Test Your Climate Knowledge with Five Easy Questions
Climate Change Dispatch has a five question test to see if you understand climate change. Here it is. Take it and see how you do.
If your friends can’t understand why you don’t believe in man-made global warming, give them this simple, five-question quiz. They may realize they don’t know as much about global warming as they think.
1. The primary greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is:
[a] Nitrous Oxide
[b] Carbon Dioxide
[c] Methane
[d] Water Vapor
2. Carbon dioxide comprises what percentage of the Earth’s atmosphere?
[a] 400%
[b] 40%
[c] 4%
[d] 0.04%
3. When reviewing our planet’s long geologic history, the current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is:
[a] Among the highest levels ever recorded
[b] Among the lowest levels ever recorded
[c] About average
4. Each new molecule of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere traps:
[a] The same amount of heat as the previous additional molecule
[b] More heat than the previous molecule
[c] Less heat than the previous molecule
5. In the twentieth century, solar output was:
[a] The same as it’s always been
[b] The lowest in 1,000 years.
[c] The highest in 1,000 years.
ANSWERS:
1. [d] Water vapor. Roughly 80% of the Earth’s “greenhouse effect” is sustained by water vapor.
2. [d] 0.04%. Carbon dioxide is a minor constituent in the atmosphere, which is dominated by Nitrogen (78%) and Oxygen (21%).
3. [b] Carbon dioxide levels are currently among the lowest ever recorded in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history.
4. [c] Less heat. Carbon dioxide follows a logarithmically declining function. That means, it exponentially loses the ability to trap heat as its concentration increases.
5. [c] The highest in 1,000 years. Starting in the latter part of the 1800s, solar activity ramped back up to the peak output previously seen during the Roman Warm Period (250-400 AD) and the Medieval Warm Period (950-1250 AD).
EDITORS NOTE: If you get more than two answers wrong, you may begin reading Climate Change Dispatch regularly for a crash course in climatology.
” Roughly 80% of the Earth’s “greenhouse effect” is sustained by water vapor.”
If by “greenhouse effect” you are referring to the maintaining of the mean surface temperature above that at the effective radiating altitude, it is NOT maintained by any radiation such as that from water vapour. Studies show water vapour lowers the temperature gradient (lapse rate) and this leads to lower mean surface temperatures in more moist regions. What really happens is at https://itsnotco2.wordpress.com and in my 2013 paper linked therein. A reward of AU $10,000 is offered for the first to prove me wrong. Submit your attempt in the comment threads AFTER reading the paper and/or my book based on that paper. Douglas Cotton
Douglas,
Thanks for reading and commenting on this column.
I read your article and I agree. Many people do not understand the physics of the natural cycles of climate.
John Casey, author of Dark Winter, taught me the following:
1. The climate changes.
2. These changes are natural cycles.
3. These natural cycles cannot be changed by changing human behaviors.
Looking forward to those who challenge your and try to prove you wrong. Which you are not.