Environmental Trivial Pursuit

Answers are in bold.

Our "ecological footprint" is a metaphor used to depict the amount of land and water area a human population would hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and to absorb its wastes, given prevailing technology.

1. What is the ecological footprint of the average person living in India?

a. 0.1 acres b. 1 acrec. 3.5 acresd. 12.2 acrese. 25 acres

2. What is the ecological footprint of the average person living in North America?

a. 0.1 acres b. 1 acrec. 3.5 acresd. 12.2 acrese. 25 acres

3. If all humans were to live as North Americans do, how many planet Earths would it take to sustain them?

a. 0.5

b. 1

c. 3

d. 5

A renewable resource is any natural resource that is depleted at a rate slower than the rate at which it regenerates. A resource must have a way of regenerating itself in order to qualify as renewable. Timber, water, vegetation are examles.

A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be re-made or re-grown. Often fossil fuels, such as coal, petroleum and natural gas are considered non-renewable resources, as they do not naturally re-form at a rate that makes the way we use them sustainable.

4. What poses the greatest challenge to humanity?a. Depletion of non-renewable resources

b. Depletion of renewable resources

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, silt, or clay) from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well.

5. What is the largest aquifer in the US?a. Edwards Aquifer

b. Floridan Aquifer

c. Mahomet Aquifer

d. Ogallala Aquifer

The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it lies under about 174,000 mi² (450,000 km²) in portions of the eight states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. The aquifer was first tapped for irrigation in 1911. Large scale use for irrigation began in the 1930s and continued through the 1950s, due to the availability of electric power to rural farming communities and the development of cheap and efficient electric turbine pumps. It was only after World War II that affordable technology became available to substantially extract water. This transformed the High Plains into one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world.

6. At the current rates of water extraction, the Ogallala aquifer is estimated to be

a. Sustainable

b. Unsustainable, will dry out in 500 years

c. Unsustainable, will dry out in 200-300 years

d. Unsustainable, will dry out in 40-50 years

7. How many liters of additional water are used in bottling plants to make 1 liter of Coca Cola? a. 0.2 litersb. 0.8 litersc. 1.6 litersd. 2 literse. 5 liters

8. How many liters of water are used in the Coca Cola supply chain to make 1 liter of Coca Cola?a. 5 litersb. 10 litersc. 50 litersd. 100 literse. More than 150 liters

9. How many pounds of resources does the average American consumer per week?

a. 55b. 72c. 100d. 136e. 199

10. How many pounds of waste are created in the processes that support this consumption?

a. 100b. 500c. 1000d. 2000e. 5000