Climate Quiz, Multiple Choice

Front 1

Question:
When "Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow", where has most of the oak wood come from?
a) the oxygen in air
b) the carbon dioxide in air
c) water
d) humus in soil
e) minerals in soil

Back 1

Answer:
b);
http://eo.ucar.edu/kids/green/cycles6.htm

Front 2

Question:
Fossil fuels are the carbon-rich remains of...
a) ancient plants and animals that didn't rot or burn
b) cosmic dust
c) chemical reactions of inert matter

Back 2

Answer:
a);
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel

Front 3

Question:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) gets into the air from...
a) plant and animal respiration
b) burning or rotting plant matter
c) volcanos
d) burning fossil fuels
e) dissolved CO2 from the sea and other bodies of water
f) all of the above

Back 3

Answer:
f);
http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2010/12/common-climate-misconceptions-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide/

Front 4

Question:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas. This...
a) is disputed by scientists
b) means that it warms the earth like a blanket, keeping it from losing heat to space
c) gives the sky its color

Back 4

Answer:
b);
http://rabett.blogspot.com/2008/09/survival-blanket-outbreak-of-the.html

Front 5

Question:
CO2 in our atmosphere is a trace gas; its concentration in the air is 387 parts per million, less than a tenth of one percent. If there were no CO2 in the air _at all_, earth's surface would become:
a) about the same temperature as now
b) 5 or 10 degrees F colder
c) "snowball earth", more than 60 degrees F colder and covered in ice

Back 5

Answer:
c);
http://chriscolose.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/adding-up-the-greenhouse-effect-attributing-the-contributions/ ("35 K after water vapor and albedo kicks in, and triggers a snowball Earth where the whole planet is ice covered")

Front 6

Question:
Since we started burning fossil fuels with the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO2 has increased by:
a) less than 5%
b) about 10%
c) more than 30%

Back 6

Answer:
c);
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/

Front 7

Question:
This increase in atmospheric CO2 is:
a) partly natural, partly due to human activities
b) almost entirely due to human activities

Back 7

Answer:
b);
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/

Front 8

Question:
There are natural carbon cycles - CO2 enters the atmosphere from sources like volcanoes, forest fires, and rotting wood; and leaves via sinks like plants, rock weathering, and oceans.
Think of atmosphere as being a bathtub - the tub level is the CO2 concentration, and CO2 comes into it through the faucet, and drains out through uptake by our trees and oceans. Currently, our emissions have increased the faucet flow by 2% <span style="font-weight: bold;">(URL?)</span>, and natural absorption processes have increased the drain flow by half that, 1% <span style="font-weight: bold;">(URL?)</span>. Outcome: the atmospheric CO2 concentration - the tub level - will:
a) decrease
b) stay unchanged
c) increase

Back 8

Answer:
c);
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/the-greenhouse-effect-and-the-bathtub-effect/

Front 9

Question:
Now say we decrease the faucet flow by 20%; the tub level will proceed to...
a) decrease
b) stay unchanged
c) continue to increase

Back 9

Answer:
c);
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/the-greenhouse-effect-and-the-bathtub-effect/

Front 10

Question:
Effectively, how long will the CO2 emitted by burning a gallon of gas continue to affect the climate?
a) days
b) months
c) centuries, plus 25% that sticks around forever

Back 10

Answer:
c);
http://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-residence-time.htm ("Therefore a time scale for CO2 warming potential out as far as 500 years is entirely reasonable (See IPCC 4th Assessment Report Section 2.10)."), http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/03/how-long-will-global-warming-last/

Front 11

Question:
As of 2002, roughly what proportion of the historical GHG emissions - that will continue to affect the climate for centuries or longer - has come from the U.S.? Europe? China?
a) 1/3, 1/4, 1/12
b) 1/3, 1/3, 1/5
c) 1/4, 1/4, 1/4
d) 1/4, 1/2, 1/5

Back 11

Answer:
a ; (29.3, 26.5, 7.6) http://www.envirowiki.info/Historical_greenhouse_gas_emissions (Table after Baumert et. al., Chapter 6[2] Cumulative CO2 Emissions, 1850–2002)

Front 12

Question:
Other greenhouse gases besides CO2 are...
a) oxygen and argon
b) methane, water vapor and nitrous oxide

Back 12

Answer:
b);
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas

Front 13

Question:
Before we humans, the earth has undergone cycles of warming and cooling. This means that...
a) humans cannot change the earth's climate
b) natural forces can also cause the climate to change

Back 13

Answer:
b);
http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm
("Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time...")

Front 14

Question:
Are natural cycles causing the current warming?
Over many thousands of years, the earth naturally goes through various "wobbles" in its rotation and in its orbit around the sun. These natural Milankovitch cycles change how the sun warms the earth, producing a "solar forcing". Their cycle lengths vary from 21,000, to 400,000 years, with the strongest one for earth's climate being the 100,000 year cycle.
In the absence of humans, what would these cycles be doing now, to earth's temperature?
a) rapid cooling
b) rapid warming
c) v-e-r-y slow cooling (over thousands of years)
d) v-e-r-y slow warming (over thousands of years)

Back 14

Answer:
c);
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/milankovitch-cycles/

Front 15

Question:
In the last 50 years, what % of the earth's warming is estimated to be due to human activities?
a) 10%
b) 50%
c) 85-120% (the number can be over 100% if it has to mask a cooling factor)

Back 15

Answer:
c ; ("somewhere between 80 to 120% of the warming" - Gavin Schmidt) http://climateprogress.org/2009/12/02/realclimate-gavin-schmidit-what-fraction-of-global-warming-is-due-to-human-causes-vs-natural-causes/

Front 16

Question:
Volcanoes release how much CO2 compared to emissions from human activities?
a) under 3%
b) 40%
c) 90%
d) 170%

Back 16

Answer:
a);
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/05/current-volcanic-activity-and-climate/ , http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2006/02/volcanos-emit-more-co2.php

Front 17

Question:
Why are we concerned about the measly one degree C of warming we've seen so far?
a) it's what it portends; this is the predicted signal just starting to emerge from the noise; there's more warming already "in the pipeline"
b) future global temperature rise won't be uniform and risks global climate disruption
c) look what's happening already, with glaciers, sea ice, &amp; increased weather extremes
d) all of the above

Back 17

Answer:
d);
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7161
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/2/2/024002/fulltext (Hansen, inertia Environ. Res. Lett. 2 (April-June 2007) 024002) , http://initforthegold.blogspot.com/2010/08/name-of-problem.html

Front 18

Question:
When the earth warms, what % of the heat goes into the oceans, and what % into land and atmosphere?
a) 10% into oceans, 90% land+atmosphere
b) 50% into oceans, 50% land+atmosphere
c) 95% oceans, 5% land+atmosphere

Back 18

Answer:
c);
http://www.skepticalscience.com/How-do-we-know-global-warming-is-still-happening.html

Front 19

Question:
Over the last decade, the atmosphere has continued to warm, but more slowly. Does this mean global warming has stopped?
a) no; the oceans have continued to warm
b) no; 1998 was an unusual year for well-understood ocean-circulation reasons (El Nino)
c) no; 10 years isn't a long enough time to be drawing conclusions. If we're going to say that GW stopped now, then we'd have to say that it's stopped numerous times in the past century too - yet it always resumed rising.
d) all of the above
e) none of the above; we can go back to burning oil and coal with a clear conscience.

Back 19

Answer:
d);
http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-stopped-in-1998-intermediate.htm

Front 20

Question:
If you want to interpret the global surface temperature data to say that global warming stopped in 1998, during how many times did global warming stop in the 20th century?
a) none
b) 2
c) 7 or more

Back 20

Answer:
c);
http://www.skepticalscience.com/graphics.php?g=14

Front 21

Question:
During the last glacial maximum (when glaciers covered much of the earth) about how many degrees F was the earth cooler than today?
a) 5
b) 10
c) 20

Back 21

Answer:
b);
http://ourchangingclimate.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/tipping_points_melting_ice/ (graph)

Front 22

Question:
How many of the last 10 years were among the 10 hottest years on record?
a) 3
b) 0
c) 9
2010, 2005, 1998, 2003, 2002, 2009, 2006, 2007, 2004, 2001

Back 22

Answer:
c);
http://climateprogress.org/2011/01/12/noaa-2010-tied-with-2005-for-hottest-year-on-record/

Front 23

Question:
To have a 75% probability of keeping the temperature rise below 2C, how much of earth's known remaining fossil fuel reserves can we burn?
a) less than a quarter
b) about a tenth
c) 80%

Back 23

Answer:
a);
http://tinyurl.com/meinshausen

Front 24

Question:
Under "business as usual" (i.e., no regulations to reduce GHG emissions), about how likely is it that we can keep earth's temperature rise below 2C?
a) 25%
b) 10%
c) 80%
d) 0%

Back 24

Answer:
d);
http://tinyurl.com/meinshausen

Front 25

Question:
If we reduce our CO2 emissions by 20%, atmospheric CO2 levels will
a) decrease by 20%
b) decrease by 10%
c) level off
d) continue to increase

Back 25

Answer:
d);
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1853871,00.html?xid=rss-health , http://web.mit.edu/jsterman/www/Understanding_public.html

Front 26

Question:
The last time atmospheric CO2 was at its current level (~390 ppm), sea level was
a) about the same as now
b) about 30 feet lower
c) 75-120 feet higher

Back 26

Answer:
c);
http://climateprogress.org/2009/10/18/science-co2-levels-havent-been-this-high-for-15-million-years-when-it-was-5%C2%B0-to-10%C2%B0f-warmer-and-seas-were-75-to-120-feet-higher-we-have-shown-that-this-dramatic-rise-in-sea-level-i/

Front 27

Question:
When climate doubters argue that global warming isn't happening, one approach they use is to:
a) show a short time series of just a few years, rather than decades;
b) show a temperature record that's regional, not global;
c) focus on anecdotal temperature measurement imperfections to argue that there's a consistent bias
d) all of the above

Back 27

Answer:
d);