Human activities which contribute to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

Some human activities increase the amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These include:

• carbon dioxide
• methane.

Students should be able to recall two human activities that increase the amounts of each of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

Based on peer-reviewed evidence, many scientists believe that human activities will cause the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere to increase at the surface and that this will result in global climate change.

However, it is difficult to model such complex systems as global climate change. This leads to simplified models, speculation and opinions presented in the media that may be based on only parts of the evidence and which may be biased.

Students should be able to:

• evaluate the quality of evidence in a report about global climate change given appropriate information
• describe uncertainties in the evidence base
• recognise the importance of peer review of results and of communicating results to a wide range of audiences.

WS 1.2, 1.3, 1.6