39 Ways to Save the Planet

Super Rice

Rice provides approximately what percent of the world's calories?

Rice contributes greenhouse gas emissions comparable to which sector?

Rice contributes what percent of global greenhouse gas emissions?

What percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by a shift to DSR and no-till cultivation?

Which seedling tissue does Dr Kurup refer to?

Which are true of current rice cultivation practice?

What are the benefits of growing rice in water?

What are the consequences of growing rice using DSR?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #1 Super Rice

puddled

Dr Kurup uses the term __ rice transporting in preference to paddy fields. What is the missing word?

3 billion

Rice is a food staple for how many people worldwide?

oxygen

Flooding of fields causes methanogenic bacteria to grow in the absence of which element?

direct

Phenomenal Photosynthesis

Plants typically capture about __% of energy from the sun.

If Glaia's research leads to a 20% increase in plant photosynthesis what effect could this have on GHG emissions?

Glaia's carbon-based material enables plants to __?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #10 Phenomenal Photosynthesis

chlorophyll

What is the name of the molecule that absorbs the sun's energy?

Wood for Good

Cement is responsible for what percent of GHG emissions (NB see worldindata for correct figure)?

The world's tallest building is in Mjøstårnet, Norway. What is its height in metres?

All public buildings in France will have to be made of at least __% organic materials by 2022.

What percent of global greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by constructing 50% of buildings from wood?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #2 Wood for Good

cross-laminated timber

What does CLT stand for? (hint: hyphenated)

1 billion

How many people does Dr Ramage claim the forests of Canada could house in perpetuity, and sustainably?

charcoal

What can alleviate the effect of fire in buildings?

Sublime Seagrass

The oceans have absorbed roughly __% of GHG emissions between the beginning of the industrial revolution and the mid-1990s?

Dr Edwards estimates there are how many hectares of seagrass worldwide?

Dr Edwards estimates that __ hectares of seagrass have been lost.

By what percent of CO2 emissions might be reduced through blue carbon sequestration?

What are some of the benefits of seagrasses?

Which of the following are true about seagrasses?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #3 Sublime Seagrass

blue carbon

In terms of climate change, seagrasses, salt marshes, and mangroves are collectively know as what? (hint two words)

Educating and Empowering Girls

What is the ratio of children born to uneducated woman and children born to educated women?

How many women worldwide do not have access to family planning?

What are the estimated savings in emissions if more women are given a proper education, and control over family planning?

What are some of the reasons why girls do not attend school in sub-Saharan Africa?

According to Fiona Mavinga how do women benefit from an education?

In the project described, insects are cited as a good source of protein because:

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #4 Educating and Empowering Girls

843 million

According to Dr Edwards, improved women's education and funding of family planning could reduce the population by __ by 2050

Robots of the Wind

What percent of an offshore wind turbine's life time cost is attributable to maintenance?

The cost of onshore wind generation has fallen by __% since 2009?

Current UK output from offshore wind is 10GW. What is the target for 2030?

What are some of the costs associated with turbine maintenance?

What are some of the issues that can affect a wind turbine's performance?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #5 Robots of the Wind

According to the IEA global wind capacity (offshore and onshore) could be increased by __%

If energy from wind was increased forty fold this would reduce GHG emissions by nearly __%?

Chilling Food

What does TRU stand for in the context of the programme?

How many refrigerated units are there worldwide?

What percent of TRUs are run with an auxiliary diesel engine?

Replacing all of the 2.5 million diesel-powered TRUs would reduce emissions by approximately how much?

Preventing 50 million tonnes of food waste could reduce GHG emissions by how much?

Taking into account deforestation, cutting out food waste could reduce GHG emissions by how much?

Which are true of TRU diesel-driven engines in comparison to the truck engine that pulls them?

According to Cold Clean Power how do their TRUs compare to traditional diesel models?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #6 Chilling Food

30-40

According to Clean Cold Power what percent of food loss is wasted post-harvest? (hint: it's a range)

Dearman

Clean Cold Power's refrigeration unit is powered by a __ Engine.

In the West ~90% of food goes through a cold chain but in India and China this figure is less than __%?

More Power from the Sun

What type of energy do photons impart to electrons when they strike them?

Silicon is best at converting which part of the colour spectrum into energy?

A good quality conventional solar panel has a potential output of ~320 watts; what is the potential of a perovskite-silicon panel?

A 2-junction, or perovskite-silicon tandem, cell captures approximately what percent of sunlight?

If standard photovoltaic cells replaced fossil fuels, Dr Edwards makes what forecasts? This would __ by 2050

If the most efficient perovskite-silicon cells replaced fossil fuels, Dr Edwards makes what forecasts? This would __ by 2050

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #7 More Power from the Sun

Conventional solar panels capture approximately what percent of the sun's energy?

perovskite

Which material does Oxford PV use to convert the blue part of the spectrum into energy?

Oxford PV has demonstrated what level (percent) of efficiency in their perovskite-silicon cells?

Henry at Oxford PV places what ceiling on photovoltaic efficiency (as a percent)?

Siberian Rewilding

During which epoch did humans start to colonise the whole planet, including the Russian steppe?

15,000 years ago there were how many trees globally?

Of the animals native to the subarctic which remained after humans entered the region?

In which ways are trees detrimental to the ecosystem and accelerate climate change in northern latitudes?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #8 Siberian Rewilding

Permafrost can form to a depth of hundreds of metres, but the most critical in terms of climate change are the top __metres? 

mammoth steppe

Pleistocene Park recreates which biome that existed during the last glacial maximum (~15,000 years ago)? (hint: 2 words)

herbivores

The ecosystem of the mammoth steppe grasslands collapsed due to the loss of which group of animals?

Grazing 10% (2 million km2 of the subarctic) could lead to a net reduction in our GHG emissions of __%?

The Legal Fight

Bełchatów is the biggest CO2 emitter in Europe. How much lignite does it burn each year?

126 countries have made pledges related to emissions reductions. What percent of all emissions do these pledges represent?

39 Ways to Save the Planet: #9 The Legal Fight

Roughly how many tonnes of CO2 has Bełchatów emitted during its life?

2.4-2.5

China's promise to be carbon net-neutral by 2060 would see predicted warming for 2100 drop from 2.7° to __? (hint: it's a range)

The Paris Agreement had the goal of limiting global warming to below __°C, and ideally __°C.

What is the approximate value of global emissions of CO2 per person per year?

The lifetime budget of someone born today is equal to how many years of current per capita emissions for 2°C of warming?

The lifetime budget of someone born today is equal to how many years of current per capita emissions for 1.5°C of warming?

For someone born in 2000 the lifetime allowance given 2°C of warming is what?

For someone born in 2017 the lifetime allowance given 1.5°C of warming is 86 tonnes, or how __ economy flights NY to Mumbai?

Why children must emit eight times less CO2 than their grandparents

eighth

Given a warming of 1.5°C, someone born in the US today can emit approximately one __ of the lifetime emissions of someone born in 1950.

2045

For warming to be kept below 2°C emissions would have to fall ~50% by which year?

2030

For warming to be kept below 1.5°C emissions would have to fall ~50% by which year?

negative emissions

What is the catch-all term for ways in which carbon is removed from the atmosphere? (hint: two words)

historical emissions

Other than differences between countries, what further complicates the division of emissions? (hint: two words)

16.9

The average Indian had emissions of 1.9 tonnes of CO2 in 2017. What was the average in the US?

For simplicity, the article uses a constant expected lifespan of how many years?

What is the value of sustainable per capita emissions per year from now if we are to limit warming to 2°C?

What are the approximate carbon dioxide emissions to date?

Fossil fuels have relatively less of which isotope of carbon?

Every carbon atom in diamond is bound to four other carbon atoms in the form of a _?

What are the products of burning hydrocarbons in air?

hydrogen

natural gas

coal

wood

Rank natural gas, wood, hydrogen, and coal in descending order for energy density by mass.

Carbon - Element Of Life

What is the approximate atomic mass of carbon?

Oxygen

Which is the most abundant element in the human body?

nucleosynthesis

What is the process by which elements heavier than boron are created?

Methane

CH4 is the chemical formula for which compound?

How many people worldwide are overweight?

By how much does North American meat consumption exceed the planetary health diet?

Agriculture occupies ~40% of global land, and uses what percent of freshwater?

Food production contributes to environmental change in which ways?

Among the strategies suggested to bring about the Great Food Transformation are:

EAT-Lancet: Healthy Diets From Sustainable Food Systems

Sustainable Development Goals

10 billion

The report anticipates the world population will be __ by 2050?

Diabetes

Which disease has almost doubled in the past 30 years due to the increase in overweight and obese people?

Food

What is the single strongest lever to optimise human health and environmental sustainability on Earth, according to the report?

healthy diets

food production

The report focuses on which two 'end-points' of the global food system? (tip: both two words)

human health

environmental sustainability

Healthy diets and food production disproportionately impact what? (tip: both two words)

How many billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases does the world emit each year?

What proportion of GHG emissions does the energy sector account for?

Energy use in private and commercial buildings contributes 17.5% of emissions, but in what proportion?

Industry

Buildings

Transport

Rank the top 3 energy sectors by GHG emissions, highest to lowest (hint: one word for each).

Pipeline

Rail

Shipping

Aviation

Road

Rank shipping, pipeline, road, rail, and aviation transport emissions by volume in ascending order.

Greenhouse gas emissions by sector

plastics

fertilisers

pesticides

textiles

Chemicals & petrochemicals account for 2.2% of GHG emissions. What 4 materials are given by way of example?

Landfills account for 1.9% of GHG emissions. Which gas is released when organic matter decomposes?

What is the attraction between individual water molecules called?

Hydrogen gas has a low or high energy density

Global production of hydrogen from electrolysis accounts for what percent of the total?

What is the approximate current efficiency of fuel cells?

What is the name of hydrogen produced from gas with carbon capture and storage?

What is the name of the epoch when electrons and protons first became bound to form hydrogen atoms?

Hydrogen

Helium

Carbon

What are the 4 most abundant elements by mass in the universe in descending order?

Carbon Brief