How are
people changing
the climate?

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1. Man-made climate change?

Worksheet 1

1. Read the diagram

This figure illustrates profiles of CO₂ concentrations and temperature in the last 400 000 years.

Describe some tendencies and variations in the two profiles. What do you notice about the CO₂ concentrations in recent time?

2. Check out your own country!

a) Classify the energy sources in the bar diagram as fossil fuel or non-fossil ("alternative") energy sources.  

b) Find out which sources of energy are used in your country. Classify them as fossil or non-fossil energy sources.  

c) Try to make a diagram similar to this bar chart for the energy consumption in your country.

3. Check out your local environment!

a) Find out if there are buildings in your local environment that use other sources of energy than those you listed in question 2.

b) Write a little about different alternative sources of energy that your local environment and your country might use in the future.

4. Do research in your local area and on the Internet!

a) Go to the page http://www.climatehotmap.org/. Here, you will find a map showing signs of change that may be caused by increased greenhouse effect in different parts of the world. Have any such changes been registered for your country?

b) Talk to some adults (for instance grandparents) about how the climate was when they were young. When did the flowers come out in spring? Did it snow in the winter? Do they think it has changed since they were young?

c) What could be the problems with using people's memories of past climate to assess climate changes?

Authors: Ellen K. Henriksen and Camilla Schreiner - University of Oslo - Norway. Scientific reviewer: Andreas Tjernshaugen - CICERO (Center for International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo) - Norway - 2004-01-20 Educational reviewer: Educational reviewer: Nina Arnesen - Marienlyst school in Oslo - Norway - 2004-03-10. Last update: 2004-03-27.