IT's All About Environment SustainabilITy! Quiz

Explanation
Amphibians are more threatened and are declining more rapidly than either birds or mammals. 40% of amphibian species are on the brink of extinction, with around 6000 species (about 7%) listed as Critically Endangered (CR) the IUCN category of highest threat. This decline in species in reported in the Living Planet index published by WWF.
See: http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/1_lpr_2012_online_full_size_single_pages_final_120516.pdf
http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/summary-statistics

Explanation
Actually all of them!
While falling water tables are largely invisible, rivers that are drained dry before they reach the sea are highly visible. Two rivers where this phenomenon can be seen are the Colorado, the major river in the southwestern United States, and the Yellow, the largest river in northern China. Other large rivers that either run dry or are reduced to a mere trickle during the dry season are the Nile, the lifeline of Egypt; the Indus, which supplies most of Pakistan’s irrigation water; and the Ganges in India.

http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/issues/
http://www.earth-policy.org/
www.waterfootprint.org

Explanation
According to the UN Millennium Goals* report 2012 for the first time since records on poverty began, the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen in every developing region, including sub-Saharan Africa. Preliminary estimates indicate that the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate and during the same period over two billion people gained access to improved drinking water sources. The share of slum dwellers in urban areas declined from 39 per cent in 2000 to 33 per cent in 2012, improving the lives of at least 100 million people.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals established following the Millennium UN summit in 2000. The goals are:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empowering women
4. To reduce child mortality rates
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV and AIDs , Malaria and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental Sustainability
8. To develop a global partnership for development[
Each goal has specific targets and dates for achieving those targets

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/mdg-report-2012.html
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf

Explanation
Achieving Universal Primary Education is the second Millennium Goal. Too many children are still denied their right to primary education, if current trends continue the world will not meet the goal of universal primary education by 2015. In 2011, 57 million children of primary school age were out of school, down from 102 million in 2000. More than half of these out-of school children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, 123 million youth (aged 15 to 24) lack basic reading and writing skills; 61 per cent of them are young women.

http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/publications/mdg-report-2012.html
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/report-2013/mdg-report-2013-english.pdf

Explanation
The rate of increase in global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fuel combustion and other industrial sources, the main cause of human-induced global warming, slowed down in 2012, however the global average annual growth rate was still 2.4 ppm . The three top 3 emitting countries/regions, which accounted for 55% of total global CO2 emissions were, China (29% share) increased its CO2 emissions by 3%, which is low compared with annual increases of about 10% over the last decade. It emitted 8.3bn tonnes of CO2 in 2010 – up 240% on 1992. In the United States (16% share) and the European Union (11% share) CO2 emissions decreased by 4% and 1.6% .

http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/11/2012s-carbon-emissions-in-five-graphs/

http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/communication/news-archive/2012/record-high-global-carbon-emissions

http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/news_docs/pbl-2013-trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2013-report-1148.pdf

Explanation
See: http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/mbd/life_expectancy/atlas.html

Explanation
Life expectancy at birth denotes the number of years a baby will live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth remain the same throughout its life. This had increased considerably in most developed countries since the 1900s (when average life expectency at birth was about 21 years) due to huge advances in medicine and thus reductions in child mortality. Variations in life expectancy between different parts of the world, are mostly caused by differences in access to medicine, clean water and diet as well as the impact of AIDS, particularly in Africa .

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Mortality_and_life_expectancy_statistics

http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/mbd/life_expectancy/atlas.html

Explanation
Australia, (18.8/tonnes /year /person) US (16.4) Saudi and Saudi Arabia (16.2 ). For comparison the per capita figure for China is 6.3 and for UK 8.5.
Carbon emissions per capita are measured as the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the country as a consequence of all relevant human (production and consumption) activities, divided by the population of the country. Typically high values reflect an affluent life style and may lack of initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint. For example, in Qatar both electricity and water, (mostly produced form energy intensive desalination plants) is free. In the developed world carbon emissions from manufacture have been reduced but this is of the due to “carbon leakage” to developing countries.
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Metadata.aspx?IndicatorId=0&SeriesId=776

http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/news_docs/pbl-2013-trends-in-global-co2-emissions-2013-report-1148.pdf

Explanation
The answer is all of them. (life evaluation 7.6/10) See: http://issuu.com/earthinstitute/docs/world-happiness-report

Explanation
The answer is all of them. Affluence is not always correlated with happiness, particularly in countries with large discrepancies between rich and poor. The World Happiness Report 2013 published by the Earth Institute, reflects a new worldwide demand for more attention to happiness and absence of misery as criteria for government policy. It reveals fascinating trends in the data judging just how happy countries really are. On a scale running from 0 to 10, people in over 150 countries, surveyed by Gallup over the period 2010-12, reveal a population-weighted average score of 5.1 (out of 10). Six key variables explain three-quarters of the variation in annual national average scores over time and among countries. These six factors include: real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, having someone to count on, perceived freedom to make life choices, freedom from corruption, and generosity .
The report identifies the countries with the highest levels of happiness:
1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Switzerland
4. Netherlands
5. Sweden

http://unsdsn.org/resources/publications/world-happiness-report-2013/

Explanation
Coal (35%) and gas (28.5%) still dominated in 2013. Some of the growth in renewable electricity was because of an increase in the amount of electricity generated by burning biomass in power stations. In 2011, energy company RWE Npower converted a coal-fired power station to woodpellets but this later closed due to issues over Government subsidies. Wind energy increase significantly partly due to opening of new installations but also because 2013 was a very windy year.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266415/renewables.pdf

http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/10/uk-renewable-generation-reaches-record-high-for-a-bit/