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CSS Geography Environmental Change Flashcards
50 question-and-answer cards covering Environmental Change as it is examined in CSS Geography. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Environmental Change deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
List the main types of pollution.
Air pollution, water pollution, soil/land pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, radioactive pollution, and light pollution.
Distinguish point-source from non-point-source pollution.
Point-source pollution comes from a single identifiable source (e.g., a factory pipe); non-point-source pollution comes from diffuse, widespread sources (e.g., agricultural runoff).
What are primary and secondary pollutants?
Primary pollutants are emitted directly (e.g., CO, SO2, NOx); secondary pollutants form in the atmosphere from reactions of primary pollutants (e.g., ozone, smog, acid rain).
Name the main air pollutants.
Carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM), ground-level ozone (O3), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
What is acid rain and how does it form?
Precipitation with high acidity (low pH), formed when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with water vapour in the atmosphere to form sulphuric and nitric acids.
What is smog and what are its two types?
Smog is a mix of smoke and fog/pollutants. Types: classical/sulphurous smog (from coal burning, SO2) and photochemical smog (from NOx and VOCs reacting in sunlight, producing ozone).
What causes water pollution?
Industrial effluents, sewage, agricultural runoff (fertilizers/pesticides), oil spills, plastic waste, and thermal discharge entering water bodies.
What is eutrophication?
The excessive enrichment of water with nutrients (nitrogen/phosphorus from fertilizers and sewage), causing algal blooms, oxygen depletion (hypoxia) and death of aquatic life.
What is thermal pollution?
The degradation of water quality by raising or lowering its temperature, usually from industrial/power-plant cooling water discharge, which reduces dissolved oxygen and harms aquatic life.
List four major problems caused by air pollution.
Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, acid rain, smog reducing visibility, global warming/climate change, and ozone layer depletion.
What health problems result from pollution?
Respiratory illnesses (asthma, bronchitis), cancers, waterborne diseases (cholera, dysentery), heavy-metal poisoning, hearing loss (noise), and birth defects.
What is ozone layer depletion and what causes it?
The thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer, mainly caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons releasing chlorine that destroys ozone, increasing harmful UV radiation reaching Earth.
What is the Montreal Protocol (1987)?
An international treaty to phase out the production of ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs to protect the stratospheric ozone layer.
What are the main global environmental/biome patterns by latitude?
Tropical rainforests near the equator, savannas and deserts in the subtropics, temperate forests and grasslands in mid-latitudes, and tundra/taiga in high latitudes.
What is a biome?
A large-scale ecological community characterized by distinctive climate, vegetation and animal life, such as tropical rainforest, desert, grassland, tundra or taiga.
What is an environmental hazard?
A natural or human-induced event or condition with the potential to cause harm to people, property, or the environment (e.g., earthquakes, floods, industrial accidents).
Distinguish natural from anthropogenic (man-made) hazards.
Natural hazards arise from natural processes (earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, cyclones); anthropogenic hazards result from human activity (chemical spills, nuclear accidents, industrial explosions).
Classify natural hazards into their main types.
Geological (earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides), hydro-meteorological (floods, cyclones, droughts, storms), and biological (epidemics, pests, infestations).
Differentiate between a hazard and a disaster.
A hazard is a potential threat or dangerous event; a disaster is the actual occurrence that causes serious disruption, loss of life and damage exceeding a community's coping capacity.
What is vulnerability in disaster/risk management?
The conditions (physical, social, economic, environmental) that increase the susceptibility of a community or system to the impact of hazards.
State the risk equation used in risk management.
Risk = Hazard x Vulnerability / Capacity (also expressed as Risk = Probability of hazard x Consequences/Vulnerability).
What are the four phases of the disaster/risk management cycle?
Mitigation (reduce risk), Preparedness (plan and train), Response (act during the event), and Recovery (restore and rebuild).
Distinguish mitigation from preparedness in risk management.
Mitigation aims to prevent or reduce the impact of hazards before they occur (e.g., dams, building codes); preparedness involves planning, early-warning systems and training to respond effectively when a hazard strikes.
What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction?
A UN framework (2015-2030) that sets global priorities for reducing disaster risk: understanding risk, strengthening governance, investing in resilience, and enhancing preparedness for 'build back better' recovery.
What this deck covers
The Environmental Change deck follows the CSS Geography Environmental Change syllabus — 3 chapters and 9 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 16.7 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 166 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Environmental Change flashcards FAQ
How many Environmental Change flashcards are in this CSS Geography deck?
50 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these CSS Geography flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 50-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Environmental Change cards cover?
They follow the CSS Geography Environmental Change syllabus — 3 chapters and 9 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.