Lesson Y8-U05-L04

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

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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.

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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

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