Responding to Climate Change

Which of the following gases DOES NOT trap heat?

• carbon dioxide
• nitrogen
• water vapor
• methane

Where have some of the strongest and earliest impacts of global warming occurred?  

• in the tropics
• in the northern latitudes
• impacts of global warming are distributed equally all over the planet

If you took away the atmosphere’s natural greenhouse effect, and everything else stayed the same, Earth’s temperature would be   

• 10-20°F warmer
• 30-40°F warmer
• 10-20°F cooler
• 50-60°F cooler

How do scientists collect evidence about climate?  

• using remote sensing from space with satellites
• by ground-based measurements of surface temperatures, carbon dioxide concentration and sea level
• by collecting “proxy data” from tree rings, ice cores, and historical records
• all of the above

Compared to other greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide is very effective in trapping heat near the surface of the Earth.

• true
• false

Which of the following have been linked to climate change?  

• droughts
• flooding
• melting of polar ice caps
• all of the above

Which century was the wettest of the last millenium?  

• 12th
• 16th
• 19th
• 20th

Which species is threatened by the increased winter flow in streams due to global warming?

• striped bass
• atlantic mackerel
•    crawfish
• salmon

Visible light reaches Earth’s surface while infrared light is trapped as heat. Which characteristic of Earth’s atmosphere causes this to happen?

• the hole in the ozone
• the greenhouse effect
• atmospheric pressure
• the inversion layer

The average temperature of the surface of Earth has increased approximately 1°C in the past century. Which reason best explains this increase in temperature?

• lower levels of ozone in the atmosphere
• lower levels of nitrogen in the atmosphere
• higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
• higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere