Ever test your global warming knowledge?

Question

Here is your chance:

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/GlobWarmTest/start.html

How'd ya score? Did you learn anything new?

Hi Matt! Nice to see you.

Answer 1

Yes. I learned that some people will put incorrect answers on an allegedly "scientific" test for political reasons.

Examples:

Q3, the main cause of global warming. Variations in the shape of earth's orbit ("orbital forcing") peaked 6000 years ago and have been slowly cooling the planet since then.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/4434/943
Variations in solar irradiance are inadequate to account for the sharp rise in late 20th century temperatures.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/solarda3.html

That leaves the greenhouse effect as the primary cause of the current warming.

Q4. While it is true that water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas, it certainly does not account for 95% of the greenhouse effect nor close to that. It accounts for between 46% and 56% of the greenhouse effect. Further, water vapor cannot force climate change. If you were to remove all the water vapor from the air today, it would take about 2 weeks for evaporation to restore the natural balance. Similarly, if you were to supersaturate the entire atmosphere with water vapor today, it would take about 2 weeks for precipitation to restore the natural balance. But CO2 stays in the air for centuries. And it keeps forcing climate change for as long as it's there.

Q6. While it's true that the CO2 levels were quite high in the Jurassic period, the earth had no polar icecaps then, either. If a similar situation were to recur, every point on earth within 260 feet of sea level would be inundated. Good-bye, Florida.
http://cegis.usgs.gov/sea_level_rise.html

Q8. Why is this guy using 50-year old regional data on his graph, when better data, and global data, has been around for years? A sly deception, since the best global data shows that the current warmth is obviously more acute than any natural variation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

Q9. Answer (a) is correct: there is a consensus of scientists that action is needed.
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/306/5702/1686

... while answer (b) is incorrect. Although GW affects nighttime temperatures more, daytime temps are also increasing.
http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0477(1993)074%3C1007%3AANPORG%3E2.0.CO%3B2

Q 10. More out-of-date junk. Early studies of satellite temperature time series had flaws in calibration of instruments that have long since been corrected. Satellite data in fact shows that temperatures have been rising just as climate models predict. The urban heat-island effect is well known, **and corrected for** in historical temperature records.
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/08/the-tropical-lapse-rate-quandary/
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/the-surface-temperature-record-and-the-urban-heat-island/

Answer 2

Thankyou for posting the question and the link to the test but I'm sorry to say this isn't the most reliable test of global warming knowledge I've come across. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the least reliable.

I started doing the test for fun whilst I was chatting on the phone and became increasinly suspicious about the credibility of it's authors and the reliability of the test in general given the number of inaccuracies and contradictions to material elsewhere on the same site.

It soon became apparent that the 'test' was devised by someone with very little knowledge of climatology, this was evidenced by the lack of understanding of the subject matter, incorrect and inappropriate use of terminology and a number of mistakes that no knowledgeable person would make.

I did some digging, the author of the test and the site is Monte Hieb. Not a climatologist, not a meteorologist, not even a scientist. He's an engineer who works for the West Virginia Office of Miners Health Safety and Training.

These are the correct answers...

1 - True, as per the test
2 - True, as per the test
3 - C, according to the test it's B
4 - A, as per the test
5 - C, as per the test
6 - Ambiguous, no correct answer
7 - True, according to the test it's false
8 - Ambiguous, B is the nearest answer but is inaccurate
9 - None of the options are correct
10 - B, as per the test

There's a more reliable test of global warming knowledge here http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/quiz-global-warming.html if you take this test be careful with question 2 and note that it's asking about greenhouse gases and not just carbon dioxide.

Answer 3

Test it? No. I read everything I can find from both sides of the issue. Do I think the earth is going through a natural change that has happened hundreds of times in the past? Yes. Do I think the damage to the ozone layer is changing the strength of this change? Probably.

My problem with the whole thing is that those who shout the loudest (Al Gore) are the worst offenders. He has a mountain vacation home that uses 4 times the energy of a normal family home, but he will not promise to swith to solar or wind energy for a home he rarely stays at but still takes so much energy to run. He is a hypocrite of the worst kind. I won't watch his movie. I won't join his organization. He picked up and ran with something after the election to get "Hollywood" behind him. Look out for Gore in 2012, and God help us all.

Answer 4

10 for 10.

I learned that alarmist such as Keith intentionally spread misinformation:

"Q4. While it is true that water vapor is the largest greenhouse gas, it certainly does not account for 95% of the greenhouse effect nor close to that. It accounts for between 46% and 56% of the greenhouse effect. Further, water vapor cannot force climate change. If you were to remove all the water vapor from the air today, it would take about 2 weeks for evaporation to restore the natural balance. Similarly, if you were to supersaturate the entire atmosphere with water vapor today, it would take about 2 weeks for precipitation to restore the natural balance. But CO2 stays in the air for centuries. And it keeps forcing climate change for as long as it's there."

Water vapor only accounts for 46-56%. Where is your source? If not, then please break down the percentages of the top 90% of GHG's.

Your notion of water's inability to force climate change is nonsensical. There is no such thing as a "natural balance" in that the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere at any given time is as variable as the climate itself. Water and it's movement into the atmosphere and circulation around the globe is THE GREATEST DRIVER OF CLIMATE after the Sun. Remove water from the equation you make climate predictions LOADS easier (which maybe the reason modelers tend to downplay the complex contributions of water vapor.)

And Dana repeating that water vapor is dependent on temperature shows a complete disregard for every other physical and biological process save evaporation. There is SO much more than temperature, and anyone that assumes a homogeneous Earth is dealing with oversimplification and scientific dishonesty.

Answer 5

Well I received an 80%, I did learn a few things but it would be interesting to run AlGORES book through the test because he would receive a 0% on it. The problem is that there are so many scientists out there and to grab a scientist lets say from the study of animals and have them say global warming is true too many people beleive it but when the climatolgists and the like say it isn't then to me we have a problem since those type of scientists should have the most expertise on the area. ALGORE only gets scientists who agrees with him no matter that their expertise is not in a subject that relates to the climate.

Answer 6

I got them right, the test got many wrong. Can you pass my test? Here are the correct answers:

3 - Greenhouse gases are the main cause of global warming:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

4 - The greenhouse effect is currently CAUSED primarily by carbon dioxide. Water vapor is the primary CONTRIBUTOR but it's dependent on atompsheric temperature. Hotter Earth = more water vapor. In other words, water vapor is an indicator and amplifier of global warming, not a CAUSE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas#The_role_of_water_vapor

9 - Nice try, there is a scientific consensus though.

10 - Their test is out of date. Here's the real answer:

"For some time, these measurements appeared to indicate that warming was less rapid than ground-based thermometers and paleoclimate data suggested. Recent research, using an updated correction for a long-term change in the timing of satellite measurements, shows closer agreement between satellite and ground-based data."

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/instrumental.html

Some of the questions were irrelevant, like the percentage of the atmosphere composed of CO2. I don't care what percentage it is, I care how much CO2 is up there and how much global warming that will cause.

I'm rather curious as to who wrote this test. Anyone can make some bogus test and put it on the internet, you know. That doesn't make it accurate.

Answer 7

Well there are things you can do to help reduce the amount of harm you are causing the enviroment, you can do this by offsetting your carbon on websites such as; www.co2debt.com . On these sites you are able to prevent climate change by funding ethical reforestation projects. I personally found that www.co2debt.com was the best site for this because of their strong relationships with other non-profit organizations

Answer 8

I got 8 of 10. I was surprised that co2 is such a small part of our atmosphere. Cool.

Answer 9

I got every single question right. Even the ones the test makers got wrong (which was about six out of ten). But I suppose it wasn't completely fair of me to take the test, since I've done it before. In fact, I wrote a lengthy letter to the test's makers about the glaring mistakes in it about eight months ago. I never heard back from them.

Answer 10

Good test. I got 9 right.

Answer 11

8 out of 10. If I hadn't been getting all my info from that da** Rush Limbaugh I would've gotten 'em all right!