Given the background: The Keystone XL Pipeline would transport oil from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. The oil would travel into the United States. In the U.S. it would be refined. The pipeline is controversial. A leak could cause damage to wildlife habitat. A leak could also release enough oil to contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer. The Aquifer is crucial to agriculture and urban development in the Midwestern U.S. When burned, the fuel from the oil sands would increase pollutants. Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere would increase. The future of the pipeline is currently on hold. and the situation: Lawmakers were debating the pros and cons of Keystone XL Pipeline. One group of lawmakers proposed that the pipeline be constructed. They put their proposal in proposal A. The rival group of lawmakers proposed that the pipeline should not be build. They put their proposal in proposal B. Lawmakers would now have to choose one of the proposals. Answer the following question: Which proposal might not contaminate the aquifer, proposal A or proposal B?
Ans: proposal B

Given the background: "There is now unequivocal evidence that biodiversity loss reduces the efficiency by which ecological communities capture biologically essential resources, produce biomass, decompose and recycle biologically essential nutrients... There is mounting evidence that biodiversity increases the stability of ecosystem functions through time... Diverse communities are more productive because they contain key species that have a large influence on productivity and differences in functional traits among organisms increase total resource capture... The impacts of diversity loss on ecological processes might be sufficiently large to rival the impacts of many other global drivers of environmental change... Maintaining multiple ecosystem processes at multiple places and times requires higher levels of biodiversity than does a single process at a single place and time." and the situation: Nicaragua is one of the most biodiverse countries in the Americas. They boast over five hundred species of birds, and thousands of species of plants. Across the pond in England the situation is completely different. Centuries of extensive farming, industrialization, and urban sprawls have made it one of the least biodiverse place on Earth. Answer the following question: Would the ecosystem functions be less or more stable in Nicaragua than in England?
Ans: more

Given the background: On Earth, the common weather phenomena include wind, cloud, rain, snow, fog and dust storms. Less common events include natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and ice storms. Almost all familiar weather phenomena occur in the troposphere (the lower part of the atmosphere). Weather does occur in the stratosphere and can affect weather lower down in the troposphere, but the exact mechanisms are poorly understood.Weather occurs primarily due to air pressure, temperature and moisture differences between one place to another. These differences can occur due to the sun angle at any particular spot, which varies by latitude from the tropics. In other words, the farther from the tropics one lies, the lower the sun angle is, which causes those locations to be cooler due the spread of the sunlight over a greater surface. The strong temperature contrast between polar and tropical air gives rise to the large scale atmospheric circulation cells and the jet stream. Weather systems in the mid-latitudes, such as extratropical cyclones, are caused by instabilities of the jet stream flow (see baroclinity). Weather systems in the tropics, such as monsoons or organized thunderstorm systems, are caused by different processes. and the situation: Two continents were separated by a large ocean. Oceania had milder weather and experienced common weather phenomena, while Lemuria experienced natural disasters. Answer the following question: Which continent experienced fewer hurricanes?
Ans: Oceania

Given the background: Using longitudinal data from over 100 countries, Diener and his colleagues showed that rich countries are in general happier than poor countries (Diener, Tay, & Oishi, 2013).[17] Also, life satisfaction for most countries goes up as they become wealthier over time. Diener identified three factors that influence the relationship between income and SWB. Namely, rising income most likely results in higher SWB when it leads to greater optimism, financial satisfaction and household material prosperity among citizens. Furthermore, Diener and his colleagues investigated the relationship between income and different elements of SWB. They illustrated that income has stronger influence on people's evaluation of their lives than the positive or negative emotions they experience over time (Diener, Kahneman, Tov, & Arora, 2010).[18] The study points to the necessity to evaluate different elements of SWB separately instead of treating happiness as a single entity. and the situation: Two neighboring countries implemented different sets of economic reforms. The reforms took over a decade to implement, but the effects were not similar at all. Redvania was more prosperous and it became much richer, while Blueland stagflated and the inhabitants were not pleased with the outcome. Answer the following question: Which country had a higher life satisfaction index after 10 years?
Ans: Redvania