A team of students, Madeleine Ratcliffe, Lucy Fellingham and John Allen, and academics at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, developed the Maths for Planet Earth questions. They work on climate and energy issues and are passionate about inspiring young people to join the fight against climate change.
The world needs brainy mathematicians to help tackle climate change.
The aim of these questions is to integrate climate change into the school curriculum beyond the usual suspects of geography and environmental science.
These questions closely follow example problems from GCSE and A level past exams and were developed using existing exam questions. The maths skills tested in the question remained unchanged, but the context of the question was adapted to a climate change theme.
The table gives information about how the UK used its energy in 2017.CREDS calculations based on BEIS (2018)SectorPercentage of UK energy used by sector (%)Industry17Transport40Households28Other15a) Draw…
Carbon capture and storage is method of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it as a liquid underground. Carbon capture and storage is one…
A new kind of gas-fired power station releases on average 1.73×104 kg of pure carbon dioxide (CO2) every day. It also uses the heat of exhaust…
A homeowner wishes to cover their roof with solar panels.Their roof can be modelled as a prism with volume 24m3The height of the triangular cross section…
Below is a diagram of 3 offshore wind turbines, A, B and C, in a wind farm, as seen from above.Given that the bearing from turbine…
The graph shows satellite measurements of global sea level rise since 2000. (mm = millimetres)a) Draw a line of best fit through the data between 1993 and…
The increasing global temperature due to human-induced climate change is causing ice in the Arctic to melt, particularly over the summer season, July to September.In September…
Climate change can lead to species extinction through changing habitats rapidly, not leaving the species time to adapt. Warming at the moment is at 1°C. A…
Chocolate is made from a crop called cocoa, which grows on a tree. Cocoa trees are vulnerable to extreme weather events such as floods and droughts,…
Cars and transport, and the gases and particulates that they emit from their exhausts have a serious effect on the environment and on human health.In the…
One way of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and slowing global warming is to plant trees which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.A scientist plants…
Global warming will affect the world’s annual fishing catch.In a world heated by a global warming of 2°C, the annual fishing catch will decrease by 3.3…
Global warming will affect the world's coral reefs. In a world heated by a global warming of 2°C, we will lose 99% of coral reefs. In…
The table shows information about sea level rise due to human-induced climate change.(mm = millimetres).Sea level rise in 2006 (mm)Sea level rise in 2016 (mm)4080Liam claims,…
Climate change (or global warming) can cause the areas of deserts (very dry land) to increase, affecting the surrounding wildlife and ecosystems.Before global warming began, the…
The graph shows satellite measurements of global sea level rise since 2000 plotted relative to 1993. (sea level rise measured in mm = millimetres)a) Draw a…
As the atmosphere warms, the air holds more water vapour, and this could lead to more intense rainfall events, resulting in an increased flood risk. In…
Human-induced warming is currently increasing at 0.02°C / year.(a) If human-induced warming was at 0.9°C in 2010, what will it be in 2020?[2 marks]The graph shows…
Jean owns a trucking company (with ten trucks) which produces 1062.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the year 2015. The company's carbon emissions increase over the…
The temperature-time graph from https://globalwarmingindex.org/ shows how the Earth's global average monthly temperatures have varied from the year 1880. Throughout this question, monthly global temperatures refer…