AQA GCSE Geography (8035) — Living with the physical environment
Every time you watch the news, it seems another record-breaking storm or heatwave is making headlines. Extreme weather events are becoming increasingly severe due to climate change.
While the overall frequency of tropical storms may stay the same, their intensity and distribution are changing. Warmer air holds approximately 7% more moisture for every 1°C of warming, leading to heavier rainfall and stronger winds. For example, in February 2022, Storm Eunice hit the UK with 200 km/h winds, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.
Because ocean waters are warming, storms are forming further from the Equator where temperatures now exceed the crucial 27°C threshold. This causes higher atmospheric instability in regions that previously rarely experienced such severe weather.
Imagine an entire biome packing up and moving north. As average global temperatures have risen by 0.85°C since 1880, ecosystems are being forced to shift toward the poles and higher altitudes.
The natural world faces severe biodiversity loss, with 20% of vulnerable regions at risk of catastrophic species decline. Polar and Tundra biomes face the highest extinction risk because they have a crucial negative feature: they have no further north to migrate to.
In our oceans, warmer sea surface temperatures cause coral bleaching. This occurs when stressed corals expel their symbiotic algae. On the Great Barrier Reef, a staggering 91% of the reef has shown signs of bleaching, leading to ecosystem collapse if the heat stress continues.
If you heat a liquid, its molecules move faster and spread further apart. This simple physics principle, known as thermal expansion, accounts for about 50% of global sea-level rise.
The second major cause is the melting of continental land ice (such as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets), which adds new liquid volume to ocean basins. Crucially, melting sea ice does NOT significantly raise sea levels, as it already displaces its own weight in water. Sea levels are currently rising at a rate of 3.2 to 3.5 mm per year, submerging natural flood barriers like mangroves.
To calculate the rate of sea-level rise, use this formula:
To protect communities, countries must use adaptation strategies (like building sea walls) and mitigation strategies (like reducing carbon emissions) to manage these impacts.
Why does a fraction of a degree in global temperature matter to your health or your wallet? In AQA Geography, it is vital to distinguish between a social impact (affecting health and well-being) and an economic impact (affecting wealth and jobs).
Warmer, humid conditions are allowing disease vectors to spread to new areas. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are now found at higher altitudes in Nepal and higher latitudes like Italy. Additionally, low-lying islands such as the Maldives and Tuvalu face becoming uninhabitable due to inundation. This forces people to migrate, creating climate refugees; in 2022 alone, 32.6 million people were displaced globally by disasters.
Economically, extreme weather causes massive financial damage, such as Hurricane Katrina costing approximately $125 billion. Governments must divert funds to flood defences; the Thames Barrier has been closed over 100 times since 1982 to prevent tidal surges. Tourism also suffers, with ski resorts in the Alps facing shorter seasons due to a lack of snow.
AQA examiners look for clear chains of logic when describing impacts on people. Example: Rising temperatures cause glaciers to melt sea levels rise coastal homes are flooded people are forced to migrate (social impact).
A single degree of warming can be the difference between a bumper harvest and widespread famine. Food security is severely threatened as yields of staple crops like wheat, maize, and rice decline in low-latitude regions.
Rising sea levels lead to salinisation, where saltwater contaminates aquifers and ruins soil. This directly threatens massive agricultural hubs like the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, risking the livelihoods of 40 million people. Furthermore, warmer climates accelerate the spread of pests, such as locust swarms that decimate crops in the Horn of Africa, worsening food insecurity.
In exams, you may need to calculate the percentage drop in a crop yield using a graph:
To adapt, farmers are employing new strategies. These include planting drought-resistant seeds with deeper roots, or using "scuba rice" — a flood-tolerant variety that survives submergence for up to two weeks.
Students often confuse melting sea ice with melting land ice. Melting sea ice does NOT significantly raise sea levels; only melting land ice (like glaciers and ice sheets) adds new water volume to the oceans.
In 'Describe' questions about the effects of climate change, examiners expect a step-by-step chain of events (e.g., Rising temperatures -> increased evaporation -> soil salinisation -> lower crop yields -> food insecurity).
Always explicitly distinguish between social and economic effects when asked about the impacts on people; health and migration are social, while repair costs and tourism losses are economic.
No credit is given for simply describing an environmental effect (e.g., 'sea levels rise') in a 'people' question unless it is explicitly linked to the human consequence (e.g., '...which floods agricultural land, leading to famine').
Extreme weather
Weather events that are significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern, such as unusually intense storms or out-of-season heatwaves.
Frequency
How often an event occurs, such as the number of tropical storms per year.
Intensity
The strength or magnitude of a weather event, for example, the maximum wind speed of a hurricane.
Distribution
The geographical location or spread indicating where certain weather events occur.
Atmospheric instability
A condition where warm, moist air rises rapidly, which can be exacerbated by climate change and lead to more vigorous storms.
Biodiversity
The variety of plant and animal life in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Coral bleaching
The process where stressed corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, turning them white and eventually dying if the heat stress continues.
Thermal expansion
The increase in the volume of ocean water as it warms up, serving as a primary driver of global sea-level rise.
Adaptation
Actions taken to adjust to the effects of climate change to reduce potential damage, such as building sea walls.
Mitigation
Actions taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term causes of climate change, such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Social impact
The effect of an event on the lives, health, and well-being of people and communities.
Economic impact
The effect of an event on the wealth, income, and resources of an area, including jobs, trade, and repair costs.
Climate refugee
A person forced to leave their home or country due to severe environmental disruption, such as sea-level rise or drought.
Food security
When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs.
Salinisation
The buildup of salts in the soil, often caused by saltwater flooding or excessive evaporation, which inhibits crop growth.
Food insecurity
The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
Crop yield
The amount of agricultural production harvested per unit of land area.
Put your knowledge into practice — try past paper questions for Geography
Extreme weather
Weather events that are significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern, such as unusually intense storms or out-of-season heatwaves.
Frequency
How often an event occurs, such as the number of tropical storms per year.
Intensity
The strength or magnitude of a weather event, for example, the maximum wind speed of a hurricane.
Distribution
The geographical location or spread indicating where certain weather events occur.
Atmospheric instability
A condition where warm, moist air rises rapidly, which can be exacerbated by climate change and lead to more vigorous storms.
Biodiversity
The variety of plant and animal life in a particular habitat or ecosystem.
Coral bleaching
The process where stressed corals expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, turning them white and eventually dying if the heat stress continues.
Thermal expansion
The increase in the volume of ocean water as it warms up, serving as a primary driver of global sea-level rise.
Adaptation
Actions taken to adjust to the effects of climate change to reduce potential damage, such as building sea walls.
Mitigation
Actions taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term causes of climate change, such as cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Social impact
The effect of an event on the lives, health, and well-being of people and communities.
Economic impact
The effect of an event on the wealth, income, and resources of an area, including jobs, trade, and repair costs.
Climate refugee
A person forced to leave their home or country due to severe environmental disruption, such as sea-level rise or drought.
Food security
When all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs.
Salinisation
The buildup of salts in the soil, often caused by saltwater flooding or excessive evaporation, which inhibits crop growth.
Food insecurity
The state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
Crop yield
The amount of agricultural production harvested per unit of land area.
