Climate choices?

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Two mini climate quizzes

To find out how much you know about climate choices and about how to solve the climate crises, do these two mini quizzes

1. Climate choices quiz

Think You’re Making Good Climate Choices? 

Take This Mini-Quiz!

How many hours could you leave a lamp with an LED light bulb switched on and produce the same amount of greenhouse gases as a single load in a clothes dryer?

Say you’re taking a one-way, economy flight from New York to London. You might want to make up for those emissions by giving up quarter-pound hamburgers.

How many burgers would you need to skip to offset that flight?

You decide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a vegetarian for one year. Your friend doesn’t want to change her diet, but decides to cut down by purchasing only bulk foods (nothing with any form of packaging).

How many years would it take your friend to save the same amount of greenhouse gases as you?

You have a midsize car and you’re environmentally conscious, so you set yourself a strict limit of 100 miles per week.

If you switched to a hybrid car, how many miles could you drive while still producing the same amount of greenhouse gases?

Were you way off?

If so, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Researchers surveyed 965 people in the United States and Canada, and only one answered three of four questions correctly. Nobody got all four questions right.

Quiz nr. 2: How much do you know about solving global warming?

Answer the following questions and find out!

What do you think would reduce greenhouse gas emissions more: If half the world switched to a plant-rich diet, or if clean cookstoves, which reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, were adopted on a large scale in the developing world?

1. Eat more plants
2. Clean up the stoves

Plant-based diets= #4

plant-based diets are ranked as the No. 4 climate change solution over all. Globally, food production — and the production of meat in particular — produces around the same amount of greenhouse gases as power plants. So eating less meat can lead to big savings on emissions.

Which would cut more greenhouse gases: If everyone threw out half as much food, or if about half of all biodegradable food was composted?

1. Waste less food
2. Compost your waste

Wasting less food= #3

In the United States, 40 percent of all food is wasted, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Cutting down on waste to begin with is far more effective than composting what’s wasted.

Which would have the bigger impact: encouraging more car-pooling, or the reduced car emissions from electric vehicles?

1. Hitch a ride
2. Switch to electric

#26: switch to electric

The authors say 16 percent of all cars could be electric by 2050. Buying those new cars would cost a lot more than simply car-pooling, but the savings in carbon dioxide emissions are much higher.

Which offers more bang for the buck: improving airplane efficiency, or building a global network of high-speed rail?

1. Fly better
2. Build more trains

#43 Fly better

A lot of the changes are easier than you think: One study showed that if planes taxied on a single engine, they could substantially reduce the amount of fuel they burn.

Which holds more promise: building wind farms or solar farms?

1. Go like the wind
2. Let the sunshine in

#2 Go like the wind

Both of those sources of renewable energy are extremely important in slowing global warming, but onshore wind turbines will be even more effective than solar farms. Both are expensive to build, but they can also provide vast savings in the long run: more than $10 trillion over the next few decades if installed at a wide scale.

(Solar panels= #8)

Green roofs provide natural insulation by growing plants on top of buildings, and cool roofs reflect solar energy back into space. They help save on heating and cooling costs. How do you think installing these roofs compares to almost exclusively using LED light bulbs in homes?

1. Change your roof
2. Get new light bulbs

#33 Get new light bulbs

LED bulbs use 90 percent less energy for the same amount of light than traditional incandescent bulbs. If most light bulbs were switched to LEDs, it would save about 10 times as much energy as if 90 percent of all roofs were either green or cool.

Final Question
What’s the No. 1-ranked solution for fighting climate change?

1. Waste less water
2. Manage refrigerants
3. Restore tropical rainforests
4. Recycle more paper

It turns out that changing how we use and dispose of refrigerants — the chemicals used in refrigerators and air-conditioners — has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases more than any of the other 99 strategies in the book. When these chemicals leak or are improperly disposed, they are thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere. The 2016 Kigali Accord, signed by 160 countries, could reduce the emissions from refrigerants by 87 percent.

FYI

#5 Restore tropical rainforests

#46 Waste less water

#70 Recycle more paper