StudentID: e1093025

Strengths and Improvement Opportunities

HSI1000 L07 Quiz 20220929 Attempt 07
Course: 2210 HSI1000‡Instructor: Mr - NUS CIT ‡Questions: 6

100.00% My Score
(6/6)

QUESTION POINTS
CORRECT INCORRECT PARTIAL CREDIT
Climate change deniers argue that we will be much richer in the future and thus better able to fix climate change.
1 What form of denial are these climate change deniers engaging in? 1/1
A: Crisis denial
B: Economic denial
C: Humanitarian denial
D: Political denial
E: Science denial
Which of the following is NOT an indicator of human fingerprints on climate change?
2 1/1
A: Less infra-red radiation escaping to space
B: Less oxygen in the atmosphere
C: More fossil fuel carbon in the atmosphere
D: Nights warming faster than days
E: Warming stratosphere
 In searching for information on the effect of climate change on hurricane intensity, your search revealed the
3 following article by Roy Spencer published on 17 September 2018 in USA Today. Hurricane Florence is not 1/1
climate change or global warming. It's just the weather. Hurricane Florence is not the result of global warming. It's
likely due to natural weather patterns, not climate change as some have already said. Even before Hurricane
Florence made landfall somewhere near the border of North and South Carolina, predicted damage from
potentially catastrophic flooding from the storm was already being blamed on global warming. Writing for NBC
News, Kristina Dahl contended, With each new storm, we are forced to question whether this is our new, climate
change-fueled reality, and to ask ourselves what we can do to minimize the toll from supercharged storms. The
theory is that tropical cyclones have slowed down in their speed by about 10 percent over the past 70 years due
to a retreat of the jet stream farther north, depriving storms of steering currents and making them stall and keep
raining in one location. This is what happened with Hurricane Harvey in Houston last year. But like most claims
regarding global warming, the real effect is small, probably temporary, and most likely due to natural weather
patterns. Any changes in hurricanes over 70 years, even if real, can easily be part of natural cycles or incomplete
data. Coastal lake sediments along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline from 1,000 to 2,000 years ago suggest more
frequent and intense hurricanes than occur today. Why? No one knows. Unusual things happen in nature
sometimes The Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 experienced a Category 3 or 4 storm, with up to a 20-foot
storm surge. While such a storm does not happen in New England anymore, it happened again there in 1675, with
elderly eyewitnesses comparing it to the 1635 storm. Until 2017, the United States went 11 years without a major
hurricane strike something that is statistically very improbable. Nine years into that 11-year hurricane drought, a
NASA scientist computed it as a 1-in-177-year event. My point is that nature varies, and unusual things happen
sometimes. Now it s fashionable to blame stalling hurricanes on global warming. In the case of Florence, the jet
stream is indeed pushed farther north. But examination of a weather map of the atmospheric flow at an altitude of
18,000 feet shows the jet stream is pushed farther south over western North America. This kind of natural
variation in atmospheric flow is called weather, not climate change. It s just a roll of the dice. Hurricane-steering
currents are subject to whatever the weather happens to be when they arrive at the U.S. coast. No one should
dismiss or minimize the damage that Florence will likely do. Hurricanes can be deadly. I completely agree with
Ms. Dahl's NBC News piece that right now, our number one priority has to be ensuring the safety of those in
Florence s evolving path, as well as the first responders helping them. The cost of storms has risen, not their
severity But a major hurricane hits North Carolina on average once every 20 years or so. The last was Fran in
1996, which is 22 years ago. Coastal residents know they live under a yearly threat of hurricanes, and sometimes
(though relatively rarely), one of those hurricanes will be very strong. Well, aren t we being told these storms are
getting stronger on average? The answer is no. The 30 most costly hurricanes in U.S. history (according to
federal data from January) show no increase in intensity over time. The monetary cost of damages has increased
dramatically in recent decades, but that is due to increasing population, wealth and the amount of vulnerable
infrastructure. It s not due to stronger storms. If humans have any influence on hurricanes at all, it probably won t
be evident for many decades to come. Natural variability is simply too large. This should not be surprising given
that humanity s greenhouse gas emissions have caused only a 1 percent change in the natural energy flows
coursing through the climate system. This question will ask you to apply the Baloney Detection Toolkit. To help
you, consider the following information: Reliability of source The author, Roy Spencer, is a meteorologist and a
principal scientist at the University of Alabama. He has served as senior scientist for climate studies at NASA s
Marshall Space Flight Center. Accuracy of information Search for information on the website:
https://climatefeedback.org/. In particular, search for Hurricane Florence in the Article Reviews area. Perspective
of source The bias of USA Today can be found on the website: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/. Note though that
this is an opinion piece. Consider the author; use the website https://climatefeedback.org/ to determine whether
the author writes similar articles. Which three elements of the Baloney Detection Toolkit do you think the article
fails? (Note that the majority of reviewers on https://climatefeedback.org/ tagged the article as Biased, Flawed
Reasoning, Misleading .
A: Rule 1: How reliable is the source of the claim?
B: Rule 2: What is the source¶s perspective?
C: Rule 3: Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
D: Rule 4: Where does the majority of evidence point?
E: Rule 5: Have the claims been verified by someone else?
F: Rule 6: Does the claimant use flawed reasoning?
Which of the following is NOT an indicator of global warming?
4 1/1
A: Decreasing snow cover
B: Increasing sea level
C: Species migrating poleward and upward
D: Spring coming later
E: Tree lines shifting poleward and upward
Why do people tend to interpret information in a way that increases one s self-esteem?
5 1/1
A: Confirmation bias
B: Illusory truth effect
C: Loss aversion
D: Self-serving bias
E: Time-discounting bias
Which U.S. President spoke of the need to take concrete action to protect the environment ?
6 1/1
A: Bill Clinton
B: George H. W. Bush
C: George W. Bush
D: Lyndon B. Johnson
E: Ronald Reagan

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