Deck 11: Population and the Environment

Question 1

The concept of purchasing power parity is captured by the:

A) Big Mac Index BMI)
B) Gross national income GNI)
C) Gross national product GDP)
D) Per capita income PCI)

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is LEAST likely to promote economic development?

A) Reducing demographic overhead
B) Increasing the official poverty level
C) Reducing "organizational inefficiencies"
D) Increasing the percentage of women in the paid labor force

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Current estimates suggest that the maximum number of people who could be fed at the current American diet on a sustainable basis is:

A) Less than 7 billion
B) 8-11 billion
C) 20-25 billion
D) there is no limit

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following countries is the second biggest contributor of carbon dioxide emissions in the world?

A) China
B) India
C) Russia
D) United States

Question 5

The idea that human population is the "ultimate resource" is most closely associated with:

A) Ester Boserup
B) Paul Ehrlich
C) Karl Marx
D) Julian Simon

Question 6

Which of the following was not fully addressed in the Brundtland Commission's report on sustainable development?

A) Alleviation of poverty
B) Population growth
C) Environmental degradation
D) Economic growth

Question 7

Ester Boserup is famous for her idea that:

A) Population growth is an impediment to economic development
B) Population growth can trigger economic development
C) Population growth is not related to economic development
D) Population growth promotes degradation of the environment

Question 8

Which of the following may be the most limiting with respect to sustainable food production for a growing population?

A) Availability of fertilizers
B) Availability of fresh water
C) Availability of arable land
D) Availability of genetically modified foods

Question 9

Which of the following represents the study that concluded that the optimum population for the world may have been achieved in the 1970s?

A) The ecological footprint study
B) The limits to growth study
C) The tragedy of the commons analysis
D) The global overshoot analysis

Question 10

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that there are currently about ____ people in the world with less than an adequate amount of food.

A) 10 million
B) 200 million
C) 750 million
D) 1 billion

Question 11

Which of the following countries has the second largest economy in the world?

A) China
B) India
C) Japan
D) United States

Question 12

Intensification of agriculture involves:

A) Putting more acres under production
B) Planting more crops in rain-fed areas of the world
C) Increased yield per acre
D) Putting more people to work on the land

Question 13

History suggests that which of the following is the more common demographic response to resource over-utilization at the local level?

A) An increase in fertility
B) An drop in fertility
C) Out-migration
D) In-migration

Question 14

Which of the following is NOT an ingredient in Ehrlich's Impact equation?

A) Technology
B) Culture
C) Affluence
D) Population

Question 15

If the ecological footprint calculations for the world are correct, then the conclusion would be:

A) We have achieved a level of sustainability with respect to resources and population
B) We have about a half century before we will have exceeded our global carrying capacity
C) We are on the verge of exceeding our global carrying capacity
D) We are already in a situation of overshoot

Question 16

Which of the following is typically NOT part of the Green Revolution:

A) Improved food distribution system
B) Increased use of irrigation
C) Increased use of fertilizer
D) Increased use of genetically modified seeds

Question 17

Economic development refers to:

A) An increasing economic output
B) Development of land for industrial purposes
C) Growth in average income
D) All of the above

Question 18

Which of the following is a perspective NOT usually associated with the relationship between population and economic development?

A) Boomster
B) Cornucopian
C) Doomster
D) Neo-classical

Question 19

Which of the following countries has the highest per person income among this group of four countries?

A) China
B) India
C) Mexico
D) Yemen

Question 20

Which of the following countries generates the greatest amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the process of creating goods sold in the United States?

A) Mexico
B) China
C) India
D) Germany

Question 21

Increasing the yield per acre comes about through an intensification of agriculture.

Question 22

The wealth of a nation can be described as the sum of its natural and human resources.

Question 23

One way to view the Agricultural Revolution is to think of it as a response to the "resource crisis" created by hunter-gatherer populations outstripping the available food supply.

Question 24

The available evidence suggests that sustainable development is possible if we eliminate poverty from the world.

Question 25

Population growth clearly increases the probability of producing the genius who will solve the world's problems.

Question 26

The statistical relationship between population growth and per person income at the national level is actually quite weak.

Question 27

Because of its natural resources, Canada has a higher ecological footprint than the U.S.

Question 28

The historical evidence shows clearly that population growth is inevitably an impediment to economic development.

Question 29

The single most important aspect of the Green Revolution is improved irrigation.

Question 30

On a per-person basis, the inputs to agriculture peaked in the 1990s and have declined since then.