Human and physical causes of climate change
Climate change is not just a human story or a natural one — it is both, tangled together, with feedback loops running in every direction.
Part of your national curriculum
- Human and physical geography: Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and be influenced by, climate change
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and be influenced by, climate change
Key learning points
- • Human causes
- • Physical processes
- • Feedback loops
- • Two-way effects
This lesson at a glance
- 28 minutes
- 15 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 15
Watch first
Human and physical causes of climate change
An English teaching video on this topic from BBC Earth Science. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.
In a nutshell
Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and be influenced by, climate change
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 15
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · Human causes
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 15
Learn
Human causes
Burning fossil fuels for energy and transport releases carbon dioxide, while deforestation, for example in the Amazon, removes trees that would otherwise absorb CO2, together increasing the greenhouse effect.
Explore the idea
Part 4 of 15
Learn
Physical processes
Natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and variations in the sun's output also affect climate, but since the Industrial Revolution, human greenhouse gas emissions have driven warming far faster than natural cycles alone.
Quick check
Part 5 of 15
Quick check
What human activity is the leading cause of rising atmospheric CO2?
Quick check
Part 6 of 15
Quick check
What is the term for sunlight reflected by ice and snow?
Reset break
Part 7 of 15
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 2 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 8 of 15
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · Feedback loops
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 9 of 15
Learn
Feedback loops
Melting Arctic sea ice reduces the reflective white surface (albedo), so more heat is absorbed by darker ocean water, causing further warming — a physical process accelerated by human-caused warming.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 15
Learn
Two-way effects
Climate change then affects human systems: rising sea levels threaten low-lying countries like Bangladesh, and changing rainfall patterns affect farming in the Sahel, showing how human and physical processes constantly interact.
Quick check
Part 11 of 15
Quick check
Which low-lying country is especially threatened by rising sea levels?
Challenge round
Part 12 of 15
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 13 of 15
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Melting Arctic sea ice reduces the reflective white surface (albedo), so more heat is absorbed by darker ocean water, causing further warming — a ____ process accelerated by human-caused warming.
Mastery quiz
Part 14 of 15
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Human and physical causes of climate change
3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. What human activity is the leading cause of rising atmospheric CO2?
2. What is the term for sunlight reflected by ice and snow?
3. Which low-lying country is especially threatened by rising sea levels?
Lesson round-up
Part 15 of 15
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaDo the work
Your written work for this lesson
This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.
Flooding on the River Calder
The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.
Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.
Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.
Written for Good Learning Co.
Reading questions
- List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
- Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
- Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.
Case study notes
WritingWrite the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.
Half a page
Explain answer
WritingAnswer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.
8–10 sentences
Map or sketch
DiagramDraw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.
1 map with a key
Data work
Working outPlot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.
1 graph + 1 sentence
Saved as you type.
Part 1 of 15 · Watch & discover
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Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and be influenced by, climate change