Bing Environment Quiz – Test Your Green Knowledge
Fifteen carefully sourced questions about the air we breathe, the water that covers our planet and the living land beneath our feet. Answer correctly and watch a small forest grow.
Most of us hear about the environment in headlines: a record heatwave, a bleached reef, a new climate pledge. Headlines are useful, but they rarely explain the science that connects those stories. This Bing Environment Quiz is designed to fill that gap. Each question points to a real process, a real agreement or a real measurement, and every answer is backed by a public source you can check yourself.
You don't need a science degree to do well. You need curiosity and a willingness to be surprised. Some questions cover things you may have learned at school, like what the Montreal Protocol protects. Others are less familiar, such as which soggy ecosystem quietly holds more carbon than all the world's forests. By the end, you should have a clearer picture of how our planet's systems fit together and why small numbers in scientific reports can carry very large consequences.
How the Bing Environment Quiz works
The quiz walks you through three "stations", each with five questions. Think of it as a short hike through Earth's main systems: you start in the sky, descend to the oceans and ice, and finish on solid ground among forests, peat bogs and the species that depend on them.
Air & Climate
Greenhouse gases, the world's longest carbon dioxide record and two landmark international agreements.
Questions 1–5Water & Ice
Salty seas, ocean oxygen, coral bleaching, reflective ice and the plastic that ends up in waterways.
Questions 6–10Land & Life
Rainforests, carbon-rich peatlands, the global biodiversity picture, a famous book and the food we waste.
Questions 11–15- 🌱 15 multiple-choice questions
- ✅ Instant feedback after each answer
- 🌲 Every correct answer plants a tree
- ⏳ No timer — read at your own pace
- 🔒 No sign-up, nothing stored
Take the Bing Environment Quiz
Choose one answer per question. Your forest will fill in along the strip at the top: a tree for every correct answer, a stump for every miss.
Answer guide & explanations
Finished the quiz, or prefer to learn first? Open each station to see every correct answer, a plain-English explanation and the source it comes from. Numbers in brackets refer to the full source list.
Station 1 · Air & Climate (Q1–Q5)
1. Which greenhouse gas is the largest contributor to human-caused warming?
Carbon dioxide (CO₂)Burning coal, oil and gas releases carbon dioxide, and because humans emit it in such enormous volumes and it lingers in the atmosphere for a very long time, it is the main driver of the warming observed since the industrial era. Methane and nitrous oxide are stronger per tonne, but they are emitted in far smaller amounts.
Source: U.S. EPA, Overview of Greenhouse Gases [1]
2. Livestock digestion, landfills and oil-and-gas leaks are major sources of which potent gas?
Methane (CH₄)The UN Environment Programme notes that methane traps more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide over its first two decades in the atmosphere. Because it breaks down relatively quickly, cutting methane is one of the fastest ways to slow near-term warming.
Source: UNEP, methane explainer [2]
3. Where has the world's longest continuous record of atmospheric CO₂ been measured since 1958?
Mauna Loa Observatory, HawaiiScientist Charles David Keeling began measurements on the slopes of Mauna Loa in 1958. The resulting zig-zag graph, rising every year with a seasonal "breath" as Northern Hemisphere plants grow and decay, is known as the Keeling Curve. NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory publishes the latest monthly values.
Source: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Trends in CO₂ [3]
4. The Montreal Protocol, agreed in 1987, was designed to protect what?
The ozone layerThe treaty phases out chemicals such as CFCs that destroy stratospheric ozone, the layer that shields life from harmful ultraviolet radiation. It is often cited as one of the most successful environmental agreements ever, and because many of those chemicals are also powerful greenhouse gases, it has benefited the climate too.
Source: UNEP Ozone Secretariat [4]
5. What is the central temperature goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement?
Hold warming well below 2 °C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levelsNearly every country signed up to this shared goal. Each government sets its own plan, called a nationally determined contribution, and updates it over time with the expectation that ambition increases.
Source: UNFCCC, The Paris Agreement [5]
Station 2 · Water & Ice (Q6–Q10)
6. Roughly what share of all water on Earth is salty?
About 97%The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the oceans hold the overwhelming majority of Earth's water, and some groundwater and lakes are saline too. Of the small freshwater share, much is locked in ice caps, glaciers and deep groundwater, which is why accessible fresh water is so precious.
Source: USGS Water Science School [6]
7. Roughly how much of Earth's oxygen production comes from the ocean?
About halfNOAA explains that drifting plankton, especially microscopic photosynthesizers, generate roughly half of the oxygen produced on Earth. Marine life uses about the same amount, so the oxygen we breathe on land mostly comes from the atmosphere's long-accumulated reserve — but healthy oceans remain essential to that balance.
Source: NOAA National Ocean Service [7]
8. What is the most common cause of coral bleaching?
Heat stress that makes corals expel their symbiotic algaeCorals live in partnership with tiny algae that give them colour and most of their food. When water stays unusually warm, corals expel those algae and turn white. Bleached corals are not dead, but they are starving and far more vulnerable to disease and death if the heat lasts.
Source: NOAA National Ocean Service [8]
9. What is the scientific term for how much sunlight a surface reflects?
AlbedoAccording to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, bare sea ice reflects roughly 50–70% of incoming sunlight, while dark open ocean reflects only around 6%. When ice melts, more ocean is exposed, more heat is absorbed and more ice melts — a self-reinforcing loop called the ice-albedo feedback.
Source: NSIDC, Science of Sea Ice [9]
10. According to the OECD, roughly what share of plastic waste is successfully recycled worldwide?
About 9%The OECD's Global Plastics Outlook found that the world now generates about twice as much plastic waste as it did two decades earlier, and most of it ends up landfilled, burned or leaked into the environment. Only a small fraction is successfully recycled, which is why reducing and reusing matter so much.
Source: OECD press release, February 2022 [10]
Station 3 · Land & Life (Q11–Q15)
11. What is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth?
The AmazonSpanning several South American countries, the Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and is home to an extraordinary share of known species. It also plays a major role in regional rainfall and in storing carbon.
Source: WWF, The Amazon [11]
12. Which ecosystem covers about 3% of land but stores roughly twice as much carbon as all the world's forests?
PeatlandsPeatlands are waterlogged landscapes where dead plants decompose so slowly that their carbon builds up over thousands of years. UNEP highlights that when peatlands are drained for farming or development, that stored carbon is released, turning a climate ally into a source of emissions.
Source: UNEP, Seven things you should know about peatlands [12]
13. The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment estimated that about how many animal and plant species are threatened with extinction?
Around 1 millionThe Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services identified changes in land and sea use, direct exploitation of organisms, climate change, pollution and invasive species as the main drivers of nature's decline.
Source: IPBES media release, 2019 [13]
14. Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring mainly warned about what?
The harm caused by synthetic pesticides such as DDTCarson, a marine biologist, documented how widespread pesticide spraying harmed birds, wildlife and potentially people. The book sparked public debate and is widely credited with helping launch the modern environmental movement.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Rachel Carson [14]
15. Roughly what share of the world's food is lost or wasted between farm and fork?
Around one-thirdUNEP's Food Waste Index Report 2024 estimates that about 19% of food available to consumers is wasted in homes, shops and restaurants, on top of roughly 13% lost in supply chains after harvest. Together that comes close to a third — food that used land, water and energy to produce and then went uneaten.
Source: UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2024 [15]
Five ideas that explain the planet
Every question in this quiz connects to one of a handful of big ideas. If you understand these five, environmental news becomes far easier to read critically.
The greenhouse effect
Sunlight warms Earth's surface, which then gives off heat. Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb part of that outgoing heat and keep the planet habitable. Adding more of them thickens the "blanket", and average temperatures climb.
Carbon sources and sinks
A source releases carbon (burning fuel, draining a peat bog); a sink absorbs it (growing forests, the ocean, intact peatlands). Climate stability depends on the balance between the two, not on any single tree or factory.
Feedback loops
Some changes amplify themselves. Melting ice lowers albedo, which causes more warming and more melting. Understanding feedbacks explains why scientists talk about thresholds and why early action is valued.
Biodiversity as infrastructure
Pollinators, wetlands, soil microbes and coral reefs provide food security, flood protection and clean water. Losing species is not only a moral loss; it weakens the systems economies quietly rely on.
The circular economy
The traditional model is "take, make, throw away". A circular approach designs waste out from the start: products last longer, can be repaired, and their materials re-enter production. The low global recycling rate for plastic shows why recycling alone cannot carry the load — reduction and reuse come first.
Myths vs. evidence
Environmental topics attract confident claims that don't survive contact with the data. Here are four common ones, set against what reliable sources actually show.
"The ozone hole is what causes global warming."
They are separate problems. Ozone depletion lets more ultraviolet radiation reach the surface; global warming is driven mainly by greenhouse gases. The link is that many ozone-destroying chemicals are also greenhouse gases, so phasing them out under the Montreal Protocol helped both.
"If we just recycle more, plastic pollution is solved."
With only about 9% of plastic waste successfully recycled globally, according to the OECD, recycling is one tool among several. Producing less single-use plastic, designing for reuse and improving waste collection all matter.
"The ocean is too big to be affected by people."
The ocean absorbs a large share of excess heat and carbon dioxide. That is why marine heatwaves are bleaching corals and why NOAA and other agencies track ocean health so closely.
"Planting trees anywhere will fix the climate."
Restoring forests helps, but protecting existing carbon stores, such as old-growth forests and peatlands, is just as important. Planting in the wrong place, like draining a peat bog to do it, can release more carbon than the trees will capture for decades.
Turning green knowledge into habits
Knowing the facts is a good start; acting on them is where the value lies. The ideas below are grounded in the issues covered in the quiz. How much each one matters depends on where you live and how you already live, so treat them as a menu rather than a checklist.
Small, immediate
- Check your fridge and plan a meal around what needs using up first.
- Put a reusable bottle or bag where you'll actually see it tomorrow.
- Switch off lights and devices in empty rooms.
Set up systems
- Learn exactly what your local recycling service accepts — contamination ruins whole batches.
- Swap a few high-use bulbs for LEDs and fix a dripping tap.
- Find a repair café, refill shop or community garden nearby.
Bigger choices
- Compare travel options for regular trips; walking, cycling and transit add up.
- Volunteer with a local clean-up, tree-care or food-rescue group.
- Share what you learned — conversations shift norms more than lectures do.
More daily quizzes to keep you sharp
Enjoyed testing your green knowledge? Keep the learning habit going with our other free quizzes. Each one is short, refreshed regularly and written to teach you something new rather than simply test what you already know.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the official Bing Environment Quiz from Microsoft?
No. This is an independent educational quiz inspired by the popular Bing quiz format. It is not created, sponsored or endorsed by Microsoft, and completing it does not earn Microsoft Rewards points.
How were the questions chosen and checked?
Each question was selected because it explains an important environmental process, agreement or measurement. Every answer was checked against a primary or authoritative source — government science agencies, UN bodies, international organisations or established reference works — and those sources are listed below.
Can teachers or parents use this quiz?
Yes. The quiz works well as a warm-up for lessons on climate, oceans or biodiversity. The answer guide gives a short explanation for each question and a link to a reliable source that students can explore further.
Why do the answer options change order when I retake the quiz?
Options are shuffled on every attempt so that a higher score reflects understanding rather than remembering where the right answer sat last time.
How often is this page updated?
Environmental figures are revised as new research is published. We review the sources periodically and record any meaningful change or correction in the editorial notes section, with the date it was made.
Sources & editorial notes
All explanations on this page are written in our own words and summarise the sources below. Where an estimate varies between studies, we use the figure stated by the cited organisation and describe it as approximate.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Overview of Greenhouse Gases
- UN Environment Programme — Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here's how to reduce them
- NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory — Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (Mauna Loa)
- UNEP Ozone Secretariat — The Montreal Protocol
- UNFCCC — The Paris Agreement
- U.S. Geological Survey — How Much Water Is There on Earth?
- NOAA National Ocean Service — How much oxygen comes from the ocean?
- NOAA National Ocean Service — What is coral bleaching?
- National Snow and Ice Data Center — Science of Sea Ice (albedo)
- OECD — Plastic pollution is growing relentlessly as waste management and recycling fall short (2022)
- World Wildlife Fund — The Amazon
- UN Environment Programme — Seven things you should know about peatlands
- IPBES — Global Assessment media release (2019)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Rachel Carson
- UN Environment Programme — Food Waste Index Report 2024
Spotted an error or an outdated figure? Corrections are welcome. When a change is made, the date and nature of the update will be noted above.
Disclaimer: This page is an independent educational resource. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation. "Bing" and "Microsoft Rewards" are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation and are used here only to describe the quiz format. Scientific figures are approximate and attributed to their original sources.