Assess your environmental literacy: Take the eco-IQ test!

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A num­ber of things have made me think about the impact I have on this planet. There is the incred­i­ble promi­nence that envi­ron­men­tal issues have nowa­days in the news; Then there was Dan Millman’s blog post about the impact that my choice not to be a veg­e­tar­ian has on car­bon emis­sions. And yes­ter­day, I was lis­ten­ing to one of my favourite Colom­bian music groups (Baci­los), and noticed that one of their songs is filled with com­ments about the ecol­ogy.
So I asked myself: How respon­si­ble am I with the envi­ron­ment? Well, a short quiz would tell me, I thought. I col­lected a vari­ety of ideas from many sources, and pulled together this resource for my read­ers. I hope this tool will help you assess how much you really know about the threats to our environment.

The Eco-IQ Test: Find­ing out how much you really know about envi­ron­men­tal issues

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer ques­tions in order, one at a time. Write your answers on a piece of paper (e.g. 1-a, 2-c, etc). At the end of the quiz, check against the cor­rect answers, and fol­low the instruc­tions for how to score.

QUESTION 1 — When you hear about ‘The Envi­ron­ment’, you think of

a. Petrol prices at the sta­tion and global warm­ing
b. The crazy weather we are expe­ri­enc­ing of late
c. The plants, ani­mals, and min­er­als that exist on the earth
d. Our oceans, forests, creeks, river sys­tems, and the Ama­zon
e. All of the above

QUESTION 2 — Reduc­ing car­bon emis­sions impor­tant for the envi­ron­ment because…

a. If we emit too much car­bon diox­ide, there won’t be enough oxy­gen for us all to be able to breathe
b. More car­bon diox­ide in the ocean cre­ates big­ger waves and increases the chances of Tsunamis
c. Car­bon emis­sions cre­ate a blan­ket over the atmos­phere which over­heats our planet
d. Petrol prices are related to car­bon emis­sions, so more car­bon means more expen­sive petrol
e. The ozone layer is depleted by car­bon emis­sions and that is a real problem

QUESTION 3 — More severe droughts and pol­lu­tion of our rivers are a prob­lem because…
a. With­out them we will not have food at prices we can afford
b. We will con­tinue to have water restric­tions and our gar­dens will die
c. Water prices will increase and the econ­omy will suf­fer
d. Our sup­plies of bot­tled water will decrease and we will have more health prob­lems
e. More water pol­lu­tion cre­ates more air pollution

QUESTION 4 — Which of the fol­low­ing prac­tices does not
alle­vi­ate our impact on the envi­ron­ment?
a. Hav­ing shorter, colder show­ers
b. Buy­ing light bulbs of lower wattage
c. Walk­ing to the sta­tion instead of dri­ving
d. Using clothes lines instead of clothes dri­ers
e. Reduc­ing infec­tions at home by always using anti-bacterial prod­ucts
f. None — they all are pos­i­tive for the environment

QUESTIONS 5 — Which of the fol­low­ing envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems were you aware of before read­ing this post? (Tick all that apply)
a. Global Warm­ing
b. The melt­ing of the polar caps
c. The increase in the num­ber of species that are extinct, or at risk of extinc­tion
d. Global defor­esta­tion
e. Peak Oil
f. Extreme Weather con­di­tions — espe­cially droughts and floods

Scor­ing your eco-IQ test

Allo­cate points accord­ing to the fol­low­ing scales:

Inter­pret­ing the score

Below 0: Hommo Igno­ble
Your level of igno­rance about envi­ron­men­tal issues is unac­cept­able for this day and age. Visit one (or many!) of the links below; watch the Al-Gore’s film “An incon­ve­nient truth”; lis­ten to the radio pro­grams “Life Mat­ters” or “The Sci­ence Show” (or down­load their pod­casts from the pod­cast sec­tion on the Radio National web site) on a weekly basis; and grab some books on the topic. Then come back and test your­self to see if all of that made a difference.

Between 0–5: Hommo Indif­fer­en­tus
You have lis­tened but not tuned into the envi­ron­men­tal debate. With a very basic under­stand­ing of the topic, you are miss­ing out on the major­ity of the ‘big pic­ture’ issues. Wake up to the fact that our cur­rent lifestyle is based on un-sustainable prac­tices, and take per­sonal respon­si­bil­ity. Fol­low the same sug­ges­tions as for the pre­vi­ous score, and your under­stand­ing of the issues will be greatly enhanced.

Make sure you take indi­vid­ual action on the basis of this knowl­edge. With­out that crit­i­cal step, your under­stand­ing is unlikely to make any dif­fer­ence — except, maybe, to keep you awake at night, scared of what the future holds.
Between 6 and 14: Hommo Sapi­ens
You have a solid grasp of the envi­ron­men­tal issues we are fac­ing. If you are not already tak­ing action, con­sider tran­si­tion­ing to a more active role in solv­ing our envi­ron­men­tal issues. Help oth­ers under­stand why these prob­lems are of such rel­e­vance for all of us. Instil in your chil­dren (if you have any!) a sense of respect for our planet. Get active!
15 or Higher: Hommo Excel­sius
What are you doing read­ing blogs on envi­ron­men­tal issues? You already know it all!! Spend your time in your envi­ron­men­tal activism instead — it will make a far larger dif­fer­ence that try­ing to learn about that extra 0.05% that you haven’t heard about yet!

Tagged as: Life, Quiz, Reflections, Science, Sustainability, Technology, The Environment, Thoughts