Sustainability: State of the World Survey

  1. What is the most common reason that plant and animal species become extinct?
  2. water pollution
  3. loss of habitat
  4. hunting
  5. ozone depletion
  6. How much of the world's wetlands have been lost in the 20th century?
  7. 10%
  8. 20%
  9. 40%
  10. 50%
  11. What is the most common cause of pollution of streams, rivers and oceans?
  12. Leaching of landfills
  13. Surface water running off yards, city streets, paved lots and farm fields
  14. Trash washed into the ocean from beaches
  15. Waste dumped by factories
  16. What percent of the world's food crops would not exist without pollinators like bees, bats, and wasps?
  17. 20%
  18. 50%
  19. 75%
  20. 90%
  21. How much trash does the average person throw out annually?
  22. 250 pounds
  23. 500 pounds
  24. 1000 pounds
  25. 1500 pounds
  1. How many pounds of prehistoric, buried plant material does it take to make a gallon of gasoline?
  2. 78
  3. 627
  4. 196,000
  5. 1,314,000
  6. A typical light bulb wastes what percent of electricity?
  7. 5%
  8. 30%
  9. 65%
  10. 90%
  11. What percent of the world's major marine fish stocks are depleted from overfishing or being fished at their biological limit?
  12. 10%
  13. 25%
  14. 50%
  15. 75%
  16. How much of the water on earth is available for people's everyday use?
  17. More than 50%
  18. 28%
  19. 12%
  20. Less than 1%
  21. By the year 2050, the demand for food crops is projected to increase by:
  22. 20%
  23. 40%
  24. 85%
  25. 125%
  26. How much water used for irrigating lawns and gardens, on average, is wasted due to over-watering and evaporation?
  27. 50%
  28. 25%
  29. 15%
  30. 10%
  1. The world's 358 billionaires together possess as much money as the poorest _____ of the world's population?
  2. 5%
  3. 30%
  4. 50%
  5. 70%
  6. Americans use ______percent of the world’s resources.
  7. 2%
  8. 33%
  9. 55%
  10. 70%
  11. The single most important factor in population growth is:
  12. Ratio of females to males
  13. Latitude
  14. Education of women
  15. Accessibility of birth control products
  16. The United Nations estimates that by the year 2010, the number of environmental refugees (people displaced from their homes due to natural disasters or environmental degradation) could be as many as:
  17. 750,000
  18. 2 million
  19. 23 million
  20. 50 million
  21. Cities are expansive consumers of ecosystem goods and services and prolific generators of ecosystem-damaging wastes. By 2030, what percent of the industrialized world's population will live in urban areas?
  22. 40%
  23. 50%
  24. 80%
  25. 90%
  1. In 1950, the three largest cities in the world were:
    New York (12 million)
    Tokyo (11 million)
    London (8 million)
    In 2015, what will the three largest cities be?
  2. Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Tokyo
  3. New York, Mexico City, Sao Paolo
  4. London, Tokyo, Delhi
  5. Mumbai (Bombay), Shanghai, Mexico City
  6. How does the temperature of urban areas compare to surrounding rural areas?
  7. Urban areas are about 2-10º F warmer
  8. Urban and rural areas are about the same temperature
  9. Urban areas are cooler
  10. It varies by city
  11. Earth's average temperature has risen about 1 degree F in the past 100 years, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that in the next hundred years the temperature will rise by
  12. 0 degrees F
  13. 1-2 degrees F
  14. 3-10 degrees F
  15. 10-15 degrees F
  16. How many pounds of greenhouse gasses does the average home produce each year?
  17. 5000
  18. 20,000
  19. 40,000
  20. 70,000
  21. What percentage of the urban population in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean suffers from one or more diseases associated with inadequate water and sanitation?
  22. 25%
  23. 50%
  24. 75%
  25. 85%

ASU 101: The ASU ExperiencePage 1