Key Idea: Topic 2.2 is about the consequences of global climate change — what a warming planet actually does to the environment, to people's health, and to different groups unequally. It pulls together three ideas: 2.2.1 — physical & environmental impacts: sea-level rise, melting ice and falling albedo, shifting biomes and more extreme weather reshape natural systems. 2.2.2 — impacts on people & health: heat stress, spreading disease, dirtier water and food, worse air and forced migration harm human wellbeing. 2.2.3 — vulnerability & uneven impacts: the harm is unequal — vulnerability = exposure + low adaptive capacity, driven by human factors (wealth, location, governance, gender), so the poorest suffer most. This is core content, examined on Paper 2 — a data-response read off a climate map, graph or infographic, a short structured Explain/Suggest, and a [10] 'to what extent' extended-response essay.
🌍 2.2.1 — Physical & environmental impacts
Warming reshapes environmental systems, not just people. For each impact, name it, then give the mechanism — the chain of cause and effect. The data skill examiners test is reading a temperature-anomaly map, a biome-shift map, or a line graph of flood events, then describing the trend with quoted figures.
Tip: For a map/graph question, describe the pattern first — name the highest and lowest values, quote a figure with units, and note any clustering. Then explain it with a mechanism (e.g. warm water expands → sea rises).
🤒 2.2.2 — Impacts on people & health
Warming threatens human health and wellbeing directly and indirectly. Explain needs a chain, not a label: hotter air → mosquitoes survive higher up → malaria spreads to new people.
Climate change forces some people to move, but it is usually one push factor among many — jobs, wages, war and family often matter more, and many move only short distances within their own country.
⚖️ 2.2.3 — Vulnerability & uneven impacts
The same hazard harms some people far more than others. Vulnerability = exposure + low adaptive capacity, and it is set mostly by human factors, not the physical event.
A group is most vulnerable when it is highly exposed to a hazard and has low adaptive capacity to cope. Wealth usually raises capacity — so poorer people are often more vulnerable even to the same hazard. Contrast a poor place (Bangladesh, the Sahel) with a protected one (the Netherlands) to prove it.
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Exam Tips
- Keep the three strands separate: physical/environmental (2.2.1), human health (2.2.2), uneven/vulnerability (2.2.3) — examiners penalise mixing them.
- Explain = give the MECHANISM (warm water expands → sea rises; hotter air → mosquitoes survive → malaria spreads), never just name it.
- Albedo: bright ice = high albedo; melting it exposes dark surface = a positive feedback loop.
- Data: Identify = read it off; Describe/Outline = state the trend AND quote figures with units (+38%, 6.5% of GDP).
- Vulnerability = exposure + low adaptive capacity — quote both; Suggest HUMAN factors (poverty, location, governance, gender), not physical ones.
- On the [10] 'to what extent' / Examine, weigh both sides with NAMED places (Bangladesh, Netherlands, small island states) and finish with a clear, justified judgement.