Climate change: causes and responses
Geography · GCSE · The School
Natural and human
Natural causes exist and are real: orbital (Milankovitch) cycles, volcanic eruptions, solar output. They explain past ice ages. They do not explain the current rate, which tracks the rise in greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and agriculture. Both halves of that sentence matter in an exam answer.
Effects, at every scale
GLOBAL: rising average temperature, melting ice, sea-level rise, ocean acidification. REGIONAL: shifting rainfall, more intense storms, longer droughts. LOCAL: coastal erosion, flood risk, changes to what will grow. The people least responsible are frequently the most exposed, which is why the politics is hard.
Mitigation and adaptation
MITIGATION reduces the cause — renewables, efficiency, carbon capture, planting trees, international agreements. ADAPTATION lives with the effect — flood defences, drought-resistant crops, managed retreat, water management. Both are needed: mitigation alone is too late for changes already committed, and adaptation alone treats a worsening symptom forever.
What an answer has to contain to score
A question worth nine marks is not asking for a list. Take "Evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation strategies." An answer that scores names a specific strategy, gives its mechanism, gives a named example, and then judges it — including the case against. For example: renewables cut emissions at the point of generation rather than capturing them afterwards; the UK generated more electricity from renewables than from fossil fuels for the first time in 2019; but the output varies with weather, so storage or backup capacity has to be built alongside, which is a cost that the headline figure hides. Notice the shape — strategy, mechanism, evidence, limitation, judgement. An answer with no named example is an opinion, and an answer with no limitation has not evaluated anything.