Deck 22: Technology and the Global Environment

Question 1

Which of the following characterizes a risk society?

A) most people's engagement in risky behaviour
B) most young people's engagement in risky behaviour
C) the weighing of technological hazards against the benefits
D) the global danger posed by all technologies

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Shannon believes that all modern technological advances are harming the entire planet and she is starting a new Facebook group to organize resistance to them. What does Shannon feel that humans today live in?

A) a Frankenstein world
B) a technopoly
C) a multinational disaster zone
D) a risk society

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What effect did the invention of the steam engine and the internal combustion engine have during the Industrial Revolution?

A) They caused the growth of industry.
B) They were technological determinants of history.
C) They transformed society when the need arose.
D) They slowed the pace of reckless industrial growth.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Danger to society does not only result from technological accidents such as gas leaks and reactor explosions. According to Ulrich Beck, which of the following also poses major dangers?

A) environmental threats
B) biofood hazards
C) the second genesis
D) technopolies

Question 5

The province of Alberta collects more revenue from oil than it does from Alberta citizens. While this may appear beneficial, there are serious social and political ramifications. Which of the following would be a consequence of this arrangement?

A) The government is more inclined to measure oil production and accurately report oil royalties.
B) The government is more apt to regulate environmental standards.
C) The government is more prone to accommodating the needs of the petroleum sector.
D) The public is more likely to scrutinize how the government is spending the oil royalties revenue.

Question 6

David is excited because he has suddenly realized the potential of science to create a better life for people all over the world. What is David excited about?

A) biodiversity
B) evolution
C) technology
D) social constructionism

Question 7

What was the Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev a firm believer in?

A) human improvements
B) biotechnology
C) technological determinism
D) biodiversity

Question 8

Which scientist is regarded as the father of the atomic bomb?

A) R.J. Collingwood
B) Leslie Groves
C) Nikolai Kondratiev
D) Robert Oppenheimer

Question 9

According to the textbook, when did many people become alerted to the fact that technological advances may not always be beneficial?

A) when hydroelectric power began to cause mass pollution
B) when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945
C) when the environmental movement broadened to the mass pubic
D) when global warming became a well-known issue worldwide

Question 10

While somewhat upset about the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska, Miriam realizes that this event is sometimes just the cost of progress. Based on this information, how does Miriam most likely feel about the less positive outcomes that accompany technological advances?

A) That they are normal accidents.
B) That they are the risks of genius.
C) That they are acceptable perils.
D) That they are a modern menace.

Question 11

In the ongoing debates surrounding climate change and global warming, which of the following groups is LEAST likely to be identified as having an interest in overemphasizing the need for global action on climate change?

A) the media
B) fossil fuel industries
C) academic climate change researchers
D) island nations that are experiencing rising sea levels

Question 12

According to the textbook, when was the steam engine first invented?

A) between 10 and 70 CE
B) between 800 and 900 CE
C) between 1100 and 1200 CE
D) between 1700 and 1800 CE

Question 13

Daniel is aware that in the production of his new patented invention, there is the possibility for things to go awry. He believes that this possibility for harm is outweighed by the potential of his invention to be beneficial. Which of the following terms is used to refer to how Daniel most likely views the less positive possibilities of invention?

A) invention speculation
B) the risks of invention
C) normal accidents
D) invention hazards

Question 14

Allie considers herself a technological determinist. Which of the following best describes her views of technology?

A) People drive technological change.
B) Technology drives social relations and history.
C) Technology and people make history.
D) People use social forces to alter technological change.

Question 15

Which social scientist first discovered that creative outputs and inventions seem to occur in patterned ways?

A) Charles Perrow
B) Ulrich Beck
C) Gottleib Daimler
D) Nikolai Kondratiev

Question 16

Which of the following events created uncertainty about the beneficial effects of technological advances for many people?

A) the outbreak of malaria in Costa Rica
B) the leakage of gas at a pesticide plant in India
C) the CDC report of the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine
D) the Columbian oil spill

Question 17

What term does the textbook use to refer to the period of time when the majority of people believed that scientific and technological advances would produce only benefits?

A) the era of naïve optimism
B) the acumen era
C) the scientific era
D) the era of recklessness

Question 18

According to Ulrich Beck, which of the following is more worrisome than the fact that technologies are likely to fail sometimes?

A) technological determinism
B) environmental threats
C) technological imperialism
D) food shortages

Question 19

According to the textbook, which of the following do some claim may pose the biggest technological threat so far to human well-being and survival?

A) biotechnology
B) environmental technology
C) military technology
D) recombinant technology

Question 20

Which of the following terms expresses the idea that technology is bound to fail due to its sheer complexity?

A) technological determinism
B) risk society
C) normal accidents
D) technological imperative

Question 21

Looking at the increased numbers of global natural disasters like tsunamis and tornadoes, what is a reasonable conclusion to draw?

A) Nature likes to challenge people.
B) Supernatural forces must be at work.
C) The natural world is falling apart.
D) Natural disasters are not all "natural."

Question 22

Which of the following was a major contributor to Thomas Edison's inventions?

A) the creation of mass public education
B) the support of large corporations such as General Electric
C) vast investments of money
D) federal government support

Question 23

Where in Canada are the highest concentrations of industrial pollution found?

A) the Alberta tar sands
B) northern British Columbia
C) northern Québec
D) southern Ontario

Question 24

Josh lives in a province in Canada where the Sydney Steel Company dumped tonnes of toxic waste for a century. Which province does he live in?

A) Alberta
B) British Columbia
C) Nova Scotia
D) Ontario

Question 25

What does the increased use of fossil fuels, especially in industry, cause?

A) genetic pollution
B) global warming
C) acid rain
D) a decrease in biodiversity

Question 26

According to the textbook, which of the following has been increasingly influencing technological development throughout the twentieth century?

A) creative genius
B) multinational corporations
C) big government
D) consumer interests

Question 27

Monique is a theoretical mathematician at a large university. Which of the following is most likely to motivate her research work at the university?

A) personal interest in the development of the field
B) personal profit
C) increased fame
D) political connections

Question 28

What did Michael Faraday discover?

A) electromagnetism
B) the megalosaurus
C) gamma ray bursts
D) recombinant DNA

Question 29

When did North Americans enter the era of big science and big technology?

A) when the electric light bulb was invented
B) when the automobile was invented
C) when the atomic bomb was first used
D) when the diesel engine was first used

Question 30

The Bomqvist Factory emits a variety of toxic chemicals into the water and soil surrounding the plant. What is this process called?

A) industrial pollution
B) industrial toxicity
C) industrial wastage
D) industrial contamination

Question 31

If technology transforms society, in what way is it under human control?

A) Humans build safeguards into new technologies so disasters are averted.
B) Humans shape technological growth according to their needs.
C) Social interests are weighed by economic interests.
D) Humans use rational rather than emotional understandings of nature.

Question 32

Tristan is concerned with the number of fossil fuel-burning automobiles on the roads today. What is he worried about?

A) global warming
B) a decline in biodiversity
C) acid rain
D) genetic pollution

Question 33

Werner works for an organization that covers the costs of the majority of new research and development of technological applications today. What type of organization does he work for?

A) a federal government
B) a military agency
C) a not-for-profit
D) a private industry

Question 34

What does the gradual increase in the average surface temperature of Earth reflect?

A) population growth
B) increased carbon dioxide levels
C) the decline of biodiversity
D) increased urbanization

Question 35

Which of the following was responsible for the manufacture of the first nuclear bomb?

A) the Manhattan Project
B) the Philadelphia Project
C) the Hiroshima Project
D) the ORDVAC Project

Question 36

Laura is working on a project at her university that, if successful, may create enormous profits for the investors while being potentially harmful to some animal species. According to the textbook, what is she most likely to suffer from in this situation?

A) a moral quandary
B) a risk society
C) a normal accident
D) a technological dilemma

Question 37

What drove the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton?

A) military requirements
B) explorers' needs
C) political concerns
D) economic success

Question 38

Who was the sociologist who developed the risk society thesis?

A) Nikolai Kondratiev
B) Charles Perrow
C) Ulrich Beck
D) J. Robert Oppenheimer

Question 39

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, what have humans been doing that has contributed the most to global warming?

A) building larger urban environments
B) eroding more soil
C) consuming more fossil fuel
D) expanding arable land

Question 40

When looking at the graph showing surface air temperatures and carbon dioxide levels, which of the following best describes the pattern?

A) a positive relationship
B) a negative relationship
C) an inverse relationship
D) no relationship

Question 41

What term does the textbook use to refer to precipitation that causes the destruction of various ecosystems?

A) acid rain
B) toxic rain
C) tainted rain
D) tech rain

Question 42

Provincial governments give cheques to consumers who trade in their old refrigerators for new ones and see to the safe disposal of their old refrigerators. What are these governments trying to protect with such initiatives?

A) the average surface air temperature
B) the ozone layer
C) biodiversity
D) cultivatable land

Question 43

Edward is the CEO for a large pharmaceutical company that is interested in exploiting natural compounds found in wild plants. Which of the following is the best place for him to visit to find the richest variety of potentially medicinal plants?

A) Chile
B) Venezuela
C) Brazil
D) Ecuador

Question 44

Scientists have been experimenting with uniting the genes of different animals together to create whole new animals. What do we call the potential threat posed by such scientific inquiry?

A) environmental peril
B) technological imperative
C) genetic pollution
D) catastrophic DNA

Question 45

What type of waste is produced by nuclear power facilities?

A) radioactive waste
B) chemical waste
C) solid waste
D) liquid waste

Question 46

What is suggested by the fact that environmental issues can be defined as problematic or benign?

A) They are contested phenomena.
B) They are social problems.
C) They are socially diverse.
D) They are complex phenomena.

Question 47

What term is used to reference the enormous variety of plant and animal species that are found on Earth?

A) evolution
B) natural selection
C) species differentiation
D) biodiversity

Question 48

What is the umbrella term used to refer to global warming, industrial and genetic pollution, and the decline of biodiversity?

A) environmental toxicity level
B) environmental diversification
C) environmental degradation
D) environmental social constructionism

Question 49

What do we call the act of joining DNA from two separate hosts together?

A) recombinant DNA
B) reorganized DNA
C) replicated DNA
D) resyndicate DNA

Question 50

Sabina is investigating the claim that 20 000 plant species, 1350 vertebrate species, and millions of insects all live in the Atlantic forest in Brazil. What is she investigating?

A) evolution
B) biodiversity
C) species differentiation
D) natural selection

Question 51

What element blocks excessive ultraviolet radiation from reaching Earth?

A) hydrogen
B) nitrogen
C) helium
D) oxygen

Question 52

According to the textbook, approximately what percentage of the world's main fish species are in decline today?

A) 10 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 70 percent

Question 53

According to the textbook's discussion regarding who most opposes the information about the dangers of global warming, which of the following is a reasonable conclusion?

A) Those who stand to profit from the causes of global warming want the information discredited.
B) Those who stand to profit the most from the causes of global warming want the information widely known.
C) Ordinary citizens stand to benefit the most from global warming.
D) Ordinary citizens stand to benefit the least from global warming.

Question 54

What would the textbook suggest is the cause of the back-and-forth public opinion about the existence and dangers of global warming?

A) the power of suggestion
B) the malleability of public attitudes
C) the process of social and political definitions
D) the social construction of social problems

Question 55

Which of the following may allow future farmers to grow crops that are entirely disease resistant?

A) DNA diversification
B) DNA simplification
C) designer DNA
D) recombinant DNA

Question 56

Environmental problems can be amplified by advocates and minimized by opponents. What does this phenomenon demonstrate about environmental problems?

A) They are largely imaginary.
B) They are socially constructed.
C) They are subject to whim.
D) They are a political battlefield.

Question 57

Which of the following may provide humankind with the inability to contract HIV/AIDS?

A) DNA simplification
B) DNA diversification
C) recombinant DNA
D) designer DNA

Question 58

Due to environmental degradation, many species are becoming extinct. According to the textbook, what is the rate of extinction today?

A) 10 times the natural rate
B) 100 times the natural rate
C) 1000 times the natural rate
D) 10 000 times the natural rate

Question 59

On the popular cartoon The Simpsons, Marge serves a three-eyed fish for dinner to Homer's boss, Mr. Burns, owner of the nuclear power plant. What point was Marge making?

A) Genetic mutations are examples of biodiversity.
B) Radioactive waste was contaminating the local water.
C) Air pollution from the power plant was destroying the ecosystem.
D) Fish are highly sensitive to pollution.

Question 60

For at least how long must waste from nuclear reactors be kept away from human beings in order to not contaminate them?

A) 1000 years
B) 5000 years
C) 10 000 years
D) 15 000 years

Question 61

In which of the following nations are people most likely to be concerned about environmental dangers?

A) Australia
B) Canada
C) Japan
D) India

Question 62

Monsanto, the American-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, has scoured Earth in a quest to patent plants that have been used for centuries by Indigenous people as medication and turn them into commercially viable medicines. What does Monsanto call this practice?

A) DNA theft
B) intellectual property protection
C) biopiracy
D) gene fraud

Question 63

What do we call the disproportionate accumulation of environmental dangers to racialized minorities?

A) environmental racism
B) eco-racial discrimination
C) racially motivated degradation
D) ecological insensitivity

Question 64

In the late 1960s, the river running through the Ojibwa village of Grassy Narrows in Ontario was poisoned for 50 years by mercury pollution from a local pulp mill. What does this example illustrate?

A) eco-racial discrimination
B) environmental racism
C) racially motivated degradation
D) eco-racial insensitivity

Question 65

How much more does the richest quintile of the world's population earn than the poorest quintile?

A) 20 times more
B) 40 times more
C) 60 times more
D) 80 times more

Question 66

According to the textbook, what is a likely outcome of the ability to genetically program fetal development in humans?

A) decreased inequality
B) increased inequality
C) degradation of the process of natural selection
D) upgrading of the process of natural selection

Question 67

Uranium ore was manually carried out of Port Radium in the Northwest Territories by Dene men who were paid minimally and were not warned the dangers of handling the materials. What does this example illustrate?

A) toxic prejudice
B) eco-racial discrimination
C) environmental racism
D) ecological insensitivity

Question 68

According to the textbook, why do reporters flock to mobile home parks when small tornadoes strike a geographic region?

A) because they are the most concerned about these people
B) because these people have the most to lose
C) because these homes suffer more damage
D) because these people have the most sincere responses to reporters' concerns

Question 69

According to the textbook, which of the following groups is most likely to experience disproportionately more environmental risk?

A) poor people
B) the elderly
C) people with disabilities
D) urban dwellers

Question 70

What do we call the tendency of powerful people to put marginalized people in harm's way?

A) toxic prejudice
B) environmental racism
C) socio-ecological insensitivity
D) discrimination degradation

Question 71

Which of the following counties in Nova Scotia was the most polluted in the 1990s?

A) Halifax
B) Cape Breton
C) Kings
D) Pictou

Question 72

According to the textbook, which of the following is the most likely to suffer from cancer?

A) Pete, a rural farmer
B) Don, a working-class truck driver
C) Joe, a middle-class teacher
D) Albert, an upper-middle-class business owner

Question 73

Lee is concerned because he lives in the nation that is considered the world's largest polluter. Where does he live?

A) China
B) the United States
C) India
D) South Africa

Question 74

There is a disturbing association in Canada between high levels of contamination and pollution and which of the following?

A) visible minorities
B) cigarette smokers
C) infant deformities
D) Indigenous peoples

Question 75

According to some analysts, what will enable environmental problems to self-correct?

A) governmental forces
B) ecological forces
C) technological forces
D) social engineering forces

Question 76

In the United States, heavy industrial polluters are often located near African-American communities. What does this example illustrate?

A) toxic prejudice
B) eco-racial discrimination
C) ecological insensitivity
D) environmental racism

Question 77

Monsanto, the American-based multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, has scoured Earth in a quest to patent plants that have been used for centuries by Indigenous people as medication and turn them into commercially viable medicines. What do Indigenous people call this practice?

A) DNA theft
B) intellectual property protection
C) biopiracy
D) gene fraud

Question 78

Which of the following places would be the most likely location for a new water-purification site?

A) a poor suburb
B) a middle-class suburb
C) a wealthy suburb
D) an isolated area many kilometres from civilization

Question 79

Which of the following nations is most likely to be responsible for global environmental damage?

A) Canada
B) India
C) Indonesia
D) Mexico

Question 80

When natural disasters strike, marginalized people tend to experience more hardship. What do sociologists call this phenomenon?

A) environmental racism
B) classic disadvantage
C) socio-economic insensitivity
D) ecological discrimination