Lesson Y8-U05-L04

The Human Fingerprint: The Enhanced Greenhouse Effect Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 11

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson Y8-U05-L04, The Human Fingerprint: The Enhanced Greenhouse Effect: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 11: Year 8: Climate Change: Evidence and Choices, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. What is the enhanced greenhouse effect?

    • The loss of all greenhouse gases from the atmosphere over many years, leaving the air thin and cold
    • Extra warming caused when humans add more greenhouse gases to the air
    • Cooling caused by volcanic ash in the sky after a large eruption
    • The natural trapping of light by ice sheets in the polar regions

  2. What is a fossil fuel?

    • A fuel formed from sea water in the air during storms
    • A fuel like coal, oil or gas, formed underground over millions of years
    • A fuel made from freshly cut grass each week on the farm
    • A type of rock made by volcanoes and then carried by rivers to the sea over many centuries

  3. What are emissions?

    • Gases released into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide from a car
    • Water vapour in clouds over the ocean on a warm day
    • Rocks dropped into the sea from cliffs during storms, which slowly wear the coastline back
    • Heat collected by solar panels on the roof of a house

  4. What is deforestation?

    • Growing crops in greenhouses that trap the warmth of the sun
    • Measuring the height of trees each year to track their growth
    • Planting trees on bare hillsides to protect the soil from heavy rain and to give shade for animals
    • Cutting down forests, which removes trees that soak up carbon dioxide

  5. Which human activity releases methane, a strong greenhouse gas?

    • Riding a bicycle to school along quiet roads
    • Farming cattle and growing rice
    • Collecting rainwater from roofs into tanks
    • Planting trees in a park for shade and beauty

  6. Which of these is a major human source of carbon dioxide?

    • Wind blowing over a desert and lifting dust into the air
    • Rain falling on mountains and running into streams
    • Waves breaking on a beach as the tide comes in
    • Burning fossil fuels in power stations and cars

  7. Roughly what was the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere in 1750, before the Industrial Revolution?

    • About 311 ppm
    • About 278 ppm
    • About 369 ppm
    • About 414 ppm

  8. Roughly what was the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere in 2020?

    • About 369 ppm
    • About 311 ppm
    • About 414 ppm
    • About 520 ppm

  9. Which human activity is the main cause of the recent rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide?

    • Burning fossil fuels for energy
    • Sunspot activity increasing
    • Volcanic eruptions each year
    • Ocean waves breaking on coasts

  10. Between 1950 and 2000, carbon dioxide rose from about 311 ppm to about 369 ppm. What is the rise?

    • About 8 ppm
    • About 58 ppm
    • About 110 ppm
    • About 28 ppm

  11. Around which year did the sharp rise in carbon dioxide begin, linked to factories and coal?

    • About 1000 BC
    • About 1450
    • About 1950 only
    • About 1850

  12. Why does adding more greenhouse gases warm the Earth?

    • It stops the Sun's light from reaching the ground below the air
    • It traps more heat, so less escapes to space and the air warms
    • It removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere over time
    • It cools the air by adding water vapour only, so the air cools down

  13. Which statement about adding more greenhouse gases is correct?

    • It has no effect on heat in the air or the ground below
    • It traps more heat, so less escapes to space
    • It only traps light, not heat, so nothing warms up
    • It lets more heat escape to space, so the Earth cools

  14. What leads scientists to link recent warming to human activity?

    • Volcanoes have stopped erupting since 1850 in most parts of the world
    • The carbon dioxide rise matches the growth of fossil fuel use
    • Trees have disappeared from the Earth over the past two centuries
    • The Sun has been getting dimmer since 1850 across the whole period

  15. The lesson compares extra greenhouse gases to extra blankets on a bed. What does this comparison show?

    • Blankets stop heat completely from leaving the bed in every case, so the sleeper never feels cold at all
    • Blankets cool a bed by releasing cold air from their fibres into the room
    • More blankets trap more body heat, so it gets warmer, like more gases trapping more heat
    • Blankets have no link to heat at all, because they are only made of cloth

  16. Can natural factors alone explain the fast warming seen since the 1800s?

    • No, natural causes fail to explain it
    • Yes, the Sun alone explains it
    • Yes, volcanoes alone explain it
    • It is impossible to know anything

  17. Deforestation affects the climate in more than one way. Which is one of them?

    • It stops factories from releasing gases into the sky above them
    • It cools the air by making more rain clouds over the land only
    • It adds more trees that soak up carbon dioxide from the air
    • It removes trees that would have soaked up carbon dioxide

  18. What is a key difference between the natural and the enhanced greenhouse effect?

    • The natural effect comes only from cars and lorries on the road
    • The enhanced effect has no greenhouse gases in it at all
    • The enhanced effect cools the Earth and reduces temperatures
    • The enhanced effect comes from extra gases added by humans

  19. Which statement best explains the 'human fingerprint' in the data?

    • Scientists take fingerprints from the air to identify the people who breathed it, which is how they found the polluters
    • Carbon dioxide rose only in cities where people live and work each day
    • Carbon from fossil fuels leaves a chemical signature in the rising atmospheric carbon dioxide
    • The carbon dioxide rise is caused by natural volcanoes alone, without people

  20. Why is deforestation a double problem for the climate?

    • Trees add methane as they grow, so cutting them stops it from rising
    • Burning or clearing trees adds carbon dioxide, and fewer trees remain to absorb it
    • Deforestation cools the air by blocking the Sun above the land below
    • Forests produce only oxygen and no carbon dioxide at all during their life, so cutting them has no effect on the air

All KS3 Geography quizzes