Climate Change and Chemistry

What is Climate Change and Chemistry?

Within Chemistry, which covers atoms, bonding, reactions, the periodic table, organic chemistry and the chemistry of everyday life, this topic explains Climate Change and Chemistry. Chemistry links what you can see in the lab to the particles and bonds behind it, so each topic here shows that link in a model.

Check that you can explain Climate Change and Chemistry in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Climate Change and Chemistry helps you explain why substances behave as they do, from cleaning products and food to medicines.

Climate Change and Chemistry in detail

Climate change refers to long-term changes in global temperatures and weather patterns. Evidence from temperature records, ice cores and sea level indicates that global average temperatures have risen, and most scientists attribute this to increased greenhouse gases from human activity.

Effects include melting ice, rising sea levels, more extreme weather and changes to ecosystems. Reducing the carbon footprint, the total greenhouse gas emissions of a product or activity, involves renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture and changes in transport and diet. Chemistry helps by developing cleaner fuels, new materials and capture technologies.

How the interactive helps you understand Climate Change and Chemistry

Watch the Earth model in the interactive. Use any sliders or buttons it offers to change the values and see how the Earth model responds.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Climate Change and Chemistry.

Real-life uses and examples

• Link Climate Change and Chemistry to everyday products such as cleaning agents, food and medicines.
• Read a chemical equation or diagram and work out what Climate Change and Chemistry shows.
• Explain Climate Change and Chemistry in an exam by linking the particles involved to what you observe.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Mixing up the names of substances or ions when you describe Climate Change and Chemistry.
• Describing what happens without explaining the particles or bonds involved.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.