All quiz together
Null hypothesis definition
A statement that the phenomenon in question does not actually exist; in order to even accept there is something to study , one first has to overturn the null hypothesis
According to memetics, a meme is best defined as:
A unit of cultural transmission
Which of the following statements about Greenland's ice cap is correct?
ALL OF THESE -Melting is increasing, especially along the margins. -Total volume of ice is decreasing. -Some increase of material in the interior is occurring, as warmer (but still freezing) temperature allows for greater snowfall.
There are several means by which Science and scientific research has been supported throughout history. Which of the following is a method which arose primarily in the 20th Century?
Agencies that award grants to particular research projects rather than the individual themselves
Pseudoscience can flourish in repressive authoritarian regimes because:
All of the above
The IPCC uses representative concentration forcing pathways (RCPs) in discussing ideas about planning for the future. What are RCPs?
Alternative narrative scenarios of emissions that encompass a variety of alternative possible future situations.
(what fallacy) Dr. Alan suggests that "paleontologists are saying that dinosaurs are ancestors of birds because they would personally like birds to be living dinosaurs". What if Alan had been right and people like Holtz were saying birds had to be dinosaurs because anything else would be so uncool? Given uncoolness is a bad state, Holtz's argument would be an example of:
Argument from adverse consequences
(What fallacy) Atmospheric scientists demonstrate that the increase of carbon dioxide from 280 to 400 parts per million (ppm) is responsible for more than a 1C average temperature increase. Climate change deniers state "I can't see how a change of a few parts per million could make a difference, so humans can't be causing climate change."
Argument from personal incredulity
Which of the following group (following the taxonomy of Dr. Holtz) best describes those people for which climate change denial is their primary public interest; who are the generators of the major talking points in climate change denial; and who may be experts on climate/weather, or may not?
Avocational deniers
"Skepticism" is distinguished from "denialism" in that:
B: Skepticism is withholding acceptance of a claim until presented with convincing evidence; denialism is continuing to hold a position despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Around 30 degrees latitude (North and South) is a region of descending air and persistent high pressure systems , noted for which particular type of environment?
Deserts
The neolithic revolution represented a major transition in the way that humans interacted with their environment. What was that major change?
Development of agriculture, and thus capture far more of the productivity of the local biosphere
There are essentially no changes we can make to current rail systems to reduce their environmental impact.
False
True or False: The basic operational philosophy behind science-is the absolute assertion that no supernatural or metaphysical entities exist
False
Following Dr. Holtz's wrap-up lecture (but also from earlier readings, lectures, etc.), which of the following below is NOT an attribute of a resilient society?
Focuses on extractive rather than regenerative approaches to natural resources
Why does global CO2 levels go up and down over the course of a year?
It reflects the relative contribution of decay vs growth, dominated by the Northern Hemisphere.
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) differs from modern anthropogenic greenhouse warming in that:
It started from a world which was already warmer than present day
Asphyxiation and excessive heat load would be examples of:
Killing Mechanisms
A major theme of the first chapter of Sagan's the Demon Haunted World (starting with the discussion with a taxicab driver):
Many people are interested in Science and the natural world, but unfortunately within our culture what Science is and how it works is muddled with pseudoscience and other misinformation
In his examination of "future shocks", Dr. Merck showed that alcoholism was an unexpected side effect of global commerce. What was the primary connection?
Merchants developed distilled spirits as a means to ship "dehydrated wine"; unexpectedly, people took to drinking these high-potency drinks rather than diluting them (and thus experienced unprecedented levels of alcohol)
Pareidolia definition
Mistaking what you are actually seeing
Dr. Holtz highlighted the significance of certain problems with the mass media in transmitting knowledge about climate (and many other types of) science. Which of the following was NOT one of the problems which he highlighted?
Most of the news media is clearly under the control of the petrochemical industry.
(What fallacy) People state that "no scientists actually deny the argument that humans are responsible for climate change" Others point to Frederick Seitz, a noted pioneer in the field of solid-state physics and former president of the National Academy of Sciences, who does claim that there is no human influence on climate. The first group says Seitz isn't a real scientist in response.
No True Scotsman
(What fallacy) People often like to vacation in tropical environments. Therefore, everyone should welcome extreme global warming.
Non sequitur
Which of the following methods would be actually carbon negative (that is, this method actively removes CO2 from the atmosphere)?
None of these
There are many different proxies for reconstructing paleoclimate. The importance of proxies is that:
Our instrumental records doo not stretch back particularly far in climate history, but proxies have ranges that might be thousands to millions of years
What is NOT one of Kida's "Six Packs of Problems":
Our observations actually change the outcome of what we witness
What is the definition of consilient?
Unity of knowledge
Which of the following sources has the greatest energy density?
Uranium
Which of the following best describe the word "science" as scientists use that term?
a type of inquiry into nature characterized by the availability of empirically falsifiable hypotheses
There is substantial evidence that current climate change is at least in part anthropogenic-which is to say this change is:
caused by human activities
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is responsible for:
coordinating assessments of the science, effects, and possible responses to climate change.
Science is empirical, which is another way of saying that scientific ideas must be grounded in:
evidence
The primary tool that early 20th Century philosopher Karl Popper gave us to help distinguish science from pseudoscience was to recognize the importance of:
falsification
Which of the following produce changes in Earth's average surface temperature?
-El Niño Southern Oscillation Cycles -Changes in atmospheric greenhouse gases -Changes in solar irradiance -Volcanic aerosols
Which of the following techniques have been proposed to reduce the environmental impact of standard models of farming?
-Grow crops on pasture lands, so the same land provides meat and vegetable products (and the plant material is fertilized by the animals rather than artificial fertilizers) -Grow low-environmental-impact hemp to replace high-environmental-impact cotton -Pasture some animals in woodlands rather than open fields that yield no other products (and do not store much carbon) -Shift from farming annuals to farming perennials -ALL OF THESE HAVE BEEN PREPOSED*
Which of the following methods would reduce global warming but NOT reduce ocean acidification?
-Space sunshade -Marine cloud brightening -Stratospheric aerosol injection -ALL OF THESE
Which of the following is a reason that some in the public are suspicious of Science?
-The discoveries of Science show that we are less central to the nature of the Universe than we'd like to think -We are suspicious of large mysterious institutions we don't understand -Science has a power over our daily lives -ALL OF THESE ARE TRUE
Which of the following are used by geologists to estimate the age (either in numbers or relative sequence) of rocks
-physical relationships between bodies of rocks -Characteristic fossils -Ratio of radioactive parent: stable daughter isotopes in crystals ALL OF THE ABOVE
Definition of repeatability as used by scientists?
2 different individuals operating under the same circumstances independently to make the same observation
A hypothesis is:
A formal statement of a pattern that appears to exist in a set of observations
What is NOT a synonym of "theory" in the academic sense?
A guess
Which of the following best describes the attitude of scientists toward the Universe?
A single true external reality exists, independently of our perceptions, and it is beneficial to study and attempt to understand it.
Why is carbon dioxide a more significant anthropogenic greenhouse gas than water vapor or methane?
Carbon dioxide has a residence time in tens of thousands of years, while methane has around a dozen years and water vapor a mere 9 days.
Which of the following is the likely consequence of the addition of considerable amounts of freshwater to the North Atlantic region?
Colder temperatures in northwestern Europe and northeastern North America
The reason for using a cascading style sheet (.css) file is to:
Easily make stylistic changes (font, color, etc.) to every page (html file) of a website by having all pages reference the same style sheet
Your roommate is rushing late at night to complete a CHEM lab report, and decides that they need to fill in some blank cells with "data" they pull out of thin air. Your roommate is practicing what form of Honor code violation?
Fabrication
You are in a class in which clicker questions are a part of the grade. You can't make it to class, but your classmate says that they can take your clicker and submit the answer for you. What is this form of honor code violation?
Facilitating academic dishonesty
(True or False) Your roommate is called before the honor board due to being caught at their offense. If they want to have a student defender supporting them in their case, they know that one is automatically assigned to them by the board.
False
(true or false) Fossil fuels are randomly and evenly distributed in different regions of the Earth
False
About 20 megacorporations produce the majority of all greenhouse emissions.
False
About 50% of the oxygen we breath comes from the ocean.
False
It is impossible to separate out the effects of anthropogenic warming from natural variation.
False
What is NOT an attribute of the human mind, following the readings in Kida?
Human memory is really extraordinarily precise, so long as you can find the correct trigger to bring the photographic memory back
How do intense environmental changes produce mass extinctions and other major biodiversity crises (like the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum)?
If changes happen too quickly and too strongly, organisms can neither migrate nor evolve adaptations.
Where does the shallow (mixed) ocean layer typically transfer material into the deep ocean in the modern world?
In the high latitude North Atlantic and the oceans around Antartica
Which of the following methods would be carbon negative?
Increase the flux rate out of the atmosphere into some form of longer-term storage
Which of the following factors would DECREASE local oceanic salinity?
Increased runoff from land
Kolbert discusses some of the interactions going on between the oceans and the atmosphere, and how that is affecting modern biodiversity. What issue does she discuss?
Increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere leads to increasingly acidic sea water, which is damaging to many forms of sea life
In the Sixth Extinction Kolbert discusses some of the interactions going on between the oceans and the atmosphere , and how it is affecting modern biodiversity. What issue does she discuss?
Increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere leads to increasingly acidic sea water, which is damaging to many forms of sea life.
In fact, Dr. Williamson's hypothesis WAS published, but failed to gather any support. Other researchers utterly failed to duplicate his results. In the this case, the legitimate rejection of his hypothesis was due to the proper use of:
Independent Confirmation of the Facts
Pacala and Socolow advocate the use of stabilization wedges in dealing with global climate change. Which of the following best describes what a stabilization wedge is?
Introduction or expansion of new carbon sinks or carbon-neutral technologies to replace current carbon-producing ones
2 kids argue over whether Thor or the Hulk was physically stronger. Which tool in the scientists toolkit would be the appropriate technique to resolve this conundrum?
Quantification
Why are the earths polls cold?
Rays of sunlight reach the earth essentially parallel; hence while the equatorial units get much energy per unit area, sunlight strikes the poles at an angle and thus is spread out.
You need to write a report for a class on the current status of understanding of a scientific topic. Which of the following should be the type of technical publication you turn to first to get a broad overview of the current state of the field?
Review Paper
The HTML code "<i><u>SGC</i></u>" would appear in a web browser as:
SGC (Italics and underline)
Which of the following attributes of Science is something that does match up with the goals and ideologies of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes?
Science (and through it, Technology) produces many useful kinds of machines
All of the following are reasons to promote the style of indigenous people's land management EXCEPT:
The techniques developed by one indigenous culture can be easily applied to locations and environments in a different region
Which of the following techniques reduces environmental impact by making the delivery of energy more efficient?
Smart grids
In terms of the water flowing stream, the lake out of which the stream emerged would be considered its:
Source
The observation that for some people, being presented with strong contradictory evidence actually increases their conviction that the contradicted idea is true is called:
The Backfire effect
The observation that incompetent and ill-informed individuals tend to greatly overestimate their ability or knowledge in a topic (and fail to recognize the competence of others) is called the:
The Dunning-Kruger effect
What is NOT a requirement for an event to be considered a "mass extinction"?
The cause has to be terrestrial, not extraterrestrial
How is the anthropocene recognized?
The time in which humans noticeably affect the earths systems
The primary difference between "catastrophism" and "uniformitarianism" is:
The former views for tremendous rapid (even violent) changes as being responsible for the vast majority of the rock and fossil record; the latter considers ancient rocks to be the product of the same forces we see acting today ("the present is the key to the past")
Science seeks to recognize real patterns in nature, and explain their occurrence, with the understanding that:
The human mind is capable of perceiving shapes and patterns in all forms of phenomena (including information), even if none are actually there.
Another name for the basic scientific method is:
The hypothetico-deductive method
Homeopathy, a medical pseudoscience, began as a scientific idea. Which one of the following aspects demonstrates that homeopathy is contradicted by modern theories of biochemistry?
The levels of successive dissolutions called for mean that there are no molecules of the active substance actually present in the "medicine."
The shift from wind to coal as the primary means of powering warships led to many unexpected larger changes. Which of the following was one of these that Dr. Merck discussed?
The need for colonies by the global powers was no longer simply about creating guaranteed markets; instead, major nations needed strategic ports to refuel ships if the expected to enforce their authority in the nearby seas.
A rock found with symmetrical ripple-marks and mud cracks on its surface. In what environment did it likely form?
The shore of a lake
Which of the following is NOT an aspect of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment?
The subjects of the experiment were all Black, while the teams running the experiment were almost exclusively White
Which of the following best describes the stratification (layering) of the earths atmosphere?
There are marked transitions in temperature but gradual shifts in pressure
Dr williamson claims that insects in which the larvae are radically different from adults. He believes the larvae of a byproduct of hybridization between winged insects and multi-legged worms. This is tremendously at odds with standard models of insect evolution (or evolution in general). If his ideas were not allowed to be published because they conflict with the standard model supported by the scientific establishment, this would violate which of the principles of the scientists toolkit?
There are no true authority figures
Which of the following is an example of an instrumental record of climate change?
Thermometer readings
Which of the following best describes the phenomenon of "mad scientists"?
They are relatively rare but still present
Which of the following statements is NOT true of steam engines?
They were once very common, but now have been essentially abandoned
What layer of the atmosphere is characterized by the presence of weather?
Troposphere
Direct air capture (such as artificial trees: removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere) has the potential to both reduce global warming and to prevent increasing ocean acidification.
True
Increasing and promoting the growth of kelp forests in the seas can help to sequester carbon, increase marine biodiversity, and possibly produce useable products.
True
Reforestation & afforestation hopes to reduce the effects of anthropogenic global warming by sequestering carbon dioxide as the tissues of the trees themselves.
True
The Roswell "crashed flying saucer" legend was partially caused through an actual government disinformation campaign
True
The phenomenon of "identity protective cognition" shows that the majority climate change deniers reject the empirical evidence for anthropogenic climate change to show their membership in a group for which such denialism is a sign of group affiliation.
True
Scientific projects that are extremely large scale, are directly related to the public interest, and/or involve the monitoring of public resources are often best handled by:
government agencies
Scientific projects that are of moderate scale (10s of thousands to millions of dollars), that are not profit-oriented, are aimed at the expansion of basic knowledge, and do not meet the qualifications described in the previous questio are often best handled by:
grant-supported research at Universities or other institutions
Geoengineering is best described as:
large-scale schemes to modify Earth's systems as a means of reducing the worst effects of global climate change.
The observation that most people most of the time use argumentation to justify a position they already have, rather than to seek out the truth of a proposition regardless of their personal biases, is called:
motivated reasoning
The "ability to absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of externally imposed stresses"
resiliency
Climate change can best be defined as
the change in 30-year sums of weather statistics for a region over time
Climate change can be best be defined as
the change in 30-year sums of weather statistics for a region over time.
The idea behind carbon capture & sequestration is:
we could continue to use modern fossil fuel energy generation, but prevent the emissions from reaching the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.