Test your knowledge: How our actions change the Earth's climate.

📚 Quick Study Guide

• 🔥 Greenhouse Effect: The trapping of the sun's warmth in a planet's lower atmosphere due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet's surface. Key gases include carbon dioxide ($CO_2$), methane ($CH_4$), and nitrous oxide ($N_2O$).
• 🏭 Human Activities: Primarily the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy, deforestation, and industrial processes.
• 🌡️ Global Warming: The long-term heating of Earth's climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
• 🌊 Sea Level Rise: Caused by thermal expansion of water and melting of glaciers and ice sheets.
• 🌱 Deforestation: The clearing of forests on a massive scale, resulting in habitat loss, biodiversity reduction, and climate change due to the release of stored carbon.
• 📊 Climate Models: Use mathematical equations to simulate the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and ice. They are used to project future climate scenarios.
• 🤝 Mitigation Strategies: Actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as using renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and adopting sustainable land management practices.

🧪 Practice Quiz

1. What is the primary cause of the increase in Earth's global average temperature?
   1. A) Volcanic eruptions
   2. B) Solar flares
   3. C) Human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels
   4. D) Changes in Earth's orbit
2. Which of the following is a major greenhouse gas?
   1. A) Oxygen ($O_2$)
   2. B) Nitrogen ($N_2$)
   3. C) Carbon Dioxide ($CO_2$)
   4. D) Argon ($Ar$)
3. What is the main cause of sea level rise?
   1. A) Increased rainfall
   2. B) Thermal expansion of water and melting of ice
   3. C) Underwater earthquakes
   4. D) Sediment accumulation
4. Which human activity contributes most to deforestation?
   1. A) Urban development
   2. B) Agriculture
   3. C) Mining
   4. D) Road construction
5. What is the purpose of climate models?
   1. A) To predict the weather for the next day
   2. B) To simulate the interactions of Earth's systems and project future climate scenarios
   3. C) To measure the current temperature
   4. D) To study the effects of volcanic eruptions
6. Which of the following is an example of a climate change mitigation strategy?
   1. A) Increasing the use of fossil fuels
   2. B) Deforestation
   3. C) Using renewable energy sources
   4. D) Ignoring the problem
7. How does deforestation contribute to climate change?
   1. A) By increasing rainfall
   2. B) By releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere
   3. C) By cooling the Earth's surface
   4. D) By absorbing carbon dioxide