2.2.1 Climate change and the hydrosphere and atmosphere
Content
- Geographic inquiry and concept(s)
- The effects of global climate change on places, societies and environmental systems
- Geographic knowledge and understanding
- Climate change and the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, including: water stored in ice and oceans, and changing sea levels
- Climate change and the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, including: carbon stored in ice, oceans and the biosphere
- Case study or detailed examples
- Neither required by the syllabus
- Aims of this lesson
- To have knowledge of what the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere are.
- To understand how climate change impacts the stores of water in our oceans.
- To understand how climate change impacts the stores of water in our ice.
- To have knowledge of where carbon is stored and how that is changing.
Base knowledge and understanding
News article
The fate of the planet’s coastlines depends on how fast Antarctica’s ice sheets melt. We don’t know what’s coming
Some regions of the continent have enough ice to push up sea levels by 15 metres if they all melt, but researchers don’t yet fully understand the consequences
The Guardian · 17 January 2026
Key terms
- Carbon cycle
- The series of processes by which carbon compounds are interconverted in the environment, involving the incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels.
- Hydrosphere
- The combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of a planet.
- Isostatic rebound
- Isostatic change is a localised change in the relative level of the land and sea. This change is caused by the depression of the Earth’s crust, often due to the weight of an ice sheet. Isostatic rebound is part of a sequence of sea level changes linked to glacial cycles. Glaciers and ice sheets grow as temperatures decrease, causing sea levels to fall globally. The increasing thickness of the ice depresses the land isostatically. When temperatures rise, the ice melts, lessening the pressure on the land and allowing it to rebound isostatically.
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Review
- Suggest one consequence of rising sea levels for a named low-lying coastal community. [2]
- Explain two different processes by which climate change can lead to rising sea levels. [4]
- Climate change is becoming the primary cause of forced migration globally. To what extent do you agree with this statement? [10]
- Low-income countries will always suffer the most severe consequences of global climate change. To what extent do you agree with this statement? [10]