Deck 1: Science and Sustainability: an Introduction to Environmental Science

Question 1

Which of the following best embodies the qualities of a scientific theory?

A) All gases, liquids, and solids consist of atoms.
B) Students who study for their environmental science exams will perform better on those exams than those who do not.
C) Prairies that have larges herds of bison show greater plant diversity than prairies without bison.
D) Squirrels in central Illinois prefer to build their nests in oak trees instead of hickory trees.
E) Dangerous wildfires in California could be avoided by better fire prevention strategies.

Answer 1

All gases, liquids, and solids consist of atoms.

Question 2

Match the following:
The variable that is manipulated

A)social science
B)prediction
C)interdisciplinary science
D)theory
E)dependent variable
F)qualitative data

Answer 2

dependent variable

Question 3

Use the figure above to answer the following question
The worldʹs average footprint per person is about 2.7 hectares per person. At that size, we are depleting our renewable resources 30% faster than they can replenish. The U.S. average footprint is 9.4 hectares, which is times larger than the average world footprint.

A) 5
B) 3.5
C) 2.5
D) 2
E) 6.7

Answer 3

3.5

Question 4

Use the figure above to answer the following question
The average footprint per person has increased from 2.2 to 2.7 since 2008, and the footprints of many developing nations, such as India and China, have also increased. This means that .

A) our collective lifestyle is slightly more sustainable than before
B) the populations of both India and China have decreased since 2008
C) some nations no longer have a measurable footprint
D) our collective lifestyle is even more unsustainable than before
E) the ability of the planet to sustain human beings has increased

Question 5

Which of the following terms best describes the practice of environmental science?

A) Integrative and interdisciplinary
B) Elitist and unnecessary
C) Abstract and theoretical
D) Theoretical and controversial
E) Highly specialized and focused

Question 6

Solutions to environmental problems ______________

A) must be designed with sustainable goals
B) must be on a local scale
C) can be implemented only by scientists
D) are best designed and discussed in the political arena
E) must be short term

Question 7

______________ gives inherent value to certain living things or to the biotic (living) realm of the earth in general; both human and nonhuman lives have ethical standing.

A) Ecocentrism
B) Relativism
C) Biocentrism
D) Realism
E) Anthropocentrism

Question 8

Choose the item that best matches each item of the following:
A scientific field of study

A)paradigm
B)quantitative data
C)hypothesis
D)ecology
E)independent variable
F)environmentalism

Question 9

Match the following:
Type of discipline describing environmental science

A)social science
B)prediction
C)interdisciplinary science
D)theory
E)dependent variable
F)qualitative data

Question 10

Use the figure above to answer the following question
Nearly 50% of the land on our planet is currently used for agriculture. If everyone on the planet had an ecological footprint the size of the average citizen of the United States, then .

A) we would need at least two more planet Earths to feed and support everyone
B) we would have 50% more food to go around
C) about 50% of the people would starve
D) we would be able to provide for everyone without much difficulty by using the other 50% of the land currently not being used
E) we could support 50% more people on our planet

Question 11

Global population is projected to be about ______________ in 2050.

A) 11 billion
B) 7 billion
C) 8 billion
D) 10 billion
E) 9 billion

Question 12

Nonrenewable natural resources include ______________

A) coal
B) crude oil
C) minerals
D) wind
E) A, B, and C

Question 13

Match the following:
Widely accepted, well-tested explanation of one or more cause-and-effect relationships

A)social science
B)prediction
C)interdisciplinary science
D)theory
E)dependent variable
F)qualitative data

Question 14

Match the following:
Expectations of experimental outcome

A)social science
B)prediction
C)interdisciplinary science
D)theory
E)dependent variable
F)qualitative data

Question 15

Use the figure above to answer the following question
How many citizens of Mexico does it take to equal the ecological footprint of the average citizen of the United States?

A) It takes about 12 Mexican citizens to equal the ecological footprint of the average U.S. citizen.
B) Two citizens of Mexico equal the ecological footprint of one average citizen of the United States.
C) It takes just over eight Mexican citizens to equal the ecological footprint of the average U.S. citizen.
D) They are essentially equal.
E) It takes nearly three Mexican citizens to equal the ecological footprint of the average U.S. citizen.

Question 16

To determine your specific impacts on the environment, you can ______________

A) calculate your ecological footprint
B) calculate the biodiversity of your local community
C) measure the volume and type of all the wastes you contribute to the municipal waste stream
D) measure local air pollution and its impacts on your health
E) determine your current water pollution impact

Question 17

Choose the item that best matches each item of the following:
Information expressed with numbers

A)paradigm
B)quantitative data
C)hypothesis
D)ecology
E)independent variable
F)environmentalism

Question 18

By studying ancient civilizations, such as the Greek and Roman empires and the Angkor civilization of Southeast Asia, historians have concluded that these civilizations declined partly because of ______________

A) sustainable practices
B) overabundance of resources
C) fires
D) environmental degradation due to unsustainable use of resources
E) floods

Question 19

A paradigm ______________

A) is a means of evaluating scientific hypotheses
B) is a dominant world view in science
C) is a group of several hypotheses that can be tested together
D) can only come from qualitative data
E) is synonymous with the scientific method

Question 20

Advances in agriculture ______________

A) do not rely on ecosystem services
B) did not increase the amount of food per person from a global perspective
C) are always sustainable, since they are based on natural ecosystems
D) have often resulted in alteration and destruction of natural systems
E) have resulted in a smaller global population

Question 21

Ruben has a new puppy and wants to feed it the best possible food. He decides on an experiment where he will feed it the very best canned food plus a dietary supplement of vitamins recommended by a veterinarian. Which of the following best describes Rubenʹs project?

A) Ruben needs to use his motherʹs 6-year-old chocolate shar-pei to feed a standard diet so he can compare his puppy with a control dog.
B) Ruben needs to control for the amount of exercise, sunshine, water, and care that the puppy gets each week, so that they are equal from week to week.
C) Ruben needs to take careful measurements of the puppyʹs weight and height at least once a week for it to be a good experiment.
D) This is not an experimentthere are no controls or replicates.
E) This is an example of an excellent, controlled experiment as it is written.

Question 22

You have read about the mistakes made on Easter Island. On Tikopia, another small island, the people acted in other ways. When they realized that the pigs they had imported were damaging the environment, they killed them all. They had to have permission from a chief to fish, which prevented overfishing. They practiced contraception. These all indicate that ______________

A) they believed in full resource utilization
B) they felt that everything was a nonrenewable resource
C) they felt that everything was a renewable resource
D) they truly practiced sustainability
E) they were concerned with only one year at a time

Question 23

The best description of a sustainable system component is ______________

A) one which is in balance with the system as a whole
B) one in which all species have rapidly increasing populations
C) a component that requires increasing amounts of materials from surrounding components
D) one which can appropriate increasing amounts of energy from other components
E) a component that does not need to interact with other components

Question 24

The process by which several researchers review another researcherʹs manuscript prior to publication to ensure research quality is referred to as ______________

A) peer review
B) investigative inquiry
C) critical analysis
D) quality control
E) hypothesis testing

Question 25

A(n) ______________ is best defined as one who considers the impacts on the whole ecosystem, both the living and non-living, when considering an action.

A) relativist
B) biocentrist
C) anthropocentrist
D) ethnocentrist
E) ecocentrist

Question 26

The scientific process and knowledge is based on ______________

A) a systematic process of learning about and testing our understanding of the world
B) observation alone
C) the fact that all hypotheses can be proven true
D) guesses based our personal feelings about the subject under inquiry
E) quantitative data alone

Question 27

An experiment ______________

A) does not need to be repeated if well designed
B) is designed to generate new scientific hypothesis
C) involves only collection of quantitative data
D) often involves manipulating as many variables as possible
E) is an activity designed to test the validity of a hypothesis

Question 28

In general, natural resources ______________

A) should not be used
B) are evenly divided among all countries
C) should be used efficiently and conserved
D) should be used by everyone equally
E) belong only to those on whose property they exist

Question 29

John Muir, a great American environmentalist, felt that ______________

A) wilderness was essentially worthless and should not be preserved
B) pristine wilderness should be preserved because ʺWe need beauty as well as breadʺ
C) national parks violated the principles of environmental justice
D) the only true value of wilderness was its ability to provide national economic growth
E) resources should be exploited wherever they were found to the greatest economic benefit

Question 30

Today, in 2015, the human population totals about ______________

A) 2% less that it did in 2010
B) the same as for the past six years, 5.35 billion
C) 10 billion
D) 7 billion
E) 9 billion

Question 31

Sachiko and Fred are having a discussion about the scientific method. Sachiko makes the comment that every time she sees people carrying open umbrellas, she also sees several small car accidents. This is a(n) ______________

A) theory about umbrellas
B) theory about car accidents
C) scientific study
D) hypothesis
E) observation

Question 32

Geothermal energy, wind and solar radiation are all examples of ______________

A) biodegradable materials
B) renewable natural resources
C) biodiversity
D) non-renewable natural resources
E) biotic environmental factors

Question 33

In a manipulative experiment ______________

A) researchers manipulate as many variables as possible
B) replication of the experiment is not necessary
C) the peer review process is bypassed
D) the motive is economic gain
E) researchers manipulate the independent variable

Question 34

Scientific inquiry is based on ______________

A) the production of technological advances
B) an expanding knowledge based on observation, questioning, testing and discovery
C) making huge leaps of knowledge with scientific insights
D) facts that can be proven true without experimental manipulation
E) designing experiments that have never been done before

Question 35

A hypothesis is ______________

A) a testable proposition that explains an observed phenomenon or answers a question
B) an instrument that is used to examine environmental conditions
C) a proven scientific fact
D) a prediction about something that has not yet been observed
E) the design of an experiment that can be used in scientific inquiry

Question 36

Sustainable development ______________

A) is possible given our increased use of fertilizers and technology for agriculture
B) means consuming resources without compromising future availability
C) is beyond our current technology and attitudes
D) is impossible to accomplish
E) ensures an economy that will decline over time

Question 37

The Endangered Species Act, passed by Congress nearly four decades ago, has spawned a continuous series of debates between those who feel the ethical necessity to protect species at the brink of extinction and others who feel that if we have to protect every habitat of every species at risk, then there will be a loss of jobs and a blow to an already shaky economy. This boils down to a conflict between ______________

A) relativists and environmental justice advocates
B) social scientists and conservationists
C) anthropocentrists and ecocentrists
D) universalists and ecofeminists
E) economists and environmental scientists

Question 38

Ecosystem services ______________

A) contribute to keeping ecosystems productive
B) are economically valuable services provided by natural systems
C) are not necessary to sustainable systems
D) are required to rebalance natural systems that we have disturbed
E) are valuable to natural systems but not to human-created systems

Question 39

Ethicists who believe that the guidelines for making environmental decisions are context-specific, depending on the cultures, social issues and other factors framing the decision are ______________

A) conservationists
B) following Leopoldʹs land ethic
C) relativists
D) preservationists
E) universalists

Question 40

Environmental problems whose dimensions include differential exposure to risk from toxic wastes and air pollution or lack of access to the natural beauty of parks based on ethnicity or race are issues of ______________

A) paradigm shifts
B) environmental justice
C) ecocentrism
D) anthropocentrism
E) moral relativism

Question 41

Name two transformative events of the past 10,000 years that caused human population size to increase. Describe each, briefly explaining the contributions that each made to human population growth. Include pros and cons of each.

Question 42

Differentiate between environmental science and environmentalism. Define each term and explain how they are similar and how they differ.

Question 43

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
Pablo and Johanna have to do a yearlong study for their biology course. After some discussion, they decide to try comparing their dogs and the diet that they feed them. Each has a dog from the pound, and both dogs are less than one year old. Pablo feeds his shepherd-mix dog a special diet of wet and dry foods from the local vet, while Johanna uses generic dry kibble from the supermarket for her bulldog. They want to see which diet results in bigger, healthier, faster -growing dogs.
The reason the instructor gives them will include the fact that they have too many ______________

A) dependent variables and not enough independent variables
B) replicates and not enough variables
C) variables that they didnʹt control and not enough replicates
D) independent variables and not enough dependent variables
E) controlled variables and not enough uncontrolled variables

Question 44

In a controlled experiment, ______________

A) you need only a single experimental organism which is tested again and again
B) the researcher has several hypotheses, one of which will be proven correct
C) the researcher knows the outcome before beginning the experiment
D) the researcher controls for the effects of all variables except one
E) the experimental organisms have all been used before and given good results

Question 45

A pharmaceutical company wishes to study a possible new headache medicine. They are doing human trials with 1000 volunteers and need to ______________

A) give both control and experimental groups the same amount of the new medication
B) have 10 volunteers in the control group
C) control for the type of headachestress, migraine, or other causes
D) put all women in the control group and all men in the experimental group
E) divide the groups by level of health

Question 46

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
After meeting with their instructor, Pablo and Johanna know that they need to change their experimental design. They contact a local puppy farm and arrange to do their study with 3-month-old litters of pups from four Irish setters, a total of 24 puppies, consisting of 12 females and 12 males.
Pablo and Johanna should probably run the experiment ______________

A) for several months, weighing and measuring the pups twice every day
B) for at least 3 years, weighing and measuring the pups every week
C) for one month, weighing and measuring the pups before and after
D) for several months, weighing and measuring the pups before and after
E) for several months, weighing and measuring the pups every week

Question 47

Qualitative data ______________

A) can be acquired in the detailed examination of personal interviews or observations
B) have variables that may not have been properly manipulated
C) are data that are expressed as numbers and tested using statistics
D) cannot be replicated
E) cannot be used to support or disprove hypotheses

Question 48

Use the assessment tool at www.ecologicalfootprint.com to calculate your ecological footprint. Once you determine the factors that evaluate your use of water, energy, waste disposal, transportation and food consumption, use the results of your specific ecological footprint to determine 3 specific actions which you can take to reduce the size of your ecological footprint. Make sure that your specific actions each fit into a different category (water, energy, waste, transportation, and food). Summarize your assessment.

Question 49

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
Pablo and Johanna have to do a yearlong study for their biology course. After some discussion, they decide to try comparing their dogs and the diet that they feed them. Each has a dog from the pound, and both dogs are less than one year old. Pablo feeds his shepherd-mix dog a special diet of wet and dry foods from the local vet, while Johanna uses generic dry kibble from the supermarket for her bulldog. They want to see which diet results in bigger, healthier, faster -growing dogs.
When they write up their initial proposal, the instructor will probably ______________

A) give them an F and tell them to start over  it would take many years to do such a study
B) tell them that they need at least 100 dogs to do the study
C) give them an A for thoroughness and allow them to proceed with the experiment
D) tell them that the proposal is impossible and that such a study cannot be done at all
E) tell them they have some serious problems with the proposal, but it is possible to fix

Question 50

Who is credited for articulating the conservation ethic and for founding the U.S. Forest Service?

A) John Muir
B) Aldo Leopold
C) Theodore Roosevelt
D) Gifford Pinchot
E) Ralph Waldo Emerson

Question 51

A studyʹs results are deemed worthy of acceptance into the body of scientific knowledge if they are published in journals which ______________

A) charge a high fee for acceptance
B) are funded by corporations funding the research
C) use the peer review process
D) meet guidelines advocated by environmentalists or consumer groups
E) conform to current political and religious views

Question 52

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
Pablo and Johanna have to do a yearlong study for their biology course. After some discussion, they decide to try comparing their dogs and the diet that they feed them. Each has a dog from the pound, and both dogs are less than one year old. Pablo feeds his shepherd-mix dog a special diet of wet and dry foods from the local vet, while Johanna uses generic dry kibble from the supermarket for her bulldog. They want to see which diet results in bigger, healthier, faster -growing dogs.
The independent variable in this study will be ______________

A) the breed of the dogs
B) the sex of the dogs
C) the age of the dogs
D) how much the dogs grow
E) the type of food the dogs receive

Question 53

Compare and contrast the philosophies of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.

Question 54

What qualities would be present in a sustainable enterprise?

Question 55

Why is it important to understand our interactions with the environment? What will studying environmental science enable you to do?

Question 56

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
Pablo and Johanna have to do a yearlong study for their biology course. After some discussion, they decide to try comparing their dogs and the diet that they feed them. Each has a dog from the pound, and both dogs are less than one year old. Pablo feeds his shepherd-mix dog a special diet of wet and dry foods from the local vet, while Johanna uses generic dry kibble from the supermarket for her bulldog. They want to see which diet results in bigger, healthier, faster -growing dogs.
According to the information given, one dependent variable in this study will be ______________

A) the breed of the dogs
B) the sex of the dogs
C) the age of the dogs
D) the type of food the dogs receive
E) how much the dogs grow

Question 57

Compare and contrast the types of knowledge gained and the research methods of natural and social sciences when considering environmental problems. Why do both types of disciplines need to be a part of environmental science?

Question 58

Several states in the United States and Mexico remove water from the Colorado River for a variety of purposes. Every year, California has typically removed more than its fair share of water as mandated by the Colorado River Compact of 1922. How is this action a ʺtragedy of the commonsʺ?

Question 59

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
After meeting with their instructor, Pablo and Johanna know that they need to change their experimental design. They contact a local puppy farm and arrange to do their study with 3-month-old litters of pups from four Irish setters, a total of 24 puppies, consisting of 12 females and 12 males.
In order to have two sets of puppies, one set to be the control group and one set to be the experimental group, Pablo and Johanna should ______________

A) put the 12 females in one group and the 12 males in the other group
B) flip a coin for each dog to see which group it will be in
C) put six males and six females in each group, with some from each litter in each group
D) put all the puppies from two of the litters in one group and all of the puppies from the other two litters in the other group
E) randomly choose one dog for the control group and use the other 23 in the experimental group

Question 60

Discuss the differences between a manipulative and a natural experiment.

Question 61

Read the following scenario and answer the question below.
After meeting with their instructor, Pablo and Johanna know that they need to change their experimental design. They contact a local puppy farm and arrange to do their study with 3-month-old litters of pups from four Irish setters, a total of 24 puppies, consisting of 12 females and 12 males.
If the puppies in the experimental group gain, on average, 3 pounds more than those in the control group over a 4-month period and seem healthier and more energetic, then ______________

A) there is a probability that the kibble is better for puppies
B) there is a probability that the veterinary diet is better than kibble for puppies
C) they have proven the veterinary diet is best for all dogs
D) there is a probability that the veterinary diet is better than kibble for all dogs
E) they have proven that the kibble diet is best for female dogs