Deck 1: Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability

Question 1

The U.N.Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reports that human activities have degraded what percentage of the earth's natural services, mostly in the last 50 years.

A)20
B)40
C)60
D)80
E)95

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Using normally renewable resources faster than nature can renew them is called

A)nutrient cycling
B)nutrient deficit
C)sustainability
D)trade-offs
E)degrading natural capital

Answer 2

E

Question 3

What is the primary difference between renewable resources and nonrenewable resources?

A)how easily they are discovered
B)the amount of the resource
C)the length of time it takes for them to be replenished
D)how fast they are being used up
E)none of these

Answer 3

C

Question 4

An average ecological footprint of an individual in a given country or area is called

A)per capita gross GNP
B)ecological footprint
C)per capita GDP
D)sustainable yield
E)per capita ecological footprint

Question 5

Which of the following would not be considered a nonrenewable resource?

A)copper
B)oil
C)fresh air
D)salt
E)sand

Question 6

Solar energy is known as

A)renewable resource
B)recyclable resource
C)perpetual resource
D)reusable resource
E)nonrenewable resource

Question 7

Which of the following is not a renewable resource?

A)groundwater
B)trees in a forest
C)fertile soil
D)oil
E)crops

Question 8

The annual market value of all goods and services produced by all businesses, foreign and domestic, operating within a country is called:

A)per capita GNP
B)GNP
C)per capita GDP
D)PPP
E)GDP

Question 9

Scientists estimate we could recycle and reuse what percentage of the resources we now use?

A)50-60%
B)60-70%
C)70-80%
D)80-90%
E)90-100%

Question 10

The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used indefinitely without reducing its available supply is called

A)conservation
B)sustainable yield
C)preservation
D)perpetual resource
E)degradation

Question 11

The changes in a country's economic growth per person is measured by the

A)per capita GDP
B)per capita GNP
C)per capita
D)per capita GPP
E)PPP

Question 12

Which of the following is not a solution suggested by the author to the problem of the degradation of a shared common resource?

A)Remove it from use by anyone.
B)Convert it to private ownership.
C)Use it as a rate well below estimated sustainable yields.
D)Regulate access to the resource.
E)All of these.

Question 13

Natural capital includes all of the following except

A)solar energy
B)air
C)water
D)soil
E)nutrients

Question 14

Which of the following is not one of the types of property or resource rights?

A)private property
B)unusable property
C)open access renewable
D)common property
E)all of these are types of property rights

Question 15

Which of the following is an example of reuse?

A)re-melting aluminum cans
B)making compost out of kitchen scraps
C)using plastic butter tubs to store leftovers
D)using waste heat to warm a room
E)making paper goods from previously used paper

Question 16

A key component of environmental science is

A)botany
B)political science
C)sociology
D)ecology
E)psychology

Question 17

Which of the following generalizations about developing countries is true?

A)They make up about one-tenth of the world's population.
B)They have high average per capita GNP.
C)They include Canada, Japan, and Australia.
D)They use about 12% of the world's resources.
E)They are highly industrialized.

Question 18

Use of a natural resource based on sustainable yields applies to

A)nonrenewable resources
B)renewable resources
C)perpetual resources
D)amenity resources
E)recycling

Question 19

All non-renewable resources can theoretically be

A)converted to nonmetallic minerals
B)converted to renewable ones
C)exhausted or depleted
D)recycled or reused
E)alive

Question 20

More-developed countries, including the US, Japan, and most European countries have __________ % of the world's population and use about __________% of all the world's resources.

A)75, 25
B)30, 70
C)5, 25
D)20, 88
E)33, 68

Question 21

Pollution includes

A)detergents dumped into streams
B)volcanoes spewing toxic gases into the atmosphere
C)CO2 releases from coal burning power plants
D)fertilizer runoff from golf courses
E)all of these

Question 22

The real prices of goods and services do not include

A)the cost of raw materials
B)the cost of manufacturing
C)the environmental costs of resource use
D)the cost of distribution
E)the cost of advertising

Question 23

In 2008, the World Wildlife Fund estimated that humanity's global ecological footprint exceeded the earth's biological capacity by how much?

A)30%
B)12%
C)20%
D)45%
E)80%

Question 24

According to the author, three of the following are major cultural changes (revolutions) that have occurred in human history, and one is not.Choose the one that is not.

A)Information-Globalization
B)Transportation
C)Industrial-Medical
D)Agricultural
E)none of these

Question 25

Which of the following is not normally an effect of poverty?

A)premature death from normally nonfatal diarrhea
B)lack of clean drinking water
C)severe respiratory illness from openly burning wood indoors
D)diseases from poor sanitation
E)heart disease and diabetes from obesity

Question 26

Scientists have identified several problems with relying primarily on pollution cleanup.Which of the following is not one of those problems?

A)It is only a temporary bandage as long as the situation remains the same.
B)Elimination of pollution at the time of production is expensive.
C)It often simply moves the pollutant from one place to another.
D)Once pollutants are released it is too expensive to remove them.
E)All of these are identified problems.

Question 27

Which of the following is one of the root causes of environmental problems?

A)rapid population growth
B)even distribution of wealth
C)increasingly sustainable use of resources
D)prices reflecting environmental costs
E)using nonrenewable resources sensibly

Question 28

Research by social scientists suggests that it takes ____ percent of the population of a community, country, or the world to bring about major social change.

A)1─2
B)5─10
C)15─20
D)25─35
E)50─60

Question 29

Pollutants can have which of the following unwanted effects?

A)degrade life-support systems for humans
B)damage wildlife
C)lower human health
D)unpleasant smells, sights, tastes
E)all of these

Question 30

The idea that we should be responsible, caring managers of the earth is

A)the planetary management worldview
B)the stewardship worldview
C)the environmental wisdom worldview
D)the environmental justice movement
E)all of these

Question 31

Which of the following would not be a type of nondegradable pollutant?

A)lead
B)arsenic
C)toxic chemicals
D)mercury
E)human sewage

Question 32

The harmful effects of poverty are serious but those of affluence are ____.

A)a lot less serious
B)a little less serious
C)about the same
D)a little more serious
E)a lot more serious

Question 33

The set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be is called

A)environmental worldview
B)environmental justice
C)environmental ethics
D)environmental economics
E)environmental capital

Question 34

Which of the following would be representative of an environmental wisdom worldview?

A)Continuous rapid economic growth improves environmental conditions.
B)Learning how life sustains itself and do the same
C)More money should be directed to research for controlling the environment.
D)Human beings are the most important life forms on earth.
E)There is always more.

Question 35

The per capita ecological footprint of U.S.citizen is about ____ times as much as an average citizen of China.

A)2.1
B)4.5
C)6
D)10
E)30

Question 36

If everyone on earth consumed at the same current level as the average U.S.citizens, we would need

A)30% more resources
B)75% more resources
C)100% more resources
D)two more earths
E)five more earths

Question 37

Nonpoint sources of pollution include all of the following except

A)wind carrying dirt and pesticides from croplands
B)runoff from a stockyard
C)a smokestack from a power plant
D)fertilizer runoff from lawns
E)runoff from cropland

Question 38

At our current average rate of use per person, we will need the equivalent of how many earth's to provide an endless supply of renewable resources.

A)0.88
B)0.91
C)1.15
D)1.3
E)2.1

Question 39

According to data available in 2003, the average US citizen has an ecological footprint that is how many times that of the average citizen of the low-income countries?

A)13
B)12
C)11
D)10
E)4.5

Question 40

Subsidies and tax breaks to companies are

A)helpful to the environment
B)not helpful to the economy
C)not helpful to the company
D)not helpful to the environment
E)none of these

Question 41

If everyone on earth consumed at the rate of an average U.S.citizen, the earth could only support about 5 billion of the 6.9 billion now alive.

Question 42

Environmental science is a branch of environmentalism and has the aim of protecting the earth's life-support systems.

Question 43

Pollution cleanup is usually the best way of dealing with the release of a pollutant.

Question 44

Pollutants are all human-made; they can not enter the environment naturally.

Question 45

The amount of biologically productive land and water required to supply the people in a country with renewable resources and recycling wastes and pollution is the ecological footprint.

Question 46

An irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system is called a(n)

A)ecological tipping point
B)overuse of resources
C)failure to recycle
D)renewable natural capital
E)ecological footprint

Question 47

More than 1.4 billion people in today's world struggle to live on an income of $1.25 or less per day.

Question 48

While heavily dependent on the environment, we are not dependent for everything we need to stay alive and healthy.

Question 49

An environmental problem that is not addressed can continue to grow until it reaches an often irreversible tippling point.

Question 50

The Tragedy of the Commons refers to a lack of agricultural resources available for the common (poor) people in a country.

Question 51

A drainpipe of a factory that is releasing a pollutant, is an example of nonpoint source of pollution.

Question 52

The three overarching themes relating to the long-term sustainability of life on this planet are: solar energy, biodiversity, and energy cycling.

Question 53

Natural capital includes both natural resources and natural services.

Question 54

A basic cause of environmental problems results from the fact that companies using resources have to pay for the cost of the harmful environmental costs of supplying their products.

Question 55

The harmful environmental effects of poverty are much worse than those of affluence.

Question 56

In environmental science, individuals tend to matter less because the issues are global in nature.

Question 57

Species are becoming extinct at least 100 times faster than they were in pre-human times.

Question 58

Overall, the air quality is poorer and drinking water more polluted today than in the 1970s.

Question 59

Take away solar energy and all natural capital would collapse.

Question 60

Natural services are functions of nature, such as purification of air and water, which support life and human economies.

Question 61

IPAT is a simple way of looking at how three factors influence the impact humans have on the environment. The formula is Impact = Population (P) x __________ x Technology (T).

Question 62

The old lesson that you should "protect your capital and live on the income it provides" applies to the use of the earth's natural capital as well as financial resources.

Question 63

Old drink bottles that are collected, washed, and refilled are an example of ____________________.

Question 64

Your ____________ ____________ is a set of assumptions and values reflecting how you think the world works and what you think your role in the world should be.

Question 65

An often irreversible shift in the behavior of a natural system is caused when an environmental problem builds slowly until it reaches an __________ __________ __________.

Question 66

Our lives and economies depend on energy from ____________________ and natural resources and natural services provided by the earth.

Question 67

Environmental degradation, also known as __________ __________ __________ is the process of wasting, depleting, and degrading the earth's natural capital at an accelerating rate.

Question 68

One way of dealing with pollution is to clean up pollutants after we have produced them, which is called __________ __________ __________.

Question 69

Fish, fresh air, forests, and fertile soil are examples of ____________________.

Question 70

____________________ is the world's leading consumer of wheat, rice, meat, coal, fertilizers, steel, and cement.

Question 71

____________________ is the amount of biologically productive land and water needed to supply the people in a particular country or area with an indefinite supply of renewable resources and to absorb and recycle the wastes and pollution produced by such resource use.

Question 72

A resource such as solar energy, that is constantly available, is called a(n) ____________________.

Question 73

Approximately one-third of all land in the US is jointly owned by all US citizens and managed for them by the government. This type of property is called ____________________ and is often degraded.

Question 74

The circulation of chemicals necessary for life, from the environment through organisms and back to the environment, is called ____________________.

Question 75

Changes in a country's economic growth per person are measured by ____________________.

Question 76

If everyone consumed as much as the average American does today, the earth could indefinitely support only about _______________ of the currently 6.9 billion people.

Question 77

The exhaust pipe of an automobile or the smokestack of a coal-burning powerplant are examples of ______________ sources.

Question 78

Some of the world's countries are called low-income, __________-__________ countries, and include Congo, Haiti, Nigeria, and Nicaragua.

Question 79

Natural Capital equals __________ __________ plus __________ __________.

Question 80

_______________ is the capacity of the earth's natural systems and human cultural systems to survive, flourish, and adapt to changing environmental conditions indefinitely.