Earth Day 2022

This is based on data from https://www.globalwarmingindex.org


  • What is the value of the left-most 4?
  • Round the given temperature rise to 4 decimal places.
  • Round the given temperature rise to 6 decimal places.
  • A change of 1 ºC is equal to a change of 1.8 ºF. What is the human-induced warming figure in Fahrenheit?
  • Note the temperature rise over a one minute period. Use this to calculate the temperature rise in ºC per second. Write your answer in standard form.
  • At the rate you've calculated, how long will it take for the temperature to rise by 0.01 ºC?
  • Assuming the temperature rise continues at the current rate, when will the human-induced warming reach +1.5 ºC?
  • The temperature is obviously not rising smoothly at a steady rate on a second-by-second basis. How sensible do you think the it is to present the temperature rise like in the way shown above?

At the point of final treatment, the total waste generated in the UK in 2016 weighed 214.3 million tonnes.

This figure is from the UK government.


  • Based on an approximate population of 65 million, what is the mean amount of waste per person? Does this figure seem unexpectedly high or low? Why might this be?
  • 104.0 million tones was recycled. What is this as a percentage of the total waste?
  • 69.1 million tonnes went into landfill and backfilling. What is this as a percentage of the total waste?
  • 13.0 million tonnes was incinerated. What is this as a percentage of the total waste?
  • Construct a pie chart showing the following four categories of waste treatment: Recycled, Landfill/backfill, Incinerated, Other.

A good news story: a seagrass restoration project off the coast of Wales has seen the planting of hundreds of thousands of seagrass seeds.

The figures in this section are from the WWF.

Did you know?

  • A given area of seagrass can capture carbon 35 times faster than the same area of tropical rainforest.
  • Seagrass meadows provide an excellent home for lots of marine life.
  • Seagrass creates clearer water and provides oxygen to the atmosphere.
  • 92% of the UK's seagrass disappeared in the last century. Reasons for this include pollution caused by humans, bad fishing methods, and mass tourism.