Deck 14: Global Responsibility for the Preservation of the Environment

Question 1

Environmental protection is almost exclusively a domestic concern; there are few effects of domestic environmental pollution that can impact other countries in the world.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The earth's temperature began to rise with the invention of power-driven machinery in the late eighteenth century.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The volatility of oil prices may be even more threatening than high oil prices due to the instability and inability to plan future energy investments.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The maximum number of humans and living species that can be supported by a given territory is called carrying capacity.

Question 5

Deforestation is problematic because it contributes to climate change through global warming and threatens the earth's biodiversity.

Question 6

The production of greenhouse gases has been rising in all areas of the world, including the Global South.

Question 7

Many scientists are in agreement that the threat of climate change is overstated and that global warming is not a clear environmental threat.

Question 8

Environmentalists view using trade to promote environmental standards as one way to combat the negative impact that trade can have on the environment.

Question 9

Cornucopians generally believe that free markets effectively address environmental concerns and maximize social welfare.

Question 10

The number of international environmental treaties has decreased over the past 130 years as countries abandon environmental policy.

Question 11

Reforestation efforts in the Global North have helped to alleviate some of the water shortage problems faced in those regions.

Question 12

Biodiversity includes genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity.

Question 13

Among known technologies, solar energy has often been championed as the leading alternative to fossil fuel dependence.

Question 14

The metaphor of the tragedy of the commons demonstrates that individual self-interest can have a destructive effect on the interest of the community.

Question 15

The concept of environmental security broadens the traditional definition of security, which focused primarily on national security.

Question 16

The 1987 Montreal Protocol limits the production of CFCs in an attempt to stop depletion of the ozone layer.

Question 17

Global warming will likely cause deserts to disappear due to increased rainfall.

Question 18

The United Nations has been actively involved in studying the phenomenon of climate change and in organizing diverse countries to attempt to find a global solution.

Question 19

OPEC has used its control over oil production as an instrument of coercive diplomacy to influence politics in the Middle East.

Question 20

Neo-Malthusians are optimistic about the capacity of the world to supply enough food for its growing population through market forces and advances in technology.

Question 21

The amount of human and other life forms that the Earth can support is referred to as

A) the tragedy of the commons.
B) spaceship Earth.
C) carrying capacity.
D) the secret of the Persian chessboard.

Question 22

The term that refers to scientific experts on a subject of inquiry such as global warming that are organized internationally as NGOs to communicate with one another and use their constructed understanding of "knowledge" to lobby for global transformations is

A) the epistemic community.
B) environmental security.
C) the United Nations.
D) Greenpeace.

Question 23

The gas primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide, is released by

A) livestock.
B) burning fossil fuels.
C) rising ocean temperatures.
D) desertification.

Question 24

The Arctic becomes important in assessing the politics of global warming because

A) Arctic ice is melting more slowly than anticipated.
B) the Arctic is not melting fast enough to offset CFCs.
C) one-fourth of the world's oil and gas reserves lie under the ice.
D) All of these are true.

Question 25

According to the United Nations, approximately how many plant and animal species become extinct every year?

A) 5
B) 50
C) 5,000
D) 50,000

Question 26

The concept of environmental security captures the notion that

A) a state must maintain its immediate surroundings to feel secure.
B) government officials must appease domestic challengers or face a possible revolution.
C) threats to global life systems are as important as the threat of armed conflicts.
D) states should have reserves of oil at their disposal at all times.

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT a compound that can change the Earth's atmosphere and lead to the greenhouse effect and global warming?

A) Carbon dioxide
B) Methane
C) Nitrogen
D) Chlorofluorocarbon

Question 28

Optimists who believe that technology and market forces will correct environmental problems are called _________.

A) cornucopians
B) neo-Malthusians
C) structuralists
D) constructivists

Question 29

Which of the following factors is NOT expected to contribute to rising oil prices over the next decade?

A) Discovery of newer and easier ways to extract oil
B) Rising demand for oil in the Global South
C) Restriction of oil supply by OPEC
D) All of these will contribute to rising oil prices.

Question 30

Which idea is associated with sustainable development?

A) Economic growth that does not deplete the resources needed to maintain growth
B) Underutilizing resources
C) "Spending the earth's capital"
D) The ability of a corporation to sustain its development by establishing subsidiaries abroad

Question 31

One reason the price of food has risen worldwide is

A) the price of energy has increased.
B) fertilizer prices never rose to keep up with market demand.
C) less demand for food worldwide, thereby increasing prices.
D) flat or diminishing demand for nitrogen, thereby increasing prices.

Question 32

The effects of continued rising temperatures include all of the following EXCEPT

A) sea levels will rise.
B) winters will get warmer, and heat waves will become increasingly frequent and severe.
C) rainfall will decrease due to the rising temperatures.
D) drought-prone regions will become even drier.

Question 33

Deforestation is most occurring in which countries?

A) The Amazon, West Africa, and Southeast Asia
B) Bali, Australia, and Southeast Asia
C) Central America and South America
D) Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa

Question 34

The claiming of common properties by states or private interests for their own use is known as the

A) tragedy of the commons.
B) enclosure movement.
C) greenhouse effect.
D) comodification of the environment.

Question 35

One successful international agreement on the environment, which gained wide acceptance thanks in part to strong scientific evidence, was

A) the Kyoto Protocol to reduce global warming.
B) the Washington Agreement to prevent deforestation.
C) the Johannesburg Treaty on biodiversity.
D) the Montreal Protocol to reduce depletion of the ozone layer.

Question 36

The global commons is described as

A) the widespread malnutrition in the Global South that results from a lack of food.
B) the policy of destroying crops in specific areas to starve out insurgents.
C) the fact that governments have limited resources with which to solve global problems.
D) the physical and organic characteristics and resources of the entire planet.

Question 37

A neighborhood uses well water, and no individual family has to pay for the water they consume.  Thus, each family waters their grass excessively and doesn't bother to conserve water.  The well runs dry.  This is an example of the economic model known as

A) the tragedy of the commons.
B) the Prisoner's Dilemma.
C) the chicken game.
D) the overabundance problem.

Question 38

Which of the following does NOT contribute to environmental degradation?

A) Water shortages
B) Shifts from a meat-based diet to a primarily vegetarian diet
C) Soil erosion
D) Deforestation

Question 39

A renewable source of energy is _________ .

A) solar
B) coal
C) oil
D) natural gas

Question 40

Which school of thought is more likely to focus on encouraging swift action on environmental issues to prevent a calamitous future?

A) Cornucopian
B) Neo-Malthusian
C) Realist
D) Impressionist

Question 41

Your textbook notes that nearly all climate scientists are in agreement that global warming is occurring and that it is caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases, with catastrophic results predicted.  In fact, scientists estimate that if all of Greenland's ice sheet were to melt, the global sea level would rise by 23 feet.  Ominously, in 2012 satellites revealed that 40 percent of the ice sheet's surface had melted, and that by July 12 a shocking 97 percent of the ice sheet had turned to slush. But sea levels did not rise more than 1 or 2 millimeters in 2012, not the several feet predicted by the scientists.   With so much of the scientific community in agreement about this issue, why might significant doubt about climate change persist among the general public?

Question 42

The _____ gauges the relative performance of countries across the categories of environmental health, air pollution, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources, and climate change.

A) Environmental Protection Index (EPI)
B) Environmental Performance Index (EPI)
C) United Nations (UN)
D) Kyoto Protocol

Question 43

In 1972, the United Nations General Assembly convened the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. During the ensuing years, other conferences were held.
(a) What factors mitigate against international cooperation to solve global ecological problems?
(b) What are the prospects for achieving sustainable development through a managed global commons arrangement?

Question 44

Which of the following are interrelated sets of problems on the ecopolitical agenda?

A) Climate change and ozone depletion
B) Biodiversity and deforestation
C) Deforestation and increasing levels of carbon dioxide
D) Arms transfers and globalization

Question 45

Brazil's Forest Code is designed to protect the Amazon rain forest and requires that _____  of landholding remain forested.

A) 40 percent
B) 60 percent
C) 80 percent
D) 95 percent

Question 46

Which of the following are causes of the global food crisis?

A) Environmental stress
B) Government policies
C) Rising prices
D) All of these are causes.

Question 47

Explain the causes of the global food crisis. Which do you think is the most significant contributor? How would you address these issues? What role can domestic governments play? What role can international agencies play? Examine how realists, liberals, and constructivists would solve this problem.

Question 48

What are the benefits to using nuclear energy?  What are the drawbacks?  Considering both the benefits and drawbacks, do you think the world should pursue nuclear energy as a replacement for fossil fuels like coal?

Question 49

"Neo-Malthusians" and "cornucopians" are the labels given to different schools of thought about the impact of population growth on economic development and environmental quality. Write an essay in which you contrast the positions taken by these two schools on the demographic future of the human species. Based on the available evidence on current population and resource trends, which school of thought do you find more convincing? Why?

Question 50

_____ is research to discover new types of plant and human life for sale and use as substitutes for those produced naturally, and _____ are agricultural products with improved characteristics created artificially by combining genes from species that would not naturally interbreed.

A) Agricultural exploration; organic foods
B) Genetic engineering; transgenetic crops
C) Neo-Malthusian genetic studies; cornucopian engineering
D) Transgenetic engineering; organic foods