Follow the energy. Explore the choices. Compare the futures.
UAE COASTAL EDITION
IGCSE PHYSICS · CLIMATE EXPLORER
Global warming, viewed from a UAE-inspired coast. Recognisable landmarks set the scene; the four community sites and their elevations are fictional. This is a learning model, not a flood forecast for Dubai or the UAE.
A closer look at the atmosphere
How does more CO₂ change the energy balance?
PAUSED
Connect the idea
A balanced starting point
“Trapped” does not mean energy is locked in forever. Infrared still escapes to space. A warmer Earth emits more energy.
Molecules and packets are enlarged. Path counts are illustrative, not measurements of radiation intensity.
Your experiment
Temperature response
Temperature is relative to this experiment’s starting equilibrium at 280 ppm. The natural greenhouse effect is already present.
Same starting point · different decisions
Two possible worlds
ILLUSTRATIVE MODEL · 2025–2100
Both worlds start with the same climate. Choose when global CO₂ emissions fall. Scrub time to compare the temperature, sea level and exposure of an identical fictional UAE-inspired coastal community.
World A
World B
Global temperature
°C above the model’s pre-industrial reference. Shaded bands vary one feedback parameter; they are not probability intervals.
Sea-level change
Metres above the model’s 2025 level. Cyan: A. Coral: B. Sea level responds more slowly than temperature.
Compare the evidence
The water rises around the island; the land is not sinking in this model. Vertical relief is exaggerated. Landmarks are a stylised backdrop, not modelled flood-risk sites. Geography and elevations are fictional.
Your mission by 2100: keep all four sites above water or defended, serve at least 95% of electricity demand, and compare your warming with the growing-emissions reference. You have separate global and local responsibilities.
Noor Coast · five-year decisions
Your coast, in a changing world
2025
Why did that change?
CLICK A BUILDING TO INSPECT
Inspect the harbour, neighbourhood, school or clinic. Select a skyline landmark to identify it. Their elevations determine when rising water reaches them.
Choose a global pathway, then spend your island budget. Global emissions and local adaptation do different jobs.
This extra water level is an inspection tool only. It is not a predicted storm surge, does not alter the climate, and is excluded from scores and exports.
Your climate pathway
Mint: your choices. Coral: growing-emissions reference. °C above the model’s pre-industrial reference.
Decision log
Compare your saved futures
Future
Year
Warming / °C
Sea rise / m
Sites above water
Energy served
Local credits spent
Unlocked at 2100 · long-term thought experiment
The legacy continues
After your 2100 result, hold temperature constant. Watch ocean expansion and land-ice adjustment continue towards the model’s equilibrium. This is a conditional experiment, not a forecast of temperature or future emissions.
Build an explanation
From radiation to the shoreline
Task 1 · 3 min Double CO₂ in the energy lab. Explain why the energy imbalance changes before temperature does.
Task 2 · 4 min Compare early and delayed emissions cuts. Record the temperature and sea-level differences in 2100.
Task 3 · 6 min Play two island futures. Use the evidence to distinguish mitigation from adaptation.
Stretch · 3 min Explore the long-term legacy. Why can sea level continue rising when temperature is held constant?
Check the mechanism
What this version models
CO₂ emissions change atmospheric concentration. Added CO₂ changes radiative forcing. A surface/deep-ocean energy-balance model responds with a delay. Ocean expansion and land ice make separate contributions to sea level.
Floating sea ice is not added to the sea-level volume here. Ice–albedo feedback, clouds, aerosols, regional currents, tides, erosion and vertical land motion are not represented explicitly. All island elevations and budgets are invented.
The model has not been calibrated to reproduce an IPCC scenario. Numbers are illustrative, not predictions or engineering guidance. The shaded band is a limited sensitivity test, not the full uncertainty.
Show equations and parameters
Radiative forcing F = 5.35 ln(C/280) + 0.5 W m⁻² in the global model. Other forcing is held fixed at 0.5. Surface response: 8 dT/dt = F − λT − 0.7(T − Td); deep-ocean response: 100 dTd/dt = 0.7(T − Td). λ = 1.25 W m⁻² K⁻¹; sensitivity tests use 1.0 and 1.6.
The teaching carbon cycle partitions emitted CO₂ into persistent, slow and fast pools (fractions 0.25, 0.45, 0.30; removal times infinite, 150 and 15 years). 7.81 Gt CO₂ adds 1 ppm before removal. These are illustrative coefficients, not a fitted reconstruction. The initial pools are 50, 60 and 35 ppm above 280 ppm.
Initial model year 2025: C = 425 ppm; T = 1.3 °C; Td = 0.3 °C. These are rounded scenario initial conditions, not a live observation. Model sea components start at 0.10 m each; reported changes subtract this 0.20 m baseline. Expansion approaches 0.4T metres over 180 years; land ice approaches 1.2T metres over 900 years. These simple response coefficients cannot describe ice-sheet tipping points.
The energy lab is a separate CO₂-only perturbation experiment: 8 dΔT/dt = 5.35 ln(C/280) − 1.25ΔT. It retains a natural greenhouse background and omits ocean layering to isolate the energy-balance idea.
Science behind the design
The natural greenhouse effect makes Earth warmer than it would be without infrared-absorbing gases. Increasing greenhouse gases changes Earth’s energy balance.
Oceans warm and expand; land ice adds water to the ocean. Slow ocean and ice-sheet responses explain why sea-level effects can outlast the decisions that caused them.
The numerical model and fictional UAE-inspired coast are original teaching simplifications. These sources support the mechanisms, not the game’s numerical coefficients or outcomes.
