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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What invention launched the Industrial Revolution?
(a) Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.
(b) Karl Benz’s automobile.
(c) Da Vinci’s flying machine.
(d) James Watt’s new steam engine.

2. The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, showed that the majority of possibilities for keeping climate temperatures down require what?
(a) Positive emissions.
(b) Solar geoengineering.
(c) Solar scrubbing.
(d) Negative emissions.

3. Kolbert describes a carbon scrubbing machine invented by Lackner. To what does she compare it?
(a) A coffee table.
(b) A semi-trailer.
(c) A living room couch.
(d) A floor lamp.

4. In Up in the Air: Chapter 1, Kolbert decides to support what type of service?
(a) One that sends SAILs into the stratosphere.
(b) One that scrubs carbon emissions from the air.
(c) One that runs greenhouses on carbon dioxide emissions.
(d) One that sends diamonds into the stratosphere.

5. To what has gene-drive technology been compared?
(a) Kurt Vonnegut’s ice-nine.
(b) Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
(c) Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice.
(d) Steven King’s It.

6. Kolbert says that, without help, most of the carbon dioxide humans emit would turn to stone eventually, called what?
(a) Chemical aging.
(b) Natural stoning.
(c) Chemical solidification.
(d) Chemical weathering.

7. What do Tizard and his partner hope to accomplish regarding cane toad eggs?
(a) Make them less abundant.
(b) Make the eggs impossible to fertilize.
(c) Make them edible.
(d) Make them hard to swallow.

8. To keep the temperature increase at a minimum, the world would have to end all emissions by when?
(a) The next few years.
(b) The next five decades.
(c) The next decade.
(d) The next century.

9. What is NOT a reason given for why taking carbon dioxide out of a gas stream is difficult?
(a) It is a challenging and dangerous technique.
(b) Disposal of large amounts of carbon dioxide underground would be tricky.
(c) It is expensive.
(d) It must be done on a massive scale.

10. Where is the geothermal plant located that Kolbert visits in Up in the Air: Chapter 1?
(a) Iceland.
(b) China.
(c) Poland.
(d) Switzerland.

11. A widely supported view regarding years the effect of human behavior on the environment is that it did not really become significant until when?
(a) The early-nineteenth century.
(b) The late-eighteenth century.
(c) The early-twentieth century.
(d) The late-seventeenth century.

12. Who is Edda Aradóttir?
(a) A solar geoengineer hired by Bill Gates.
(b) A friend of Kolbert’s.
(c) The managing director of the geothermal plant.
(d) One of the thermal engineers in Poland.

13. How did the co-founders of Climeworks meet?
(a) In college.
(b) In a Starbucks.
(c) In a conference.
(d) At the Paris accord.

14. What does Kolbert use to make yeast glow?
(a) A jellyfish gene.
(b) Glow in the dark gel.
(c) Fluorescent light.
(d) A lava lamp.

15. According to Kolbert, if the Anthropocene’s clearest geological marker is a spike in radioactive particles, what is its clearest biological marker?
(a) A decline in rodents.
(b) A spike in rodents.
(c) A spike in disease.
(d) A decline in disease.

Short Answer Questions

1. Lackner also believes that dealing with emissions should be similar to dealing with what?

2. What is NOT one of the problems mentioned regarding cane toads?

3. What mammals were first experimented on with CRISPR and the gene drive?

4. What is Brodifacoum?

5. What is the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere called?

(see the answer keys)

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