Sample final exam (1)

EPWS-380 Sample Final Exam Name:______________________________ Current and future state of the earth. True or False (Circle T or F) 1. T F The earth is a finite system with limited resources. 2. T F The carrying capacity of the earth is a fixed number that scientists have calculated with a high level of precision. 3. T F The carrying capacity of the earth is variable and depends on how efficiently people use resources. 4. T F 2030 is the year when the zombie apocalypse will come to pass if a rapture event hasn’t ended the world before then. 5. T F The year 2030 has been predicted to be the year that the growing human population and diminishing resources, combine to cause a global catastrophe. This catastrophe is predicted to start with economic stress. These events are predicted to cause a dramatic decline in the human population and a general decay of human society. 6. T F Technology can increase the efficiency of resource utilization and make it possible for larger populations to exist sustainably on a fixed set of resources. 7. T F The 2030 prediction won’t begin to unfold until new year’s eve 2029. 8. T F The economic distress, climate changes, food system distress, and disease outbreaks currently happening are consistent with the 2030 prediction beginning to unfold. 9. T F People around the world are universally satisfied with their existence and those in poor countries have no desire to raise their standard of living. 10. T F While finite, the known fossil fuel reserves of the earth can likely meet human kind’s predicted energy needs for at least another century. 11. T F The known fossil fuel reserves are 5 times larger than the amount we can burn without raising global temperature more than the 2  C, which scientists think is the upper limit we can stand without causing serious consequences.

Global warming. True or False (circle T or F). 1. T F The “science” of the greenhouse effect and climate change is a hoax that was invented by the Chinese to cripple manufacturing in the US. 2. T F The fundamentals of global warming, like the greenhouse effect, are well established and were discovered well over 100 years ago. 3. T F The concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere was relatively constant for several thousand years before 1900. 4. T F The concentration of greenhouse gasses like CO 2 and Methane has increased 30-50% over the past 50-70 years. 5. T F Both natural and human processes emit greenhouse gasses like CO 2 and methane. 6. T F Human CO 2 emissions that affect climate change are those that take carbon from underground (like fossil fuels) and release it into to the atmosphere. 7. T F Natural emissions of greenhouse gasses are ~50 times larger than human emissions. 8. T F The atmosphere had stable levels of greenhouse gasses for thousands of years because there is an equilibrium between natural sources and sinks of greenhouse gasses. 9. T F The extra ~1% of greenhouse gases that humans add to the atmosphere each year ` is causing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to rise. 10. T F Detailed measurements of the atmosphere over the past half (like the Keeling curve) century have shown small increases in greenhouse gasses every year over the past 50+ years. These increases correlate with human / fossil fuel emissions. While these changes are small these changes have added up to a substantial increase over the past half century or so. 11. T F Science has a good understanding of and can explain the basics of global warming (greenhouse gasses go up, global temperatures rise, bad things are likely to happen). 12. T F Scientists have figured out and can clearly explain every detail of global warming like how and when storms will occur, seasonal changes in global ice cap levels, the exact high and low temperatures for every day of the next month, etc.. 13. T F Since global warming is occurring, we are unlikely to set new record low temperatures anywhere ever again.

Science, society, and public policy. True or False. 1. T F The public generally places a high value on scientific opinions. 2.T F Non-scientific arguments are often packaged to appear “scientific” to advance political goals. 3.T F Sewing doubt in science is a common tactic for groups that wish to oppose real scientific conclusions. Examples include health risks of smoking and climate change denial. 4. T F The anti-vaccination movement is based on sound medical research. 5. T F The anti-vaccination movement is based on a discredited study by Andrew Wakefield that showed 9 out of 12 children developed autism shortly after vaccination. The publication describing this study was retracted after several irregularities were found including that fact that several of the children in the study actually displayed signs of autism before vaccination. 6. T F During the misconduct investigation it was discovered that Andrew Wakefield had been paid over half a million dollars by a law firm seeking to sue vaccine makers prior to publishing his study linking vaccines and autism. 7. T F While numerous independent follow up studies looking at millions children have found no link between vaccines and autism, many people still cling to the discredited Wakefield study as justification for their anti-vaccination beliefs. 8.T F The anti-science movement often uses advertising campaign like tactics to “sell” the public on pseudoscience based arguments that support an anti-science goals. 9.T F Lobbying by climate change denial groups is continuing to stall policy action on climate change even though the science is clear and public opinion recognizes climate change is a problem that we need to deal with. 10. T F A population that is scientifically literate and capable of critical thinking can encourage lawmakers to make science based / fact based policies. 11. T F Most of the problems the world faces could be addressed by reducing the human population. 12. T F Throughout history, technological advances have enabled population increases.

13. The most effective means for reducing population growth observed to date, especially in third world countries where most population growth is happening , is: a) Distribution of free birth control b) Enactment of government policies limiting the number of children families can have c) Government run forced sterilization programs d) Improved education opportunities, especially for women Energy True or False (circle T or F) 1. T F Reducing the human population to zero would stop human caused climate change. 2.T F Reducing the amount of energy humans use to zero would stop human caused climate change. 3.T F Reducing the greenhouse gasses emitted by energy production to zero would stop climate change. 4.T F Reducing the human population to zero is a practical solution for climate change. 5.T F Reducing human energy use to zero is a practical solution for climate change. 6.T F Reducing greenhouse gasses emitted in energy production is a practical solution for climate change. 7. T F Wind, solar, hydro, tidal, nuclear and other greenhouse gas free energy generation systems exist. 8.T F While it is impractical to think about reducing fossil fuel use to zero next week there are several plausible paths for doing so over the next decade or two.

Covid-19 1. T F Covid-19 is a hoax. The virus is not real and there is no pandemic that is killing people. The hoax was created so that the government to exercise control over the population by forcing us to do things like wear masks, not get together with others, and get shots. 2. T F The pandemic is real and Covid-19 is killing a lot of people. 3. T F Covid-19 has a low lethality rate and only kills 1-2% of the people it infects. 4. T F There are sound scientific studies showing that wearing masks and distancing reduce the spread of Covid-19. 5. T F The number of US citizens killed by Covid-19 over the past year is larger than the number of US soldiers killed in combat in all wars fought during the 20 th Century (WW-I, WW-II, Vietnam, the Korean War, the Iraq war, Afghanistan, etc.). 6. T F Covid-19 has not killed as many people as the US government claims. The numbers are highly inflated due to hospitals mis-reporting deaths from other causes as Covid-19 deaths. The hospitals are incentivized to do this since they get a $15,000 payment for every death certificate listing Covid-19 as the cause of death. 7. T F The Covid-19 vaccine has been shown to cause reproductive health problems in women. 8. T F Clinical studies have shown that getting sick with Covid-19 while pregnant increases the risk of miscarriage, pre-term birth, and still birth. These same clinical studies also found no evidence of reproductive harm in vaccinated women 9. T F Even though we have only been using the Covid-19 vaccine for about a year, scientists are 100% certain that the vaccine will not cause any fertility problems 5 years after getting vaccinated. 10. T F The Covid-19 vaccine prevents people from being infected by Covid-19 11. T F The Covid-19 vaccine does not prevent people from getting infected by Covid-19. However, the vaccinated people mount a faster and stronger response to infection and therefore have less severe disease if they get infected by Covid-19. 12. T F The Covid-19 virus will probably continue to evolve and we will probably need to make updated Covid-19 vaccines to keep up with all of the variants, much like we do with annual influenza vaccines.