The Christian Science Monitor has developed an interesting quiz: Climate change: Is your opinion informed by science? I went ahead and started to take the test. The questions 
ranged from science history to chemistry (which is/isn’t a greenhouse gas) to change over time to … well, a spectrum of climate issues that aren’t necessarily self-evident. Okay, this is ‘my’ arena and should do okay. Even so, considering the questions, I was pleased that the quiz ended with the screen to the right.
The value of the ‘quiz’ isn’t solely in the challenging questions but the quality of the brief descriptions at the end of each quiz. With a policy environment where one political party’s elites emphasize that they’re not scientists, the reality is that far too many people’s opinion is not informed by science.
As is typical, on completion came the option to share the quiz, which I did with automated braggadocio:
I scored 100 percent on this #climate quiz. Can you beat my score? http://t.co/J4lFznBl2r #Science #ActOnClimate
— A Siegel (@A_Siegel) January 20, 2015
This prompted a quick retort from scientist Peter Gleick
@A_Siegel Um, by definition? No. — Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) January 20, 2015
Hmmm … and thus my
🙂 @PeterGleick Perhaps @CSMonitor grades on a curve? Or, extra credit question? (Note: clicked their tweet too quickly…clearly)
— A Siegel (@A_Siegel) January 20, 2015
and the Monitor’s responses …
@A_Siegel @PeterGleick Thanks for the mentions! Glad you like the quiz… but sorry… no extra credit! — CS Monitor (@csmonitor) January 20, 2015
Well, teacher, are you sure that I can’t earn some extra credit?
To start with, lets face some facts — I got 100% when, in fact, I didn’t get all the questions right. One of the quiz’s did not allow an accurate answer.
Question 15 asks “What is the hottest year on record since 1880?”
As can be seen to the right, I answered 2010 with the other options being 1934 (a hot year in the United States), 1970 (hmmm … thrown in for confusion), and 1998 (an El Nino year and one of top five hottest global years, hottest year in the 1900s). This is a good example of the ‘lets see if we can confuse’ and ‘can we catch those influenced by science denial’ elements throughout the quiz.
In any event, I got this question right … even though that answer is wrong.
Since the Christian Science Monitor‘s posting of and before my taking this quiz, NASA and NOAA released the reporting that 2014 is the hottest year in recorded history.
That’s right, the correct answer to question 15 is: 2014.
Okay, my question to @CSMonitor: Can I get that extra credit now?