Seriously, folks
Opportunities abound for walking the global-warming talk at UC Davis during the Focus the Nation UC Davis day Jan. 31.
Check it out:
- Daylong program schedule
- Idea Fair
- World of Ideas Café
- Teach-in
- Host or tour a sustainable campus project
To get the big picture, visit the UC Davis Sustainability Web site at Focus the Nation UC Davis Web site.
Get ready Jan. 31 to brainstorm on solutions at Focus the Nation
We have some solutions to help you avoid a melt-down as you organize your thoughts for UC Davis’ Focus the Nation on Jan. 31. That’s when the campus will participate in a national engagement on global warming. Just take this five-question quiz to get your creative juices flowing for finding solutions.
We’ve crafted some tricky questions to test whether you clever climate-change experts out there can keep cool in the heat of the competition and get it all right, alright? And, for the Web-wise, seek and ye might find answers (hint, look at our “related links” section).
How to grade yourself:
- 5 out of 5 correct: Consider yourself inducted into the UC Davis’ Hall of Global Warming Sages. (OK, OK, the hall is just a virtual hall, really more just a state of mind, but what a cool idea.)
- 4 out of 5: Congratulations! You’ve earned yourself an invitation to the inaugural gala for the Hall of Global Warming Sages (also a figment of our imagination, but can’t you imagine how we could celebrate on a “cool the planet” theme….)
- 3 out of 5: We suggest you go to the “Focus the Nation UC Davis” site and brush up on all the possibilities.
- And for those who score only a 1 or 2 – or worse —please don’t despair. You still have time to learn about global warming and its solutions before the oceans rise over Venice, New York, Bombay, Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, the entire state of Florida and… you get the picture.
1. In just one year, a dairy cow produces as much harmful gas as a car driven more than 10,000 miles.
True: For really green drivers
If you drive a small hybrid, you are, indeed, doing less harm to the atmosphere than that cow. According to Frank Mitloehner, UC Davis Cooperative Extension air quality extension specialist, the average milk-producing dairy cow produces 400 pounds of methane gas per year. Since methane has 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, 400 pounds has to be multiplied by a factor of 20 to produce 8,000 pounds of the carbon dioxide equivalent. But a Toyota Prius or Honda Civic hybrid driven 10,000 miles gives off only 6,600 pounds.
False: For the gas-guzzling world
If you drive a truck, sport utility or midsize car, you are probably producing at least 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every 10,000 miles. Edmunds.com offers tips for green driving habits that will help you save gas and do your part for climate change.
2. Research at the California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis shows that teens prefer LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to fluorescent bulbs for flattering complexions and improving their mood.
True: Not yet
Most self-respecting teens would prefer LEDs if they knew about the advantages of flattering color. What’s more, LEDs contain no mercury and are not hazardous when discarded. They last five times longer than fluorescents (up to 50,000 hours), which is an advantage in cell phones, where their use has increased by more than 45 percent per year. And what teen doesn’t light his or her face with a cell phone?
False: For the time being
Teens rarely choose lighting, and their preferences in bulbs are virtually unknown.
3. Food left on plates at UC Davis dining commons is made into a special polar bear chow and shipped to the Arctic, where wildlife researchers are helping stave off starvation for this threatened species. These bears, as we all know, are living in a melting environment, thus finding it increasingly difficult to hunt their traditional prey, seals.
True: Nope
Nice thought, but a polar bear could not be sustained by the increasingly low-fat, low-carb diets of UC Davis college students. Our dining hall food now has more locally grown fruits and vegetables than ever before. Fats are the densest forms of carbon (and therefore energy) in the human — and bear — diet, including seal fat, which is not frequently found on dining hall menus.
False: Correct
But what is the campus doing to help polar bears? University Resident Dining by Sodexho, which manages four residence dining facilities and the Silo Union's retail food outlets, sends leftovers to the campus Biogas Energy Project on the south campus. Thre, the scraps are converted by microorganisms to methane and hydrogen for use as fuels. Any food remains are composted into a commercial grade of soil additive for local farmers. These practices recycle carbon and reduce greenhouse-gas releases. To quote your mom, you still shouldn’t use that as an excuse to take more than you can eat.
4. Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada Range may lose its crystal-clear appearance as the temperature warms because:
Incorrect: a
But drinking untreated lake water is not recommended.
Incorrect: b
Algae reduce clarity, but the growth of algae is related less to warmer water than to sunlight and the quantity of nutrients in the lake.
Incorrect: c
The average depth of Lake Tahoe is 1,000 feet, too deep for surface activity to disturb the lake bottom.
Correct: d
"Higher precipitation results in more runoff and affects the amount of soil particles and pollutants that are washed into the lake," according to John Reuter, associate director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. Rain carries more sediment into the lake than snow. When Lake Tahoe clarity measurements began in 1968, the lake was clear to an average depth of 102.4 feet. In 2006, water was clear to an average of 67.7 feet — nearly 35 feet more of murk. The all-time low visibility of 64 feet was recorded in 1997.
5. According to Robert St. Cyr, general manager of the UC Davis Bike Barn, renting a bike for $15 a day saves how much money compared with renting the cheapest available car for your visit to the campus?
Incorrect: a
You have never rented a car, have you?
Incorrect: b
Well, maybe at “rent-a-wreck.”
Incorrect, sort of: c
Just like our climate, you are getting warmer….
Correct: d
At the daily subcompact rate of $39.99, including: one gallon of gas at $4.25; $23.99 for full-coverage insurance; $5.29 sales tax; and $6 per day campus parking, it costs $79.52 per day to rent a car (and that doesn’t include the cost to the environment). Oh, and make sure you are at least 25, or you can’t rent a car from most rental companies. By contrast, bike rentals include preferred parking near all campus locations and the campus pays the sales tax. And, as long as your legs are long enough to have your feet touch the ground, there is no age limit.