Climate, energy, biodiversity and everyday habits. 10 questions to measure what you really know about the planet.
10 questions on ecology: global warming, renewable energy, biodiversity, and the key ideas you need to understand today's environmental challenges.
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Ecology started out as the science that studies the relationships between living things and their environment. Today the word also covers everything to do with protecting the planet: climate, pollution, natural resources and biodiversity. Understanding these topics is no longer just for specialists. Global warming, recycling and renewable energy are now part of everyone's daily life.
Knowing the big mechanisms, such as the greenhouse effect or photosynthesis, and the key milestones like the Paris Agreement, helps you follow today's debates and make more responsible choices. This quiz reviews the essentials every citizen should have in mind, with no jargon and no doom-mongering.
All ten easy level questions, with the answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: Recycle
Recycle, the three Rs of waste.
Correct answer: Electricity
Electricity, from blades turning a generator.
Correct answer: Bees
Bees, and many of our crops rely on them and on other pollinators.
Correct answer: Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide, storing the carbon as they grow.
Correct answer: Coal
Coal, formed from ancient plants over millions of years.
Correct answer: Food and garden waste
Food and garden waste, which breaks down into rich soil.
Correct answer: A reusable bag
A reusable bag, as long as you remember to bring it.
Correct answer: Smog
Smog, a blend of the words smoke and fog.
Correct answer: Sweden
Sweden, where her school strike began in 2018.
Correct answer: 70%
About 70%, though very little of it is fresh water we can use.
Want to warm up before playing or double-check something? Open any question to reveal the correct answer and a short explanation.
Correct answer: Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2), released mainly by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, is the leading human-made greenhouse gas. It builds up in the atmosphere and traps the Sun's heat.
Correct answer: Renewable energy
Renewable energy comes from sources that are, on a human scale, inexhaustible: the sun, wind, water, the Earth's heat and biomass. Unlike fossil fuels, they do not run out and release very few greenhouse gases.
Correct answer: The ozone layer
The ozone layer, in the stratosphere, filters out much of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. A 'hole' was detected in it during the 1980s, but banning certain gases has since allowed it to begin recovering.
Correct answer: Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis lets plants, algae and some bacteria turn carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy while releasing oxygen. This is the process that keeps the air breathable.
Correct answer: The Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest in South America is the largest tropical forest on Earth. It hosts an extraordinary range of biodiversity but remains under threat from deforestation linked to farming and cattle ranching.
Correct answer: The variety of living species
Biodiversity refers to the variety of all life on Earth: animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms, along with the habitats they live in. Protecting it is essential to keeping ecosystems in balance.
Correct answer: Several hundred years
A plastic bottle can take several hundred years to break down. As it fragments, plastic forms microparticles that are now found even at the bottom of the oceans.
Correct answer: Three arrows forming a loop
The universal recycling symbol is made of three arrows chasing each other in a loop, known as the 'Möbius loop'. Each arrow stands for a stage: collecting, processing, and then reusing the materials.
Correct answer: The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015 at COP21, commits almost every country to keeping warming well below 2°C, aiming for 1.5°C. It succeeded the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted back in 1997.
Correct answer: Extinction
Extinction is the total loss of a species, when its last individual dies. Scientists today warn of an unusually high rate of extinctions, driven in large part by the destruction of natural habitats.
Stuck on one, or just curious how nasty it gets? Every hard mode question is here with its answer and the reasoning behind it.
Correct answer: An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary.
Correct answer: Atmospheric CO2
Atmospheric CO2, recorded continuously since 1958.
Correct answer: 1970
1970, in the United States, with around 20 million participants.
Correct answer: Bhopal
Bhopal, one of the worst industrial disasters ever.
Correct answer: The Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico, after a rig explosion that killed eleven workers.
Correct answer: James Lovelock
James Lovelock, working with biologist Lynn Margulis.
Correct answer: Iceland
Iceland, which sits right on top of a rather generous heat source.
Correct answer: Excess nutrients causing algal blooms
Excess nutrients causing algal blooms, which then strip the water of oxygen.
Correct answer: How much sunlight a surface reflects
How much sunlight a surface reflects. Fresh snow scores high, dark ocean low.
Correct answer: Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win a Nobel Prize.