3 Questions for the EcoRight

March 2023

Right Right… Don’t Tell Me! #EcoRight News Quiz

Who doesn’t love NPR’s News Quiz “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me?” It’s a classic, celebrating 25 years of laughs and games based on the week’s news.

Here are the answers to our #EcoRight version.

Photo credit: Red Green and Blue

Questions & Answers

1) Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe was quoted saying, “It is absolutely essential to communicate in terms and language that people understand.” What was she referring to?

Answer: The exclusion of Fahrenheit in scientific reports.

“Why does excluding Fahrenheit matter? Most Americans lack experiences from their own lives to make sense of scientists’ warnings that the Earth could warm by up to 1.5 degrees Celsius above acceptable levels. To them, it is a small, meaningless number.

By translating that figure to its Fahrenheit equivalent — 2.7 degrees — it can take on a clearer meaning. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, uses the analogy of a fever: Think about how much worse you feel when you run a fever of 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit, 2.7 degrees above normal. That fever is the equivalent of what the planet is facing.” The New York Times, March 21, 2023.

2) “The big concern, which is really cranking the probability of action up, is that the United States stands to be isolated. The World could act without America having a prominent voice.” EcoRight Speaks podcast guest, Danny Richter, is talking about what?

Answer: Price on carbon.

Danny Richter is the Projector Director at the Pricing Carbon Initiative. Listen to his podcast clip.

3) “It all compounded and just led me down a very dark path,” 26 year-old Sean Youra said. “I became very detached and felt like giving up on everything.” What has Sean Youra feeling so melon collie?

Answer: Negative news headlines & scientific reports = Sean is a climate doomer. Doomers are a growing movement that believe climate change cannot be stopped, and humanity is doomed. (Goods news! We’re not really doomed & Sean feels better.)

“’It’s fair to say that recently many of us climate scientists have spent more time arguing with the doomers than with the deniers,’ said Zeke Hausfather, a contributing author to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and climate research lead at the payments company Stripe.” The Washington Post, March 24, 2023.

Thanks for your participation!