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Brian Lehrer: It's the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Yes, it's membership drive quiz time today. We've been doing a climate story of the week on Tuesdays all this year. Have you been paying attention? Call in and give it a shot, 212-433-WNYC. If you think you might be able to answer two climate news questions in a row, you will win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap, perfect for protecting your forehead from too much sun as the temperature spikes or too much rain when we get another weekend soaker.

Call up and give it a shot. You definitely do not need to be a climate scientist to get these questions right, so don't worry if you are a humanities major. 212-433-9692. If you're new around here, what is this? Well, we are in our annual fall membership drive, and during the beginning of this 11:00 AM hour of the show, every day during the drive, we're bringing back a perennial favorite, a low-stakes pop quiz. Of course, the climate itself is high stakes, but the quiz is definitely low stakes.

We don't give grades, but yes, we do give prizes. Again, get two in a row right and you'll win the ever-popular Brian Lehrer Show chambray blue baseball hat. 212-433-WNYC. I'll tell you that as your calls are coming in, that we have a different quiz right at this time, every day in the drive, a different topic each day. Today's climate. Tomorrow it'll be a population quiz, but now it's our climate story of the week. Who wants to play? Evan in Greenpoint wants to play. Hi, Evan, you're on WNYC. Are you ready?

Evan: Yes, I am.

Brian Lehrer: We're doing a climate story of the week all year on the show. On what day of the week?

Evan: Tuesdays.

Brian Lehrer: Tuesday, yes. That was just to see if you were awake. Okay. Last week, our climate story of the week included asking a professor from the Climate School at Columbia if the pattern we've been in of sunny weekdays, but rainy weekends has anything to do with climate change. Did it?

Evan: I feel like that's a loaded question. No, it didn't.

Brian Lehrer: That is correct. The answer is no, it didn't. [trumpet music] He said the heavy rainfalls and floods we've had recently do appear to be influenced by the climate, but as for the rainy weekends and sunny weekdays, just bad luck. Evan, you did it two in a row. Hang on. We're going to take your address so we can mail you a baseball hat. Grover in Sunset Park, ready to play?

Grover: Yes, sir.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. In our climate story of the week, just before the news just now, we heard NPR's Climate Reporter Jeff Brady compare the tactics of the natural gas industry to that of what other industry famous for manufacturing doubt?

Grover: The tobacco industry.

Brian Lehrer: Tobacco industry is right. We go to the next question. Let's see here. How did I misplace my list already? Oh, here we go. Our climate story on October 3rd was about the transition to electric vehicles as an issue in the UAW strike against the big three automakers. Why did our guests say conversion to electric cars is an issue that concerns the union?

Grover: Shoot, I was on vacation then, so I wasn't listening, but I'll take a stab at it. Because electric vehicles require fewer workers to assemble because they're simpler vehicles.

Brian Lehrer: That is correct [trumpet music]. You win a Brian Lehrer Show baseball hat. Grover, hang on, we're going to take your address. Yes, electric vehicles require fewer workers to make because they have fewer moving parts than gas-powered vehicles. Environmentalists argue that they create other kinds of jobs, and it will be a net positive, but the issue for the union is the requiring fewer workers to actually assemble cars. All right, let's see who's next. Oh, Mouck out in Santa Barbara. Mouck, you're on WNYC. Ready to play?

Mouck: Oh, yes, I'm ready. Let's go.

Brian Lehrer: All right, let's go. On our September 26th climate story of the week, it was about California Governor Gavin Newsom suing fossil fuel companies in part for also acting like tobacco companies. What did the oil companies allegedly do like the tobacco companies? It's a little more specific than the manufacturing doubt that we talked about a minute ago.

Mouck: They knew about the impacts of the extraction, but didn't reveal it to the authorities.

Brian Lehrer: That is right. That is exactly right. They allegedly knew about the planet-warming effects of oil and gas since the 1950s because of good research that they themselves did but downplayed or misled people about it to not hurt their profits according to Governor Gavin Newsom's lawsuit. That was chance, you're calling from California and I asked you a Gavin Newsom question there. Lucky you. All right. One more for the baseball cap. During the week of September 18th, we did a climate story every day because that was climate week NYC, which included a UN climate summit. Attending the summit for the United States was President Biden's climate envoy, John Kerry, but he wasn't allowed to speak. Why not?

Mouck: Because it was only a summit for countries that acted on climate change, and the ones that weren't acting that much weren't allowed to speak.

Brian Lehrer: That is exactly right, so you win yourself a Brian Lehrer Show baseball cap, and we have a fanfare [trumpet music] . There it is. Those trumpeters, they get lazy. They want breaks between the sets, all of that. To be a little more specific, because UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres considered the US not acting aggressively enough on its promises under the Paris Climate Accords. Because of that, the US was allowed to attend. Some countries weren't even allowed to attend. The US was allowed to attend, but not in a speaking role. Mouck, hang on. We're going to take your mailing address. May take a while to ship to California, but you know how that goes. How about Rick in Hicksville? Hi, Rick. Ready to play?

Rick: I am, yes.

Brian Lehrer: For our climate story of the week on September 12th, we discussed how President Biden approved more drilling for oil in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Environmentalists didn't like that, but he canceled seven drilling leases that the Trump administration had sold. Where were these seven drilling leases that Biden canceled? They were all in a very famous area.

Rick: The Gulf of Mexico.

Brian Lehrer: Sorry, Rick. Nice try. It was not the Gulf of Mexico. It was the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Some people had a little trouble understanding why is he canceling leases in Alaska and opening more drilling in Alaska. That was the reason. The premise of the question was he thinks the National Petroleum Reserve is important, but the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also in Alaska should be preserved as that. That was that one. All right. How about Randy in Manhattan? Hi, Randy. Ready to play?

Randy: Yes. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. True or false. June, July, and August were all the hottest for those months in recorded history globally. June, July, and August this year.

Randy: False.

Brian Lehrer: That is true. Sorry, Randy. That is actually true. That's one of the big pieces of climate news from this year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average global temperature for August, for example, was more than two degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. We discussed summer temperature records on the September 5th climate story of the week. All right. Alan in Brooklyn, who might be our most frequent caller on climate topics in normal times, now you're on and see if you can pass a climate quiz, Alan. You're ready to play?

Alan: Okay, Brian. I'll do my best.

Brian Lehrer: All right, let's see. In July, we did a segment on the relationship between garbage and climate change, and the big connection drawn by our guests was about landfills, because landfills-- well, you tell me why. Why would landfills be a concern with respect to the climate?

Alan: Before New York and other cities began active composting of kitchen waste and garden waste, the decomposition of these organic materials and landfills released a lot of methane.

Brian Lehrer: Methane is exactly right. Yes, go ahead. Since you obviously know this stuff--

Alan: The composting allows these to be digested in a way that releases less methane and creates more useful compost.

Brian Lehrer: Go composting. Methane greenhouse gas, it is not carbon dioxide but as also came up in our segment, last hour with NPR Climate Correspondent Jeff Brady, not carbon dioxide, there's not as much of it as there is of CO2, but it is actually more climate-polluting per unit. All right, that's one.

Alan: I think it's about 80 times as much per unit of gas, 80 times as much heat captured-

Brian Lehrer: There you go.

Alan: -as carbon dioxide.

Brian Lehrer: All right, one more for the baseball cap. In August, climate journalist, Emma Pattee was on the show for an article she wrote in The Atlantic about summer camp being affected by climate change. The article was called Summer Camp is Moving-- blank, fill in the blank. Where did she find summer camps were moving more than in the past because of climate change?

Alan: Well, I know they're moving [crosstalk] air conditioning. I'm not sure if it's a new location but I think they're more being required to use air conditioning to make their camps liable.

Brian Lehrer: Well, I'm going to take that as close enough for a yes [trumpet music]. The players were ready that time. Yes, 'Moving Indoors'. That was the title of the article. It was called Summer Camp Is Moving Indoors and she found that more camps are setting up air-conditioned indoor options for days when it's too hot to do things outdoors in places where that was never the case before like her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Alan, thank you.

Other callers, thank you. That's our climate quiz. That's our membership drive quiz for today. Yay, we gave away a bunch of Brian Lehrer Show baseball caps. Tomorrow at this time we'll have a population quiz. We'll see if you know what the population is in different places and how it's been changing. Brian Lehrer on WNYC, much more to come.

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