How Green Is Your IQ?

    So, you think you know the environment. Let's see.

    Everybody talks about the environment these days, and a lot of people are even trying to do something about it. But amid all the discussion, it can be hard to keep the facts straight. Do you know how much electricity is wasted in the U.S. every year by appliances and electric gadgets in standby mode? Or what the most prevalent greenhouse gas is? And who started all this talk about the effect of greenhouse gases on climate, anyway? Try our quiz to see how familiar you are with your environment.

    1.The debate over how to power the U.S. has been raging since the Nixon years, and was given extra impetus during last year's presidential campaign. Just how does the U.S. keep the lights on? Match the share of electricity generated this year to the fuel source:

    A. Coal 1. 3.4%

    B. Nuclear power 2. 22%

    C. Natural gas 3. 45%

    D. Hydroelectric 4. 21%

    E. Other renewables 5. 7.4%

    ANSWER:

    A-3, B-4, C-2, D-5, E-1. Coal is still king, but it's the one source of power whose share of the electricity mix has fallen this year, to 45% from 49% last year.

    2 Speaking of power sources, what country gets the largest share of its electricity from renewable sources?

    A. Denmark

    B. Norway

    C. New Zealand

    D. Austria

    E. Iceland

    ANSWER:

    E. Iceland's power is about 75% hydroelectric and 25% geothermal. Geothermal power, or tapping the earth's underground heat, provides a rare double whammy for clean energy: It's cheap and always available. Just not everywhere. Norway, a close second in renewable sourcing, gets 99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power.

    3. Lots of countries rely on large hydroelectric projects, but in richer countries hydro has just about reached the limits of its capacity for one reason or another, shifting the focus to other possible power sources. What country gets the most juice from renewable energy other than hydro?

    A. Denmark

    B. Portugal

    C. Spain

    D. New Zealand

    E. Iceland

    ANSWER:

    A. Denmark gets 30% of its power from nonhydro renewable sources, mainly wind and biomass─more than Iceland gets from geothermal power, or Portugal and Spain get from their extensive wind farms.

    4 Household appliances and electric gadgets suck up lots of energy in standby mode just to keep the clock on and the machine ready to go at a moment's notice. In rough terms, the amount of electricity wasted that way in the U.S. each year is equivalent to the output of:

    A. 0.8 nuclear power plants

    B. 1.8 nuclear power plants

    C. 8 nuclear power plants

    D. 18 nuclear power plants

    ANSWER:

    D. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimate as much as 10% of U.S. residential electricity use is lost in 'standby power.' That's about one-sixth of all the power produced by the 104-strong fleet of nuclear reactors in the U.S.

    5. Worries about how to curb man-made greenhouse-gas emissions are now a driving force behind economic and foreign policy world-wide, as the current Copenhagen climate-change summit demonstrates, but how did it all get started? Who first described a link between man-made emissions, a greenhouse effect and rising global temperatures?

    A. Joseph Fourier （1768-1830）

    B. John Tyndall （1820-1893）

    C. Lord Kelvin （1824-1907）

    D. Svante Arrhenius （1859-1927）

    E. Al Gore （1948- ）

    ANSWER:

    D. Fourier first proposed the idea of a 'greenhouse effect.' Tyndall first proved it was real, and the prestigious Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the U.K. is named after him. But Arrhenius was the first to link industrial activity, especially burning coal, to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere─and to rising temperatures, though he initially expected that effect would take a few thousand years.

    6. When it comes to emissions of greenhouse gases, most people know the biggest culprits: China and the U.S. Which three countries round out the top five?

    A. Brazil

    B. Mexico

    C. South Korea

    D. India

    E. South Africa

    F. Russia

    G. Indonesia

    H. Japan

    ANSWER:

    G, A and D. Indonesia and Brazil have zoomed up the rankings thanks to the inclusion of tropical deforestation─not just industrial activity─in the tally. That's one reason people from investment bankers to think-tank types are becoming tree huggers: Preventing deforestation is seen as a relatively easy and cheap way to tackle a huge chunk of global emissions, though plenty of questions loom about how to enforce forest-protection schemes in remote places.

    7. Speaking of emissions, what's the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the earth's atmosphere?

    A. Methane

    B. Carbon dioxide

    C. Water vapor

    D. Tropospheric ozone

    E. Hot air from politicians

    ANSWER:

    C. Water vapor makes up by far the largest share of the gases in the atmosphere that interact with sunlight and contribute to global warming. However, water vapor also condenses into clouds, which help reflect sunlight, so most of the attention is on longer-lived greenhouse gases that more effectively trap heat, such as carbon dioxide and methane.

    8. Overfishing is one of the big environmental problems affecting nearly every country. What is by far the most caught fish in the world by commercial fishermen?

    A. Cod

    B. Tuna

    C. Anchoveta

    D. Halibut

    E. Alaskan pollack

    ANSWER:

    C. Anchoveta, a relative of the anchovy that thrives all along the Pacific coast of South America, is used primarily for animal feed. The No. 2 catch, Alaskan pollack, makes up the vast majority of fish sticks and fast-food fish.

    9. Bottle recycling has never been more popular in the U.S. On average, how many pounds of plastic bottles did each American recycle last year?

    A. 1.6 pounds

    B. 8 pounds

    C. 16 pounds

    D. 24 pounds

    ANSWER:

    B. Some 2.4 billion pounds of plastic bottles were recycled in the U.S. in 2008, according to a joint report by the American Chemistry Council and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers. That's a record, as is the percentage of bottles being recycled in the U.S. About 27% of all the milk jugs and soda bottles on store shelves eventually end up being recycled.

    10. Water, water everywhere, but not so much to drink. About 70% of the Earth is covered by water, and there's more beneath the surface. But seawater is too salty to drink, and water at the poles and in glaciers is frozen. What percentage of the world's water is fresh and liquid? And what percentage is also found above ground, in lakes and rivers?

    A. 10% and 2%

    B. 5% and 1%

    C. 3% and 0.5%

    D. 1% and 0.3%

    ANSWER:

    D. Only 1% of the world's water is fresh and unfrozen─and most of that is found in underground aquifers. Only 0.3% of the world's water is fresh surface water, including huge concentrations like the Great Lakes, the Amazon and Lake Baikal. That's one reason scientists, environmentalists, ecologists and military planners all worry about water shortages becoming a source of conflict in coming decades.

    你的环保智商有多高？

    你觉得自己很懂环保，那不妨来试试。

    现在，每个人都在谈环境保护，很多人甚至在尝试做一些环保方面的事情。然而，虽然环保是个大热门，但有些现实情况并不为人所知。你知道美国每年因电器和电子设备处于待机状态而浪费多少电力吗？你知道最常见的温室气体是哪一种吗？是谁第一个提到温室气体对气候造成的影响？读者不妨试试下面的测验，看你对环保问题到底了解有多深？

    1. 自尼克松政府以来，关于美国该使用哪一类能源的争论就变得愈演愈烈，2008年总统大选期间，这一话题更是焦点中的焦点。美国是如何保持灯火通明的？请将以下发电方式与其在2009年美国发电总量中的占比进行连线。

    A. 煤炭发电 1. 3.4%

    B. 核能发电 2. 22%

    C. 天然气发电 3. 45%

    D. 水力发电 4. 21%

    E. 其它可再生能源发电 5. 7.4%

    正确答案：

    A-3,B-4,C-2,D-5,E-1.煤炭发电仍是老大，占2009年发电总量的45%,但比去年的49%有所下降。

    2. 以下哪个国家的可再生能源发电占其发电总量的比重最大？

    A. 丹麦

    B. 挪威

    C. 新西兰

    D. 奥地利

    E. 冰岛

    正确答案：

    E.冰岛的能源结构75%为水力发电，25%为地热发电。地热发电方式利用的是地表下面的热能，这是一种独特的清洁能源，既成本低廉，又能持续不断，可惜并非每个地方都能利用这种方式。挪威在可再生能源方面紧随其后，其99%的能源来自于水力发电。

    3. 很多国家依靠大型水力发电项目来供电，但出于各种原因，一些相对发达国家的水电已经达到产能上限，因此将目光投向其他潜在的发电方式。以下哪个国家在利用除水电外的可再生能源方面最有建树？

    A. 丹麦

    B. 葡萄牙

    C. 西班牙

    D. 新西兰

    E. 冰岛

    正确答案：

    A.丹麦有30%的电力来自非水电的可再生能源，主要是风力发电和生物发电─比冰岛的地热发电、葡萄牙和西班牙的大规模风电场在发电总量中所占的比重更大。

    4. 家用电器和电子设备处于待机状态时会消耗大量电力，这是因为要保持内部时钟的开启，让机器一接到信号就能立刻启动。据粗略估计，美国每年消耗在待机状态的用电量相当于多少个核电站的发电量？

    A. 0.8个核电站

    B. 1.8个核电站

    C. 8个核电站

    D. 18个核电站

    正确答案：

    D.美国能源部劳伦斯伯克力国家实验室的科学家估计，有多达10%的美国家庭住宅用电耗费在"待机模式"上，相当于美国总共104个核电站六分之一的发电量。

    5. 如何限制人为温室气体排放现已成为影响各国经济和外交政策的推动力量，即将召开的哥本哈根峰会就是一个例子。然而，这一切是如何开始的？是谁第一个将人为碳排放的温室气体效应与全球变暖问题联系起来？

    A. 傅立叶（Joseph Fourier） （1768-1830）

    B. 约翰？丁铎尔（John Tyndall） （1820-1893）

    C. 开尔文男爵（Lord Kelvin） （1824-1907）

    D. 斯范特？阿累尼乌斯（Svante Arrhenius） （1859-1927）

    E. 阿尔？戈尔（Al Gore） （1948- ）

    正确答案：

    D.傅立叶首先提出"温室气体"的概念。丁铎尔最先证明这一概念的真实性，英国大名鼎鼎的丁铎尔气候变化研究中心就是以他命名的。但阿累尼乌斯最先将工业活动，尤其是煤炭燃烧，与大气中上升的二氧化碳浓度以及不断升高的全球气温联系起来，虽然他起初预测这种温室效应将过几千年才会显现。

    6. 谈到温室气体排放，大多数人都知道两个最大的排放国：中国和美国。除此之外，下面哪三个国家名列温室气体排放的前五名。

    A. 巴西

    B. 墨西哥

    C. 韩国

    D. 印度

    E. 南非

    F. 俄罗斯

    G. 印度尼西亚

    H. 日本

    正确答案：

    G、A和D.由于工业活动和热带雨林遭到破坏的双重原因，印度尼西亚和巴西进入温室气体排放国的前五大。这也是从投资银行家到智库的各类组织正在成为爱树一族的一个原因：防止森林遭到破坏被视为减少全球一大部分碳排放的相对容易和廉价的方式，但就如何在偏远地区推行森林保护措施还存在诸多问题。

    7. 谈到碳排放，什么是地球大气中最常见的温室气体？

    A. 甲烷

    B. 二氧化碳

    C. 水蒸气

    D. 对流层臭氧

    E. 政客嘴里喷出的热气（夸夸其谈）

    正确答案：

    C.目前，水蒸气是大气中占比最多的气体，它们与阳光产生反应，是全球变暖的因素之一。不过，水蒸气也会凝结成云，有助于反射阳光。因此，人们把更多的注意力放在影响时间更长、更容易吸收热量的其他温室气体上面，如二氧化碳和甲烷等。

    8. 过度捕鱼是影响几乎每个国家的重大环保问题。下面哪一种鱼类在商业捕鱼活动中被捕捞的数量最多？

    A. 鳕鱼

    B. 金枪鱼

    C. （鱼是）鱼

    D. 大比目鱼

    E. 阿拉斯加狭鳕

    正确答案：

    C.（鱼是）鱼是凤尾鱼的旁亲，在南美的太平洋沿岸数量很多，主要用于动物饲料。排名其次的是阿拉斯加狭鳕，主要用于制作鱼条和鱼肉快餐食品。

    9. 在美国，旧瓶回收变得前所未有得流行。2008年美国平均每人回收了多少磅的塑料瓶？

    A. 1.6磅

    B. 8磅

    C. 16磅

    D. 24磅

    正确答案：

    B.根据美国化学理事会和美国塑料回收协会的统计，2008年美国约回收了24亿磅的塑料瓶，创下历史最高纪录。塑料瓶回收比例也创下新高，商店货架上的牛奶罐和苏打水瓶最终有27%左右得到回收。

    10. 水无处不在，但饮用水的数量并不多。地球约有70%的面积被水覆盖，地表下面的水更多。然而，海水太咸不能喝，南北极和冰川地带的水都处于冻结状态。全世界有百分之多少的水是流动的活水？地表的流动淡水，即在湖泊和河流的水，占全球水资源总量的百分之多少？

    A. 10%和2%

    B. 5%和1%

    C. 3%和0.5%

    D. 1%和0.3%

    正确答案：

    D.全世界只有1%的流动活水资源─大多数都位于地下蓄水层；地表淡水只占0.3%,包括五大湖、亚马逊河以及贝加尔湖这样的大规模淡水集结地。正因如此，科学家、环保主义者、生态学家和军事战略家都在担心，未来几十年内，淡水匮乏将成为战乱和争端的导火索。