NewsTracker Answers for week of Dec. 04, 2023

Q: A Persian Gulf nation planned to use its role as the host of the current UN climate conference in Dubai as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals during private talks with leaders of 15 nations according to briefing documents revealed last week. Where is the oil-rich Persian Gulf?

Circle the area on this map

Q: With about 3.6 million people and the world’s tallest building, Dubai is the largest city in which nation?

A. Bahrain

B. Kuwait

C. Saudi Arabia

D. United Arab Emirates

D. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven absolute monarchies and one of the world’s top ten oil producers. The president of this year’s climate conference, Dr Sultan al-Jaber, is also head of the UAE state oil company. Less than 12% of the people in the UAE are citizens, the rest are immigrant workers.

Q: At the 2015 UN conference in Paris, 95 nations negotiated a treaty on climate change that called for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. How have carbon dioxide gas emissions changed since 2015?

A. Down 11%

B. Down 5.5%

C. Up 5,5%

D. Up 11%

C. Carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, has increased about 5.5% since 2015, despite a drop during the COVID-19 pandemic. Former Vice-President Al Gore said the UAE's greenhouse gas emissions rose 7.5% in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5% global rise. Greenhouse gas also includes methane and Nitrous oxide.

Q: Under increasing pressure over their large greenhouse gas footprints, big meat and dairy producers planned a major lobbying effort at the climate conference to portray their products as “sustainable.” Which nation is the largest beef exporter?

A. Australia

B. Brazil

C. Canada

D. United States

B. Brazil is the world’s top beef exporter, followed by the United States and Australia. Brazil’s beef production has led to much of the drastic deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, which also increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Q: Scientists say this year will the hottest in 125,000 years, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather events are increasing. Climate activist Greta Thunberg has dismissed UN climate summits as just “blah, blah, blah” – or all talk and no action. Thunberg comes from which country?

A. Denmark

B. Iceland

C. Norway

D. Sweden

D. In 2018, a 15-year-old Thunberg held the first "School Strike for Climate" outside the Swedish parliament in her hometown of Stockholm. Between 2019 and 2020, she took a year out of school to concentrate on activism and became famous for her impassioned speeches to world leaders. She recently was arrested at climate protests in London.