The United States government division that oversees all matters related to the environment and sustainability.
What is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
100
The total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent.
What is a carbon footprint?
100
The type of fuel produced through harnessing energy from the sun, typically in the form of panels.
What is solar power?
100
Any type of food grown without the use of chemicals, pesticides, or other foreign entities.
What is organic?
100
The name forecasters and meteorologists use to describe the blast of arctic air hanging around the Midwest that keeps temperatures hovering below zero.
What is the polar vortex?
200
The process of introducing adverse elements into the environment that should not be there; i.e., throwing plastic waste into the ocean.
What is pollution?
200
The process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc., so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas.
What is fracking?
200
The structure that harnesses power from the wind through turning the blades, or rotors, on the front of this structure.
What are wind mills?
200
The process of editing an organism's genetic makeup through adding in genes that are not typically present, in order to change how they react to certain things. (i.e., adding a gene to make tomatoes grow larger)
What is a Genetically Modified Object (GMO)?
200
A storm with a powerful circular wind, typically originating in tropical areas, bringing significant amounts of rain and devastating flooding.
What is a hurricane?
300
The name for contaminated or polluted air hanging around major cities, like Bei Jing and Los Angeles.
What is smog?
300
An excavation (digging) into the earth to extract this specific type of mineral, which can be used to create fuel for trains.
What is coal mining?
300
The type of electricity created by harnessing the power of water in the form of a dam.
What is hydropower? (Hydroelectric power)
300
A chemical used to kill off insects or other organisms that might threaten the growth of plants or crops.
What is a pesticide?
300
The process of the ocean's surface rising over time.
What is rising sea level?
400
A type of animal placed on a list because they are very likely to become extinct.
What is an endangered species (animals)?
400
The process of extracting crude oil by drilling a deep hole in the ocean floor.
What is off-shore drilling?
400
The type of fuel created by fermenting the sugars in different grains, typically corn, to be used as a certain percentage of gasoline.
What is ethanol?
400
Trade in which fair wages and prices are paid to producers in developing countries. (Many small coffee shops around Milwaukee advertise this type of trade)
What is fair trade?
400
A period of time with little to no rainfall, depleting the water supply.
What is a drought?
500
Plants, animals, or pathogens that are non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause harm, due to their lack of natural predators in this new ecosystem.
What is an invasive species?
500
A name of the broken pipeline that causes a massive oil spill off of the Gulf Coast in 2010, which threatened multiple animals and ecosystems.
What is the Deep Water Horizon? (Alternatively, the BP oil spill)
500
Any fuel derived directly from a living matter.
What is biofuel?
500
A former insecticide used to limit the spread of certain organisms, now known to be a carcinogen (cancer-causing agent) and banned in multiple countries.
What is DDT?
500
A storm characterized by rapidly falling atmospheric pressure, due to warm air over the tropics colliding with significantly colder air, and creating fast-moving, circular winds.