Deck 1: Environmental Literacy and the Goal of Sustainability - on the Road to Collapse: What Lessons Can We Learn From a Vanished Viking Society

Question 1

What does an environment include?

Answer 1

An environment includes the biological (living) and physical (nonliving) surroundings in which any given living organism exists.

Question 2

Why are nonliving things included in the definition of an environment?

Answer 2

Nonliving things, like rocks, water, and oxygen, are included in the definition of an environment because, although they are not living, they still have a tremendous impact on the organic things that do live in that environment. Imagine an environment that contains several species of fish, some of which suddenly start to die off. Now let's say this die off is caused by the temperature of the water rising in this environment. If we didn't consider water to be part of an environment, we would not know to test the water for the possible cause of the fish dying.

Question 3

Which factors make up the triple bottom line?

A) human, natural, and solar factors
B) international, national, and local factors
C) social, economic, and environmental factors
D) agricultural, financial, and environmental factors
E) solar energy, water, and air factors

Answer 3

social, economic, and environmental factors

Question 4

What does it mean when an environmental issue is a wicked problem?

A) It is created by people who only care about themselves.
B) It is global in nature.
C) It involves trade-offs that not everyone will be happy with.
D) It is a problem that cannot be solved.
E) None of the above describes wicked problems.

Question 5

Which of the following is an example of an empirical study?

A) developing more efficient photovoltaic cells for electricity production
B) producing models of the impact of various greenhouse gas concentrations on global temperature
C) developing ultrafast passenger trains
D) improving the efficiency of electricity transmission
E) developing pest control methods that do not include pesticides

Question 6

Due to their complexity, any given response to an environmental problem involves significant __________, and no one response is likely to present the ultimate solution.

A) sliding reinforcers
B) trade-offs
C) wicked problems
D) anthropogenics
E) tragedies

Question 7

What is environmental literacy? Why is it important for individuals to have a strong understanding of environmental literacy when discussing environmental problems caused by humans?

Question 8

What evidence did scientists use in Greenland to study atmospheric conditions during the Viking settlements?

A) air bubbles trapped in ice cores
B) mud core samples
C) animal bones collected from middens
D) insect fossils
E) the law of superposition

Question 9

What is environmental science, and what fields of study does it rely on?

Question 10

The recent changes in global climate driven by human activities have the potential to _______________.

A) alter weather patterns
B) cause crop failures
C) raise sea levels
D) endanger species
E) all of the above

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT an example of self-inflicted environmental damage done by the Greenland Vikings?

A) They overgrazed.
B) They used grassland to insulate their houses.
C) They chopped down forests for fuel and home construction.
D) They grew to a few thousand individuals.
E) The climate cooled.

Question 12

Which of the following is a potential trade-off to reforestation efforts?

A) high cost
B) water shortages
C) fragmentation of habitats
D) less land for agriculture
E) all of the above

Question 13

Infographic 1.3
Using Infographic 1.3, what is the triple bottom line of climate change?

Question 14

Which of the following describes an environment?

A) fish living in a stream
B) bacteria living in a human's intestinal tract
C) mold growing on a wood stump in a forest
D) a cat living in a house
E) All of the above describe an environment.

Question 15

Environmental science relies or draws on which of the following?

A) natural sciences such as ecology
B) applied sciences such as engineering
C) social sciences such as anthropology
D) humanities such as literature
E) all of the above

Question 16

Which would likely come first when studying an environmental issue: an applied science study or an empirical science study? Why?

Question 17

An example of applied science would be ____________.

A) designing a solar panel for increased efficiency
B) observing chimpanzee behavior in a rainforest
C) collecting ice core samples to determine carbon dioxide levels 100,000 years ago
D) determining the diet of Greenland Vikings based on analysis of their garbage
E) counting the number of geese on a pond

Question 18

Infographic 1.3.

Refer to Infographic 1.3. The Green Revolution brought modern industrialized agricultural techniques to developing countries so they could better feed their growing populations. The idea is to achieve higher yields by taking advantage of better seed types, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. By doing this, less land, such as rainforest, would need to be converted to agriculture. Use the Infographic to describe the pros and cons of the Green Revolution on the environment, thus illustrating why climate change is a wicked problem.

Question 19

Many environmental problems can be traced to three underlying causes: the number of humans on this planet, utilization of resources at a very fast rate, and _________.

A) deforestation
B) affluence
C) fossil fuels
D) habitat loss
E) pollution

Question 20

Which phrase best describes the term "environment"?

A) the climate where an organism lives
B) the living surroundings in which an organism exists
C) the living and nonliving surroundings in which an organism exists
D) the nonliving surroundings where an organism lives
E) the domination of nonliving systems by living systems

Question 21

What is carrying capacity?

A) the impact a population has on its environment
B) the resources needed to support a population in its environment
C) the population size that an area can support indefinitely
D) a constant, invariant value that represents the amount of life Earth can support
E) the amount of pollution a natural ecosystem can withstand before it begins to exhibit negative symptoms

Question 22

Modern fishing techniques use giant nets to harvest large numbers of fish in the short term. This may result in severely reduced populations of fish in the future. Which term best describes the above scenario?

A) time delay
B) tragedy of the commons
C) sliding reinforcer
D) extinction
E) These are all terms to describe what happens in the scenario.

Question 23

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a sustainable ecosystem?

A) It uses renewable energy.
B) It eliminates waste by reusing matter.
C) It contains species that all depend on the same limited resource.
D) It recycles matter.
E) Local biodiversity is present to perform essential ecosystem processes.

Question 24

How would you go about convincing a company to switch to renewable sources of energy?

Question 25

How does wealth inequality impede sustainable growth?

A) Poorer nations lack natural resources.
B) Underprivileged people sometimes exploit the environment in order to survive.
C) Wealthier nations are very affected by resource availability and must pay high costs to access them.
D) People with the most money and power are the first to succumb to environmental problems.
E) The world's natural resources are controlled by the vast majority of the population.

Question 26

Which statement is FALSE?

A) In a biocentric worldview, all life is valued
B) An ecocentric worldview values the ecosystem as an intact whole.
C) An ecocentric worldview includes all of the organisms and nonliving processes that occur in an ecosystem.
D) In an anthropogenic worldview, human beings have an instrumental value.
E) An anthropogenic worldview places human lives and interests as the most important.

Question 27

The _________ is the land needed to provide resources and assimilate the waste of a person or population.

A) carrying capacity
B) biomass
C) ecological fingerprint
D) ecological footprint
E) population demand

Question 28

Solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass energy sources are examples of _______.

A) nonrenewable energy
B) finite energy
C) renewable energy
D) fossil fuels
E) nonsustainable energy

Question 29

What is biomimicry?

A) cloning technologies and equipment that allow scientists to recreate photosynthetic bacteria in laboratory settings
B) recreating natural ecosystems in areas where severe deforestation has occurred
C) turning natural ecosystems into scientific experiment sites to help scientists better understand their functioning
D) the process of collecting data from various ecosystems
E) the use of nature as a model for our own systems

Question 30

Infographic 1.5
ecosystem.
Is our modern society acting sustainably? What are some areas of concern? Use Infographic 1.5 to compare and contrast a sustainable ecosystem to our current human

Question 31

Which of the following choices is NOT an example of an anthropocentric worldview?

A) clear-cutting a forest to sell timber
B) testing a nuclear bomb
C) large commercial fishing ships processing tons of fish per day
D) purchasing a rice product stored in a recycled cardboard container instead of one stored in a plastic container
E) clearing land to build shopping malls

Question 32

Which of the following personal attitudes will lead to the greatest long-term sustainability?

A) The forest is there for us to use.
B) The lake will be able to handle the raw sewage because it always has.
C) It doesn't matter what we do because we don't have the power to change anything.
D) I wonder how using this product will affect the environment; maybe there's a better choice available.
E) Scientists will figure out a way to reduce the effects of pollution.

Question 33

What does it mean to be sustainable, and what are four characteristics of a sustainable ecosystem?

Question 34

How is anthropogenic climate change different from the climate change experienced by the Greenland Vikings?

A) It involves new chemical compounds.
B) It is caused by human actions.
C) It is a natural cycle Earth goes through.
D) It causes the average atmospheric temperature to decrease.
E) It is caused by increased tectonic activity.

Question 35

Which situation best describes the tragedy of the commons?

A) A fisherman uses his net to catch a large quantity of fish.
B) Increasing amounts of pesticides need to be used over time to maintain the same effect on pests.
C) An oil pipeline leaks.
D) Sustainable forestry practices are applied to a plot of land in the rainforest.
E) Herders put too many sheep in a public field because they think "If I don't use this available resource, someone else will."

Question 36

Which statement about environmental ethics is TRUE?

A) All people with environmental ethics recycle.
B) Environmental ethics have no control over how people resolve problems in the environment.
C) People with environmental ethics tend to have an anthropogenic worldview rather than a biocentric worldview.
D) Each person has a philosophy surrounding environmental ethics that influences their interactions with the natural environment.
E) Worldviews do not tend to influence people's environmental ethics.

Question 37

Infographic 1.6.

Refer to Infographic 1.6. Use the infographic to describe ways that you could live more sustainably.

Question 38

A good example of sustainability would be ___________.

A) limiting commercial fishing to amounts that allow the fish population to repopulate
B) using solar panels to generate electricity
C) riding a bicycle to work
D) purchasing products in packaging that can be recycled
E) All of the choices listed above are good examples of sustainability.

Question 39

Which of the following is characteristic of a sustainable ecosystem?

A) It makes the most of renewable energy.
B) It uses matter conservatively. (It recycles or reuses so nothing is wasted.)
C) It keeps populations in check.
D) It depends on local biodiversity.
E) All of the above

Question 40

Coal, natural gas, and oil are examples of ___________.

A) renewable resources
B) nonrenewable resources
C) alternative forms of energy
D) infinite resources
E) unlimited resources

Question 41

How can the tragedy of the commons be applied to anthropogenic climate change?

Question 42

Infographic 1.7.

Refer to Infographic 1.7. Ethanol is often produced in locations where farmers also grow corn. Underground water reservoirs are used to grow the corn and process the ethanol. These reservoirs are being depleted in some areas of the Midwest. Which of the social traps apply to the water depletion?

Question 43

You have been given the task of making the fishing industry more sustainable. How will you accomplish this task?

Question 44

The policy that was NOT effective in preserving the environment was the __________.

A) Homestead Act
B) establishment of the National Forest Service
C) establishment of the National Park Service
D) Clean Air Act
E) Clean Water Act

Question 45

Infographic 1.7.

Refer to Infographic 1.7. Antibiotics are routinely given to animals in confinement facilities to avoid the spread of disease through dense populations. The antibiotics get into the surrounding environment (water and soil) and allow antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria to flourish and become the majority strain in the population. When infected by such a strain, an animal or human will not respond to treatment with the antibiotic. Which social trap is in effect here? What should be done about this?