the atmosphere, and the landmasses by that much. In the past, a one- to two-degree drop was all it took to plunge Earth into the Little Ice Age. A five-degree drop was enough to bury a large part of North America under a towering mass of ice 20,000 years ago.
Every fraction of a degree of warming matters. With every additional increment of global warming, changes in extremes and risks become larger. For example, every additional 0.1°C of global warming causes clearly discernible increases in the intensity and frequency of temperature and precipitation extremes, as well as agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions. (IPCC)
How far above the 1850-1900 average temperature was the average near-surface temperature of Earth in 2024?
The year 2024 was the warmest year in the 175-year observational record, with a global mean near-surface temperature 1.55°C above the 1850–1900 average.
Under the Paris Agreement, countries agreed to substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions to enable the long-term global average surface temperature increase to be kept well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C (20 year average).(Paris Agreement)
How do scientists analyze ice core samples and how does this add to our knowledge about climate change?
The layers in an ice core are frozen solid. These layers of ice give clues about every year of Earth's history back to the time the deepest layer was formed. The ice contains bubbles of the air from each year. Scientists analyze the bubbles in each layer to find out how much of the air contained certain gases, like carbon dioxide. They can also learn about temperature and if it was a wet or dry year.