Big Earth Quiz 2022: 22 Sizzling Climate & Nature Questions

Not a single country met the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality standard in 2021. In a survey of pollution data in 6,475 cities published on March 22, 2022, only 3.4% of the surveyed cities met the bar in 2021. According to data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss pollution technology company that monitors air quality, as many as 93 cities saw 10 times the recommended level of polluters. New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital. Bangladesh was the most polluted country.

On Jan. 31, 2022, researchers unveiled the world’s most extensive forest database, comprising more than 44 million individual trees at more than 100,000 sites in 90 countries – helping them calculate that Earth has roughly 73,300 tree species. South America, home to the Amazon rainforest and Andean forests, is populated with 43% of the planet’s tree species. The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is a volcanic island, one of Tonga’s Polynesian archipelago of 176 islands. On Jan. 15, 2022, the underwater volcano erupted, causing a Pacific-wide tsunami of about 1 meter (3 feet) that smashed boats in New Zealand, caused an oil spill and two drownings in Peru, and coated Tonga with acidic (but not poisonous) ash. New Zealand and other nations came forward to get water and other supplies to Tonga as quickly as possible.

A red warning for extreme heat, spanning from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, was issued in the UK for the first time on July 18 and 19, 2022. On July 19 afternoon, the UK Met Office weather agency registered a temporary reading of over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in 29 places in the UK. Previously, the highest temperature reached in the UK was 38.7°C (101.7°F) at Cambridge Botanic Garden in July 2019.

According to NASA, the ozone hole topped 10 million square miles (26.4 million square kilometers, more than the size of North America) on Oct. 5, 2022, the largest it has been since 2015. It’s the third year in which the ozone hole peaked at over 9.5 million square miles. Despite recent data, the hole is still shrinking.

The Coca-Cola Company is ranked as the world’s top plastic polluter for the 4th consecutive year, according to the 2021 Break Free From Plastic report. In each year since 2019, Brand Audit found Coca-Cola branded products represent more pollution than the next two top polluters, PepsiCo and Unilever, combined. Claims about plastic packaging being eco-friendly made by big brands, including Coca-Cola and Unilever, are misleading greenwashing, according to a report by the Changing Markets Foundation. Case on point: The world’s largest plastic polluter, Coca-Cola, has spent millions promoting the notion that its bottles are 25% marine plastic.

Ocean snow is a shower of usually biological debris that falls from higher in the water – sometimes for weeks – before reaching the ocean’s bottom. For millions of years, the debris has delivered flecks from plant and animal remains mucus, dust, microbes, and the ocean’s carbon to the seafloor.

What’s wrong with marine snow?

An April 4, 2022, report in the New York Times identifies marine snowfall as increasingly being contaminated by microplastics, eventually settling on the seafloor in a layer of plastic that might affect Earth’s cooling process.

The wax worm is a larval moth that feeds on wax produced by bees as they build honeycombs. A Spanish national research council (CSIC) study found that two enzymes in the caterpillar’s saliva quickly break down polyethylene, the world’s most widely used plastic. Nature Communications published the study.

Aurora of the sea is a natural phenomenon where plankton blooms glow in blue and green after nightfall. The light is activated by the movement of waves, swimming fish, and even footprints in the wet sand. The phenomenon is caused by plankton and phytoplankton species blooms, some of which use bioluminescence to distract predators.

Saxaul trees, commonly known by their Arabic name Al-Ghadha, produce seeds only as they become drier. The saxaul can survive for months without water and thrives where temperatures soar to 58 degrees Celsius (136 F). Guinness World Records recognized Saudi Arabia’s Unaizah park as the world’s largest saxaul botanic garden, stretching over 172 sq km (66.41 sq miles). As part of the Saudi government’s green initiative to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, and land degradation, the Al-Ghadha environmental association plans to plant 250,000 drought-resistant Saxaul trees during 2022 in Unaizah.

Poseidon’s ribbon weed, or Posidonia australis, found in Shark Bay, off the western end of Australia, is the world’s largest plant. The seagrass — not to be confused with seaweed and algae — spreads at least 180 km (77 square miles), about the size of Cincinnati. A new study published on June 1, 2022, in Proceedings of the Royal Society, shows that Shark Bay’s Poseidon’s ribbon weed colony is one giant organism that has been cloning for about 4,500 years, the largest known example of a clone in any environment on Earth.

Is it the largest organism on Earth?

Utah’s Pando, a clonal colony of 40,000 aspen trees connected by their roots, is the former “heaviest known organism.” covering an area of about 500 square meters (0.16 square miles) and weighing 6,000 tonnes. But the Humongous Fungus is probably even more enormous, weaving a web of mycelial tendrils (the root network of mushrooms) covering 3.7 square miles (9.6 square km) of Oregon’s Malheur National Forest. Scientists calculate it could weigh at least 7,500 tons and maybe up to 35,000 tons, making it the world’s most massive living organism.

Known as brain-eating amoeba, the rare and deadly Naegleria fowleri lives in warm, fresh water and can enter the body through the nose, ultimately reaching brain tissue and destroying it. As a result of climate change, the amoeba is now showing up in northern and western parts of the US, where it is not typically found.

Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming share the Colorado River water. Colorado’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have reached “dangerously low” water levels as of 2022 and hover at around 25% capacity. Federal officials called on the seven states to cut their overall usage of Colorado River water by 15% to 30% in 2022.

The emperor is the world’s largest penguin and one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica. The emperor penguin is at severe risk of extinction in the next 30 to 40 years as a result of climate change, according to biologist Marcela Libertelli of the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA).

Many myna species are considered invasive, imitate human voices in captivity, and eat insects and fruit (like many other bird species). The Bali myna, critically endangered and nearly extinct in the wild, is highly distinctive as it is entirely white. By 2001 experts estimated only about six Bali mynas were living in the wild, with thousands in captivity across the globe.

Did we save the Bali Myna?

Since the 1980s, Indonesian breeders can apply for licenses to breed the birds and are allowed to keep 90% of the offspring for private sale. The remaining birds are rehabilitated and released at West Bali National Park, where 420 Bali mynas are currently monitored by park authorities, according to a June 3, 2022, AP report.

The immortal jellyfish and the turritopsis nutricula (a type of hydra) are the only two biologically immortal animal species known to science.

How Come?

Scientists at the Spanish University of Oviedo mapped the genetic sequence of the immortal jellyfish, able to repeatedly revert to an immature stage after reproduction. The study, published on Aug. 29, 2022, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the immortal jellyfish genome may be better at copying and repairing DNA and maintaining the ends of chromosomes intact.

How is that different from human DNA?

In humans and other species, the ends of chromosomes become so short with age that the cell can no longer divide successfully and dies.

Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment, while millipedes have two. Typically millipedes have about 100 to 200 legs, while centipedes have as many as 382.

Is there a creature with 1,000 feet?

Scientists led by Virginia Tech entomologist Paul Marek have discovered millipede possessing 1,306 legs (pictured) – more than any known kind. The threadlike pale-colored millipede reaches about 3-1/2 inches (95 mm) long and about four-hundredths of an inch (0.95 mm) wide. The creature is equipped with a conical head, beak-shaped mouth, and extensive antennae – likely one of its only sources of sensory input because it lacks eyes, according to the research published in the journal Scientific Reports on Dec. 16, 2021. The Eumillipes Persephone resides underground in Western Australia.

Jonah’s icefish is an antarctic deep water fish. The name Jonah refers to the Old Testament whale story, alluding to how this type of icefish was discovered (in the stomach of a whale). Icefish absorb the oxygen-rich Antarctic waters through their skin. They thrive in temperatures just above freezing temperatures with massive hearts and transparent blood because they lack hemoglobin and red blood cells.

What is the largest fish breeding colony ever discovered?

A breeding colony of Jonah’s icefish (Neopagetopsis ionah) globally unprecedented in scale has been discovered in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. In a paper published Jan. 13, 2022, in Current Biology, scientists estimated the colony of Jonah’s icefish stretches across 92 square miles (240 square km), totaling 60 million active nests — the largest fish breeding colony ever discovered.

Orcas, known as killer whales, are, in fact, members of the same family as dolphins (the toothed whales family of oceanic dolphins). The Blue, the Gray, and the Fin whales belong to the family Balaenidae, AKA the right whales.

Can orcas make a meal out of an adult blue whale?

In a paper published Jan. 21, 2022, in the journal Marine Mammal Science, scientists confirm for the first time through firsthand observation the first three records of groups of killer whales killing and eating blue whales near Southwestern Australia. While Blue whales are commonly between 70 and 80 feet and weigh up to 150 tons, Orcas can reach lengths of 30 feet and weigh up to four tons.

Jorō spiders, or Trichonephila clavata, are Japanese spiders with colorful yellow, blue and red markings that measure three inches (8 cm) in length. Jorō spiders are venomous but pose little to no threat to humans.

Joro in the USA

The Joro spiders took over north Georgia in 2021 and were spotted in South Carolina. According to a study of the Jorō spider species published in Feb. 2022 in the journal Physiological Entomology, they could also spread into the northeastern United States.

The European bison is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe – one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison. A century ago, European bison were extinct in the wild but are now recovering through European reintroduction projects. The 7,000 bison living in Europe today descend from just 12 zoo animals.

Are there bison in the wild in the UK?

On July 18, 2022, three European bison were released to the wild in the UK for the first time in over a thousand years.

North America’s monarch butterfly has been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The number of Western monarchs living west of the Rocky Mountains plunged by an estimated 99.9 percent between the 1980s and 2021. Eastern monarchs, which comprise most of North America’s population, dropped by 84 percent from 1996 to 2014. The new endangered status covers both populations.