NAME_______________________ Pd.

_________

Date_____________

Climate Change Web-Quest

Directions- Go to: climate.nasa.gov and using the information of the website,
answer the following questions. Write your answers in the space provided.

Key Indicators
1) What is carbon dioxide (CO2) and where does it usually come from?
Carbon dioxide is an important heat trapping (greenhouse gas) which is released through
human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels as well as natural
processes such as respiration and volcanic eruptions.

2) According to the CO2 charts, what was the highest level of CO2 in the 400,000 years
prior to 1950?
About 300 prior to 1950
3) According to the charts, what is the level of CO2 today?
404.93 ppm
4) Based on the information on the page, why is this level of CO2 a problem?
The more CO2 means the warmer the planets

5) According to the charts on Arctic Sea Ice, what has been the overall trend since 1980?
The trend is that its decreasing
6) What trend can be observed for land ice?
Land ice is decreasing
7) What trend can be observed for sea level?
The sea level is rising

8) What overall conclusion can you make based on the data of these three charts?

The sea level rises when the land ice melts and when the artic sea ice melts. It adds water
to the sea causing the sea level to rise and the others to fall.

Evidence
9) What are eight areas that scientists look at for evidence of global warming?
Warming oceans, shrinking ice sheets, global temperature rise, sea level rise, declining
arctic sea ice, glacial retreat, extreme events, ocean acidification, and decreases snow
cover.

Causes
10) What are the five common gases that cause global warming?
Water vapor, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and CFCs

Effects
11) According to the effects page, what effect will climate change have on water
availability?
More droughts and heat waves
12) What visible changes have already occurred due to climate change?
Scientist have seen that glaciers have shrunk, ice on river and lakes is breaking up earlier
plant, animal ranges have shifted, and Trees are flowering sooner

Consensus
13) What percentage of scientists agree that climate change is due to human activity?
97%

Innovations
14) Describe three innovations in energy that could help the world become independent
of fossil fuels.

AAAS (American association for the advancement of science)- the

scientific evidence is clear global climate change caused by human
activities occurring now and it is a growing threat to society
ACS (American chemical society)- Comprehensive scientific
assessments of our current and potential future climates clearly
indicate that climate change is real, largely attributable to
emissions from human activities, and potentially a very serious
problem
APS (American physical society)- The evidence is
incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating
actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earths physical and
ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are
likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
beginning now.