Year 8 Science · Unit 3 · Lesson 14
Challenge Worksheet
Learning Goals
Evaluate the claim
Someone claims...
"Climate change is fundamentally a chemical problem — greenhouse gases like CO₂ and methane are chemical compounds that trap heat through chemical interactions with infrared radiation. Therefore, the solution to climate change should focus entirely on chemistry: developing new carbon capture chemicals, engineering better catalysts to break down methane, and inventing chemical processes that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Other approaches like changing behaviour or land use are just distractions from the real chemical solution."
(a) What part of this claim is supported by the science you have learned in this lesson? Be specific about which chemical changes or processes the claim correctly describes.
(b) What is misleading or oversimplified in this claim? Identify at least two aspects of climate change that cannot be addressed by chemistry alone.
(c) What other approaches — beyond chemistry — are needed to address climate change? Name at least two different fields or strategies, and explain how each connects to the underlying chemical changes driving climate change.
1. Write the word equation for the combustion of a fossil fuel such as methane (CH₄). Explain how this one chemical reaction connects to three of the largest sectors of Australian CO₂ emissions.
2. Explain how the carbon cycle acts as a natural chemical buffer for atmospheric CO₂, and describe one way in which human activities have disrupted the balance of this cycle.
Wrap Up
In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?