How much do you REALLY know about climate change?

By Anna Bertrand

Climate change is such a broad subject that it’s difficult to know where we, as individuals, stand on our knowledge of the subject. Here is a link to NASA's quizzes so you can find out what you know!

http://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/quizzes

I’ve put my own results underneath, because I was curious what I knew, too!

Quiz 1: Warm Up

Result: With an 8/10, it considered me an expert, but I have to say the quiz was much more difficult than I originally thought it would be. This really quizzes you on the state of Earth’s temperatures, and every question taught me something new.

Quiz 2: Freeze Frames

Result: While focusing on glaciers and ice caps, I found out that I am not exactly knowledgeable on this subject! A 4/10 score shows me that I have lots to learn on this topic, and it is especially important considering the great loss of ice around the world and the impact this will have on rising sea levels and mountain habitats as glaciers and sea ice melt

Quiz 3: Sea Change

Result: Another 4/10 tells me I need to read up on the relationship between sea and climate change… I learned just how extreme in some cases and just how surprisingly mild in others that climate change will have on seas. Also, there were some interesting facts about previous periods in Earth’s history… this quiz definitely provides valuable information to help understand how the sea is affected by climate change.

Quiz 4: How’s Your Energy Level?

Result: With a 6/8, I scored a little better on this quiz, but honestly this was with a little guessing. Even though this quiz didn’t have explanations with each answered question, it teaches relevant facts that are important for understanding the state of energy in our society, such as how the sun makes energy, scientists’ opinion on this energy, how nuclear power plants create energy, and how much we rely on this form of energy.

Quiz 5: Sea Salt

Result: On this quiz, I achieved a 6/10… that 100% eluded me! However, this final quiz also gave me some good information that will help me understand how oceans will be affected because of their salinity.  I learned about the consistency of salt levels of the ocean, just how much salt is in the ocean, and how much salt content varies by depth and region.

Final Reactions:

In the 20 minutes it took me to take all of these quizzes, I have to say I learned quite a bit. Even though not every quiz corresponds directly to climate change with every question, the knowledge I gained from each quiz will help me as I read and hear about climate change in the future. They gave me valuable background knowledge that will give me a good basis for understanding our changing environment, and although the expert will have an easy time with these quizzes, I think that for the every-day person these are a great tool for learning more about climate change and the environmental aspects that it impacts.

Take them and see where you stand!