Deck 13: ecological Economics and Consumption Wall to Wall, Cradle to Cradle

Question 1

An essential ecological process that makes life on Earth possible is called ______.

A)sustainable development
B)an ecosystem service
C)the circular system
D)an economic system
E)the triple-bottom line

Answer 1

an ecosystem service

Question 2

Why would nutrient cycling be considered such a valuable ecosystem service to humans?

Answer 2

The Earth has only a limited supply of nutrients,such as carbon,phosphorus,nitrogen,and oxygen.If these nutrients are locked up in rocks,can't be obtained from the atmosphere,or are deep in the oceans,they are not available to us.All living organisms need these nutrients.Therefore,the cycling of these nutrients from atmosphere to lithosphere to hydrosphere,and,of course,to biosphere is essential to life on Earth.

Question 3

If everyone lived like the average person in the United States,we would need the landmass of ______ Earths to sustain everyone.

A)2
B)5
C)7
D)10
E)15

Answer 3

5

Question 4

Discuss how the ecosystem service of pollination benefits humans.

Question 5

Refer to Infographic 1.Why is it useful to put a monetary value on ecosystem services?

Question 6

A forest provides a(n)_________ in climate regulation and a(n)_______in plant-based pharmaceutical drugs.

A)ecological footprint; ecolabel
B)natural capital; natural interest
C)external cost; internal cost
D)triple-bottom line; economic system
E)ecosystem service; ecosystem good

Question 7

All of the following actions would threaten the Earth's ability to provide ecosystem goods and services EXCEPT __________.

A)recycling
B)deforestation
C)overfishing
D)soil erosion
E)littering

Question 8

What is the monetary value attributed to essential ecosystem services? Who calculated this value,and how can it be useful to place a monetary value on ecosystem services?

Question 9

Refer to Infographic 1.What is the approximate value of services that affect human provisions?

A)$136 billion
B)$502 billion
C)$673 billion
D)$ 809 billion
E)$1498 billion

Question 10

Refer to Infographic 1.Which of the following might be considered a "cultural use" of an ecosystem?

A)bees pollinating cherry trees
B)an open field and nearby forest used for a Civil War reenactment
C)carbon moving from a tree to a caterpillar to a bird to the soil
D)water percolating through soil in a wetland
E)rocks being weathered by the wind

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT an ecosystem service?

A)water purification
B)crop pollination
C)climate regulation
D)landfilling waste
E)pest control

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT an important reason to maintain an intact ecosystem?

A)An intact ecosystem provides numerous ecosystem services.
B)An intact ecosystem can renew and recycle resources.
C)If we use more resources and goods than the ecosystem can replenish,we will not be able to receive these goods and services.
D)Our future health and well-being will be threatened.
E)All of these choices are important reasons to maintain intact ecosystems.

Question 13

Refer to Infographic 1.Which ecosystem service is considered to be the most valuable to us?

A)water supply
B)habitat
C)recreation
D)food production
E)genetic resources

Question 14

A(n)________ for a country is the amount of land needed to provide its resources and assimilate its waste.

A)circular system
B)external cost
C)ecological footprint
D)ecolabel
E)ecosystem service

Question 15

The government must decide if a section of forest in north Wisconsin can be sold for lumber or if it should be added to the Nicolet National Forest.The social science that deals with how this resource should be allocated is called _______.

A)political science
B)economics
C)ecology
D)sociology

Question 16

Which of the following would NOT be considered an ecosystem service?

A)oxygen provided by green plants
B)timber from trees
C)pollination of crops
D)nitrogen cycling in soil
E)water purification

Question 17

Refer to Infographic 1.What does the figure show?

A)the cost to restore a degraded ecosystem for particular ecosystem services
B)the price of maintaining ecosystems such that they can continue to provide specific ecosystem services without degrading the environment
C)the monetary value ascribed to particular ecosystem services
D)the ecological footprint value of specific ecosystem services
E)the cost differential between natural capital and natural interest

Question 18

What is meant by the term "sustainable"?

A)capable of being continued indefinitely
B)consuming more than the environment is able to renew
C)not caring about resources future generations need
D)following the law in terms of the environment
E)making less expensive products for consumers

Question 19

While placing a monetary value on ecosystem services can help us to understand that ecosystems provide us with valuable services,critics say that it is dangerous to put a price on ecosystem services.What are the limitations of such valuation of ecosystems?

Question 20

Why is the production of some ecosystem services considered priceless?

A)No one can afford to do it.
B)No one knows what it costs.
C)There currently are no substitutes for these services.
D)The technology to do these things is very expensive.
E)They require large amounts of fossil fuels.

Question 21

Including both internal and external costs when setting a price for a good or service is an example of ______ cost.

A)overall
B)valuation
C)total
D)marginal
E)true

Question 22

The IPAT equation is used to estimate the size of a population's ecological footprint.Which of the following factors is NOT found in that equation?

A)productivity
B)affluence
C)technology
D)population
E)Technology and population are not found in the IPAT equation.

Question 23

What are the internal and external costs associated with producing paper?

Question 24

Which of the following choices is considered natural capital?

A)oxygen
B)water
C)trees
D)fish
E)All of these choices are considered natural capital.

Question 25

An assessment of the cost of a good or service that includes the environmental,social,and economic costs is called the __________.

A)internal analysis
B)external analysis
C)complete valuation
D)triple-bottom line
E)validation cost

Question 26

By ignoring the ________,economies create a false idea of the _______ of particular choices.

A)internal costs; external cost
B)true costs; external cost
C)external costs; true cost
D)true costs; circular system
E)internal costs; true cost

Question 27

Sustainable use of forests allows us to use the trees to produce goods without depleting them.The amount of net resources produced from the forest or any other form of natural capital is known as ____________.

A)an ecological footprint
B)internal cost
C)raw material
D)natural interest
E)true cost

Question 28

Of the next billion people added to Earth,over 99% will be born in less developed,poorer parts of the world.Is it fair to say that the overall impact of humans on the environment is mostly the fault of developing countries? Explain.

Question 29

If a forest produces 200 trees each year,which of the following is a sustainable action?

A)taking all 200 trees produced in the year
B)taking only 100 of the trees produced in that year
C)taking all 200 trees produced in that year,plus 50 mature trees
D)taking all the trees in the forest
E)Both answers A and B are sustainable

Question 30

Today,if we were to purchase a good or service at its true cost,how would the price compare to what we are accustomed to paying for the good or service?

A)The price would be lower.
B)The price would be higher.
C)The price would stay the same.
D)The price would decrease exponentially.
E)We cannot predict how the price would change.

Question 31

An example of natural capital is _________,and an example of a natural interest is ___________.

A)oxygen; new growth in a forest
B)trees; oceans
C)an increased fish population; new growth in a forest
D)wood; forests
E)forests; wetlands

Question 32

Compare and contrast technology as a variable that increases and decreases a population's overall impact.

Question 33

What three factors are multiplied in the IPAT model to gauge a population's ecological footprint?

A)predisposition,annual income,and taxation
B)population growth,agriculture,and textiles
C)perception,action,and time
D)population,affluence,and technology
E)people,animals,and technology

Question 34

The true cost of an item produced in a factory includes which of the following factors?

A)social costs
B)environmental costs
C)internal costs
D)external costs
E)It includes all of these factors.

Question 35

Which of the following is an example of an external cost?

A)a federal tax that is placed on a product sold by a business
B)a fee a company pays to have its product shipped internationally
C)health costs stemming from the hazardous wastes produced during the making of a product
D)the extra money a business pays to make its products or services sustainable
E)labor

Question 36

One of the limitations of mainstream economics is that it does not take into account ___________ costs when a price is assigned to a product or service.

A)safety
B)internal
C)external
D)marginal
E)fringe

Question 37

If a car company manufactures an electric car made of recycled and bio-based components and powers the car battery by leasing solar panels to its customers,then which of the following happens?

A)The car would not be considered a sustainable business.
B)The manufacturing system discounts the future value of the car.
C)I = (P $\times$ A)/T instead of I = P $\times$ A $\times$ T.
D)The process exclusively reflects a product-oriented economy.
E)The car cannot be given an ecolabel.

Question 38

Your company is in the process of developing an alternative to carpet tile.To make your product more desirable and profitable,what correct costs of manufacturing carpet tiles should your designers focus on and why?

Question 39

_________ costs include manufacturing costs,labor,taxes,utilities,insurance,and rent.

A)Internal
B)External
C)Safety
D)Potential
E)True

Question 40

Refer to Infographic 5.Why is it important to consider the cost to an ecosystem when purchasing a product as well as considering the price of the object or service?

Question 41

A cell phone company has a program which encourages consumers to turn in their old cell phones rather than throw them away when they are finished with them.This is an example of ___________.

A)cradle-to-cradle management
B)a service economy
C)a take-back program
D)ecolabeling
E)linear outputs

Question 42

The two schools of economic thought that consider the environment when making economic decisions are __________ and _____________.

A)deep ecology; Western
B)environmental; ecological
C)Western; environmental
D)deep ecology; environmental
E)Western; ecological

Question 43

Which statement is correct?

A)Traditional economics discounts short-term benefits and costs more than it does long-term ones.
B)Natural and human resources are infinite.
C)In a circular system,models of production follow a linear sequence.
D)Linear systems are sustainable in business and economic models.
E)Mainstream economics assumes that economic growth will increase forever.

Question 44

Ecosystem services would be discounted in the _________economic system.

A)environmental
B)ecological
C)triple-bottom line
D)mainstream
E)true cost accounting

Question 45

What is a circular system? How could an automatic car wash become more cyclical in a circular system?

Question 46

A linear economic model would include which of the following items?

A)recyclable products
B)crude oil as an energy source
C)cow manure
D)reclaimable waste
E)both recyclable products and cow manure

Question 47

A product system in which the product is folded back into the resource stream when the consumer is finished with it is a(n)_________.

A)open-loop system
B)circular system
C)linear system
D)one-way system
E)cradle-to-grave system

Question 48

It is predicted that there will soon be more cell phones in the world than people.Inside each phone is a metal called tantalum.This metal is mined from the Earth and is a nonrenewable resource.How could cell phone manufacturing become more cyclical in a circular system? What can consumers do to help?

Question 49

The company you are currently working for follows a linear (one-way)system.Explain why this system will eventually fail.

Question 50

Mainstream economics makes the inaccurate assumption that natural resources are _______ and that substitutes can be found if needed.

A)finite
B)unimportant
C)limited
D)infinite
E)fixed

Question 51

One area where traditional economics differs from environmental economics is that traditional economics tends to give more weight to _________ benefits and costs than it does to ________ benefits and costs.

A)long-term; short-term
B)short-term; long-term
C)long-term; middle-term
D)short-term; middle-term
E)middle-term; long-term

Question 52

What are assumptions of mainstream economics that fall short?

Question 53

An item most likely to be a part of a circular system would be _________.

A)a computer
B)coal
C)natural gas
D)an aluminum can

Question 54

A computer company leases rather than sells its computers to consumers for a monthly fee.The company maintains the computers and replaces them as needed.The old computers are either refurbished or recycled.What does this business model represent?

A)cradle-to-cradle management
B)a circular system
C)green business
D)a service-oriented economy
E)All of these answer choices are correct.

Question 55

What is cradle-to-cradle management?

A)accounting for part of the life of a product
B)considering how to produce a product and dispose of the product at the end of its life
C)a program to return a product to the producer when consumers are finished with it
D)considering the entire life cycle of a product from raw materials to final disposal or recycling
E)leasing a product to a consumer rather than selling it

Question 56

One major difference between mainstream and environmental economics is that mainstream economics assumes that waste can be disposed of in a(n)_______ system.

A)circular
B)open-loop
C)two-way
D)linear
E)bilinear

Question 57

Refer to Infographic 5.You can find a double cheeseburger on the "dollar menu" at many fast food chains.Refer to the infographic and describe how the true cost of that food product is not reflected by the sale price.

Question 58

Which of the following animals does NOT live sustainably with the environment?

A)sharks
B)ants
C)humans
D)birds
E)rabbits

Question 59

Refer to Infographic 6b.What does each figure represent?

A)a = true cost accounting; b = green business
B)a = mainstream economics; b = environmental economics
C)a = environmental economics; b = discounting future value
D)a = service-oriented economics; b = product-oriented economics
E)a = external cost accounting; b = internal cost accounting

Question 60

Which of the following would be part of an environmental economist's agenda?

A)to consider the long-term impact of our consumption choices on human society and the environment
B)to discount the future value of ecosystem goods and services
C)to price the product of a service such that costs associated with manufacturing,labor,and utilities are accounted for,but costs associated with pollution and resource depletion are not
D)to emphasize a linear,product-oriented economic system
E)to maximize the size of the ecological footprint associated with a product or service

Question 61

When Woodwinds takes back a product that needs to be repaired or refurbished,it is ___________.

A)discounting the future
B)recognizing that all resources are infinite or substitutable
C)operating in a cradle-to-cradle fashion
D)greenwashing their products

Question 62

How many billions of dollars per year would human provisions cost if we had to supply them?

A)$673
B)$809
C)$502
D)$136
E)$583

Question 63

What ecosystem regulation and support service provides the most in billions of dollars each year?

A)food production
B)recreation
C)genetic resources
D)air quality
E)habitat

Question 64

Science Literacy Refer to the graph below to answer the following questions.
According to the data in the graph,which country would be most affected by a severe drought?

A)Luxembourg
B)Australia
C)Canada
D)Kuwait
E)Oman

Question 65

You enjoy hiking and kayaking in national parks.What is the value yearly provided to you for this service?

A)$673
B)$463
C)$583
D)$63
E)$468

Question 66

Match each term in the left-hand column to the statement that it best exemplifies.

Question 67

Which category would be most affected by increasing the number of cars on the highways?

A)cultural benefits
B)ecosystem regulation and support
C)human provisions

Question 68

Which of these actions is an example of pursing a circular economic system rather than a linear one?

A)upgrading to energy efficient lighting
B)sending wood chip and sawdust waste to another user
C)using natural waxes and oils instead of varnishes and stains
D)installing solar panels to generate sustainable energy

Question 69

You want to buy a t-shirt labeled as "eco-friendly" from a business,but you cannot find any evidence of sustainable actions from the business.This may be ___________.

A)greenwashing
B)ecolabeling
C)fair trade
D)ecowashing
E)a share program

Question 70

By planting more trees than Woodwinds harvests,it is ___________.

A)increasing the natural capital of their main resource,"trees"
B)depending only on natural capital and leaving natural interest alone
C)using natural interest faster than it is replaced
D)harvesting natural capital and natural interest equally

Question 71

Harvesting wood sustainably will reduce air and water pollution,and as a result it will ___________.

A)reduce the internal costs of doing business
B)decrease the price of their furniture because the wood will be cheaper
C)internalize some of the negative external costs of making furniture
D)convert some of the company's internal costs to external costs

Question 72

Science Literacy Refer to the graph below to answer the following questions.
What is the correct order for countries from largest to smallest ecological footprint?

A)Australia > Kuwait > Oman > Singapore
B)Luxembourg > Qatar > United States > Australia
C)Australia > Qatar > Bahrain > Trinidad and Tobago
D)Singapore > Canada > United States > Luxembourg
E)Qatar > Kuwait > Oman > Bahrain

Question 73

Science Literacy Refer to the graph below to answer the following questions.
Based on this graph,what would you recommend as the best method for countries to reduce their ecological footprint?

A)designing compact development in cities to use land already developed instead of building new neighborhoods in the suburbs
B)converting more land to cropland instead of grazing pasture to feed more people in the population
C)moving from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewable energy sources for power
D)planting more trees after harvesting to use forests in a sustainable manner when producing forest products

Question 74

Which category would result in the greatest economic loss if those services were destroyed?

A)ecosystem regulation and support
B)human provisions
C)cultural benefits

Question 75

How can consumers influence businesses to be more environmentally sustainable?

A)buying any product from any business
B)buying more fair trade items to ensure methods support sustainable practices and social justice
C)buying any item with an ecolabel,regardless of any verification for the label
D)buying a product instead of renting or borrowing
E)purchasing more goods and services from businesses to increase the economy

Question 76

What is the correct order of ecosystem services from greatest to least in billions of dollars?

A)recreation > aesthetic,spiritual,educational value > food production > air quality
B)food production > habitat > recreation > genetic resources
C)habitat > recreation > air quality > aesthetic,spiritual,education value
D)genetic resources > recreation > soil formation and erosion control > water supply
E)air quality > water supply > pest control > recreation

Question 77

Science Literacy Refer to the graph below to answer the following questions.
Which country shows the largest use of forest products?

A)Canada
B)Australia
C)Singapore
D)Trinidad and Tobago
E)United States