Evr ch 18
Gasoline prices have doubled in a large Midwestern city and may continue to rise in the future. What may happen in this situation?
*B, C, and D may all take place in this situation. -Some people who live in the suburbs will search for new places to live closer to where they work. -People who live in the suburbs will become active supporters of increased mass transit options. -People who live in the suburbs may press local politicians and city planners to develop better mass transit for the area.
You work for the city planning agency in Houston and successfully pass ordinances designed to double population density. Based on the graph, predict the approximate change in carbon emissions.
50% decline
Compare the population densities of the most and least dense cities on the graph. What is the population ratio of the most- to least-dense cities?
7:1
Describe the relationship between carbon emissions and urban density as shown on the graph.
As urban density increases, per capita carbon emissions decrease.
Which of the following statements is supported by the graph?
As urban sprawl increases, automobile use also increases.
How do the rates of land use and gasoline consumption in Australian cities compare with those in U.S. cities?
At any level of per capita land consumption, people in U.S. cities use more gasoline than those in Australian cities.
How does the burning of coal contribute to acid rain?
Burning coal releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Which of the following countries exports the most oil to the United States?
Canada
Which of the following is a positive effect that cities have on the environment?
Cities give people places to live with smaller land use.
Which city on the graph has both low to medium density (between 10 and 30 persons per hectare) and low carbon emissions?
Copenhagen
When are electricity rates typically the highest?
During the daytime.
Which of the following ideas was suggested by speakers in the video?
Future cities should repurpose compacted metal as building blocks for buildings.
In which city do individuals have the highest rate of gasoline consumption?
Houston
Of the five countries shown, ________ have essentially no domestic oil production.
Japan and Germany
Where does the United States keep an emergency stockpile of oil?
Louisiana
Which of the following best summarizes the future plans for cities?
Make cities self-sufficient.
Calculate the average population density of the cities on the graph. Does the city that has average population density also have average carbon emissions?
No, carbon emissions are actually lower than average in the city with average density.
What is true about the importance of location for cities that were founded over 100 years ago versus the cities that are rapidly growing today?
Older cities were founded along waterways or rail hubs so that goods could be easily transported.
What is the greatest negative environmental impact that occurs when people live in suburbs instead of living in cities?
Suburbanites take up many times as much space as city dwellers.
Part of the reason Nipton has been able to create the infrastructure necessary for becoming energy self-sufficient is which of the following?
The city took advantage of strong state and federal incentives.
How does the existence of densely-packed cities help preserve wilderness and rural areas?
The fact that populations are unevenly distributed across the face of the Earth allows for areas that are basically empty to exist.
How do the speakers in the video hope to treat waste generated by cities of the future?
They plan to rely more on recycling and upcycling."
What do the orange dots represent?
United States
What is bitumen?
a thick type of petroleum formed in clay and sand
What occurs when coal mining exposes rock surfaces to weathering?
acid drainage
Around the world, most major cities are situated ________.
along rivers, oceans, roads, or train routes
A resource sink is ________.
an area that produces almost none of the things that it needs
What information is provided on the x-axis?
area per person, in square meters
You are a homeowner interested in installing solar rooftop electricity. In order to take advantage of federal subsidies, when should you install?
as soon as possible as the subsidies are being phased out
Which of the following types of transportation consumes the most energy (in BTU per passenger mile)?
automobiles
Why are we so eager to find clean coal technologies?
because coal is the most abundant of the fossil fuels in the United States
Which of the following consume the bulk of the electricity used in the United States?
buildings
What are green buildings?
buildings constructed out of sustainable materials, which limit the use of energy and water, minimize health impacts, control pollution, and recycle waste
Rooftop solar is currently having the biggest impact in which state?
california
Energy conservation in the United States ________.
can be improved as individuals make conscious choices to reduce personal consumption.
You wish to compare various transition towns around the world. Visiting which of the following would be least likely to help you in your quest?
china
Plant-based organic matter that is compressed under high pressure to form solid carbon structures is known as __________.
coal
The world's most abundant fossil fuel is ________.
coal
Energy can be conserved by ________.
cogeneration in power plants, fuel efficient transportation, reengineered appliances
Of the following, ________ is a method that governments use to improve urban transportation.
constructing light rail and expanded bus systems
LEED-certified buildings could be described by all of the following, except ________.
construction costs much less than for conventional buildings
The ________ drives the move to the suburbs from cities.
desire to live in less stressful, more peaceful park-like conditions
When assessing energy resources, it is helpful to use a measure called EROI, which is ________.
energy returned divided by energy invested
Your cousin is interested in learning how to use plants as a renewable energy source. Which of the following plants will she learn about in a visit to Nipton?
eucalyptus
U.S. oil production ________.
falls far short of U.S. oil consumption
From where does the food that most city-dwellers consume originate?
farms surrounding the suburbs and from long distances away from the city
The world's urban populations are ________.
growing faster than the population as a whole
American cities in the northern United States, such as Chicago, Illinois, ________.
have steadily lost population over the past 40 years
The urban heat island effect is caused by ________.
heat-generating buildings and dark, heat-absorbing surfaces
Which of the following characterizes U.S. nuclear power plants?
highly subsidized
What are two components of sprawl?
human population growth and per capita land consumption
Organizations like OPEC have formed ________.
in order to take maximum advantage of developed nations dependence on imported oil
Then, in 2010, Metro Portland made a historic agreement between landowners and citizens which ________.
included a regional plan to identify exactly where urban growth would be allowed
Any consideration of the true costs of sprawl must include ________.
increased use of fossil fuels
The operating costs for transportation ________.
indicate that, when all operating costs are included, rail is the most sensible means of transport
Carbon sequestration ________.
is an unproven technology only begun in 2008
According to the graphs, the energy consumption per passenger mile ________.
is higher for all types of road use than it is for rail use
Scientists currently assessing the environmental impacts of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico report that ________.
it may take years or decades before the full impacts are known
Over the past 50 years, most U.S. citizens who could afford to do so ________.
left the cities for the suburbs
Electricity from rooftop solar currently accounts for about how much power in the United States?
less than 0.25%
Air travel, the Internet, cheap fossil fuels and television all have allowed people to ________.
live in less centralized communities
The average miles per gallon rating of U.S. vehicles has ________.
made no improvement the past two decades
People who live entirely within an urban environment ________.
may become disconnected from nature and from the true costs of their needs and activities
Which fossil fuel is produced as a by-product that occurs when bacteria decompose organic material under anaerobic conditions?
methane
While Kayla is driving along a busy highway just outside a major city, she suddenly comes to a standstill in traffic. For the first time ever, she notices that alongside the highway are stretches of forest and wetland. She hears the noise of frogs and insects and birds that she never would have noticed if not trapped in traffic. Why does Kayla never notice these natural wonders on her route?
noise pollution
In addition to decreasing its dependence on fossil fuels, if Nipton wanted to become water-independent, which of the following would be most promising?
not " a nearby reservoir"
How does an urban growth boundary attempt to limit sprawl?
not " establishing "zones" where only certain kinds of development can occur:
Is the following statement supported or not supported by the data shown in the graph? The amount of gasoline used by each person generally decreases as per capita land consumption increases.
not supported
Natural gas is ________.
often associated with coal and petroleum deposits
For the United States, the primary fuel that we use for our energy is ________.
oil
A city planner needs to consider ________ as a first priority.
optimal land use strategies for different areas of the city
Oregon's strong policy of enforcing UGB's (urban growth boundaries) to create livable cities has been exemplary for many years, but between 2004 and 2007, voters ________.
passed a bill giving property owners the right to ignore UGB's
The original purpose of parks in eastern U.S. cities was to ________.
provide a European style experience of the beauty and intimacy of formal landscapes
Which of the following approaches best helps congested cities deal with the problems related to transportation?
provide access to rail and bus transportation in the inner city or other high-density areas
The energy bill passed by the U.S. Congress in 2007 ________.
raised the CAFE standard to 35mpg for vehicles by the year 2020
The process of __________ turns crude oil into the type of gases that can be used for cooking, in cars, and for other human purposes.
refining
In developing nations, such as India and Nigeria, ________.
rural people are moving to the cities in large numbers
Which of the following follows the philosophy of "building up, not out"?
smart growth
Which of the following is the town of Nipton, California currently using to generate the bulk of its renewable electricity?
solar power
The greatest general problem with suburbs is ________.
that they spread environmental impact over a larger area
Which of the following individuals is most likely to be against net metering of solar electricity?
the CEO of a large coal-fired power plant
The country with the greatest differential between domestic production and total consumption is ________.
the United States
Coal continues to be the main fuel used to generate electricity in the United States. This is partially because ________.
the country has such large reserves of coal
A development group wishes to turn the area into a recreational facility, including an RV resort, a major-league sports arena, a small-craft harbor for water sports, a hunting lodge, and off- road activities, including motocross racing and dune buggy areas. An important concern ecological about this proposal would be ________.
the impacts on the woodlands, wetlands, and waterways
One group proposes to convert the base to a new city suburb, with low-cost housing for several thousand of the current inner-city residents. A possible major problem with this might include ________.
the lack of jobs and lack of transportation to jobs
What occurs as sprawl increases in, or adjacent to, a city?
the need for cars increases
One of the things that contribute to sprawl is ________.
the trend toward increasing land area per capita
One of the speakers in the video made an analogy between a city and a very large tree. In this analogy, the root system of the tree was compared to __________.
the way soils, air, and water are needed to sustain people in the city
As an ecological resource manager, your preliminary environmental studies should include inquiry into whether ________.
the wetlands include oyster beds and shallow estuaries that are habitats for shrimp, crabs, and fish which are supporting many local industries
L'Enfant's 1791 Plan of the U.S. capital represented the first ________.
thorough city planning program
When did the use of coal for cooking, heating, and other purposes begin?
thousands of years ago, by Native Americans (and other ancient cultures)
What is the goal of "new urbanism"?
to create functional neighborhoods in which most of a family's needs can be met close to home without the use of a car
Given the energy consumption and operating costs per passenger-mile, one of the best overall strategies for cities to consider is ________.
to create or improve a convenient, affordable, rail transit system
The United States and other industrialized nations devote the greatest proportion of their oil use to __________.
transportation
All of the following are fossil fuels except ________.
uranium
Secondary extraction of petroleum ________.
uses solvents, water, or steam
Of the available policy options regarding eventual conversion to renewable energy sources, environmentalists would probably prefer that ________.
we encourage, with subsidies, tax rebates, and grants, the rapid development and widespread use of renewable alternative energy resources
Which of the following would be characteristic of sprawl?
widely spaced homes spread evenly across a vast tract of land
Members of several local environmental groups propose that nearly all of the buildings be removed and the area turned into a regional hiking and camping area, with very limited vehicle access. This will preserve the natural areas while providing recreation for the city dwellers. One issue that is raised by opponents is ________.
will revenue generated from users pay for the changes and the maintenance of such a facility
The practice of classifying areas for different types of development and land use is referred to as ________.
zoning
