Take the Environmental Test

Got into a heated discussion recently with friends about the Environment? Have they assured you that we're all doomed so we may as well throw our kids off the Harbour Bridge now and be done with it? Felt that they didn't really know what they were talking about? Then ask them to take this simple EcoTest to see how much they (and you) really know about Climate Change.

Answers below - don't cheat.

i) What is Global Warming?
ii) Since 1900, how much has the Earth warmed?
iii) During the 20th Century, what was the average annual rise in sea levels?
iv) Since the end of the last Ice Age in 16,000 BC, what has been the average annual rise in sea levels?
v) What is the 'Greenhouse Effect'?
vi) How much of the 'Greenhouse effect' is caused by human activity?
vii) Excluding water vapour, which other gases, adjusted for their Global Warming Potential, contribute to the Greenhouse Gas effect?
viii) What % of the above gases can be accounted for by man (anthropogenic)?
ix) How much has the atmospheric CO2 concentration risen since the Industrial Revolution?
x) How much of this can be accounted for by man?
xi) What is the Kyoto Protocol?
xii) What % reduction in CO2 emissions is demanded by the Kyoto Protocol?
xiii) By how much would this reduce total Geenhouse Gas emissions?
xiv) If every country observed the Kyoto Protocol, how much would global temperatures fall?
xv) And by how much would the world's economy shrink? Use Britain and Germany as an example.






DON'T CHEAT!











Answers
i) The theory that increased levels of CO2 and certain other gases are causing an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans because of the 'Greenhouse effect'.
ii) 0.6C
iii) 2mm
iv) 7mm
v) the process by which absorption of infra-red radiation by the atmosphere warms a planet.
vi) 0.28%
Water accounts for 95% of the effect.
vii) CO2 (72%), Nitrous Oxide (19%), Methane (7%) and CFCs (2%)
viii) 5.53%
ix) from 288ppm to 370ppm. Source - US Dept of Energy, 2000
x) 11ppm or 3%
xi) The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Signatories commit to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. Only developed countries were asked to sign as they are the ones that caused the problem.
xii) 30%
xiii) 0.035%
xiv) 0.05 degree Celsisus
Source - Dr. Fred Singer, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, Univ of Virginia
xv) Compliance with the Kyoto Protocol will cost Germany and Britain about 5% of GDP and increase unemployment by 1.8 million and one million respectively. Source; NCPA