Grade 7 Changing Climate worksheet
from Gradelings · Name: ______________________
How to explain it
- Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide trap heat near Earth’s surface, like a blanket.
- Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide. Measurements show it has risen for decades, and glaciers are shrinking.
- Using renewable energy (wind, solar, water), wasting less and planting trees help.
Example: Which is renewable: coal, natural gas or solar energy? Coal and natural gas are fossil fuels that run out. Sunlight keeps arriving every day. Answer: solar energy
Question 1
Put the steps of the greenhouse effect in order.
- ♨️The warm surface gives off heat (infrared energy)
- ☀️Sunlight passes through the atmosphere to Earth's surface
- 🌍Land and oceans absorb the light and warm up
- 🌫️Greenhouse gases absorb some heat and send part back down
Sunlight passes through the atmosphere to Earth's surface → Land and oceans absorb the light and warm up → The warm surface gives off heat (infrared energy) → Greenhouse gases absorb some heat and send part back down
Hint: Energy arrives as sunlight, warms the surface, leaves as heat, and some of that heat is held in by greenhouse gases.
Question 2
About how much did CO₂ rise from 1960 to 2020?
CO₂ in the air at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (parts per million) - about 50 ppm
- about 400 ppm
- about 100 ppm
- about 10 ppm
about 100 ppm
Hint: Subtract the 1960 value from the 2020 value: 414 − 317 = 97, which is about 100.
Question 3
Which of these is a fossil fuel?
- sunlight
- flowing water
- coal
- wind
coal
Hint: Coal, oil and natural gas formed over millions of years from the remains of ancient plants and sea life.
Question 4
Does it add greenhouse gases or help reduce them? Sort each action.
Sort into: 🏭 adds greenhouse gases · 🌱 helps reduce them
- 🛢️heating a home with an oil furnace
- ⚫burning coal to make electricity
- 🔆using solar or wind power
- 🗑️sending food scraps to a landfill
- 🚲walking or cycling to school
- 🚗driving a gas-powered car alone
- 🏠sealing drafty windows to save heat
- 🚌taking public transit
🏭 adds greenhouse gases: heating a home with an oil furnace, burning coal to make electricity, sending food scraps to a landfill, driving a gas-powered car alone · 🌱 helps reduce them: using solar or wind power, walking or cycling to school, sealing drafty windows to save heat, taking public transit
Hint: Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), clearing forests and sending food waste to landfills add greenhouse gases. Trees, clean energy and using less fuel help reduce them.
Question 5
Which two things are making sea levels rise?
🌊- Melting land ice, and seawater expanding as it warms
- Boats displacing water, and rivers drying up
- Earthquakes, and the Moon getting closer
- More fish in the ocean, and more rain
Melting land ice, and seawater expanding as it warms
Hint: Water from glaciers and ice sheets flows into the sea, and warm water takes up more space than cold water.
Question 6
Which energy source is renewable?
🌬️- wind
- coal
- natural gas
- oil
wind
Hint: Renewable sources won't run out: wind, sunlight and flowing water keep coming.
Question 7
Which was one natural cause of climate change in Earth's distant past?
- Slow changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun
- Burning gasoline
- Electric cars
- Plastic waste in the ocean
Slow changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun
Hint: Over tens of thousands of years, small changes in Earth's orbit and tilt helped start and end ice ages.
Question 8
What trend does the graph show?
CO₂ in the air at Mauna Loa, Hawaii (parts per million) - CO₂ in the air rose from 1960 to 2020
- CO₂ went up and down at random
- CO₂ stayed the same
- CO₂ in the air fell from 1960 to 2020
CO₂ in the air rose from 1960 to 2020
Hint: Compare the bar heights from left to right. Each one is taller than the one before.
Question 9
What is the difference between weather and climate?
🌦️- They mean exactly the same thing
- Weather is day to day; climate is the average pattern over many years
- Climate only describes rain, and weather only describes wind
- Weather is the average over many years; climate is day to day
Weather is day to day; climate is the average pattern over many years
Hint: One cold day is weather. Thirty years of temperatures for a region describes its climate.
Question 10
Burning fossil fuels releases which gas, the main cause of recent warming?
🏭- helium (He)
- carbon dioxide (CO₂)
- nitrogen (N₂)
- oxygen (O₂)
carbon dioxide (CO₂)
Hint: Fossil fuels are made of carbon from ancient life. Burning them combines carbon with oxygen.
Answer key
- 1. Sunlight passes through the atmosphere to Earth's surface → Land and oceans absorb the light and warm up → The warm surface gives off heat (infrared energy) → Greenhouse gases absorb some heat and send part back down
- 2. about 100 ppm
- 3. coal
- 4. 🏭 adds greenhouse gases: heating a home with an oil furnace, burning coal to make electricity, sending food scraps to a landfill, driving a gas-powered car alone · 🌱 helps reduce them: using solar or wind power, walking or cycling to school, sealing drafty windows to save heat, taking public transit
- 5. Melting land ice, and seawater expanding as it warms
- 6. wind
- 7. Slow changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun
- 8. CO₂ in the air rose from 1960 to 2020
- 9. Weather is day to day; climate is the average pattern over many years
- 10. carbon dioxide (CO₂)
Want more than 10 questions?
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