EnviSci Final

With industrialized food production, for every one unit of energy put on the table in the United States, how many units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are required to produce it?

10

When did Congress restrict the use of lead-based paint in homes?

1971

Americans waste what percentage of their food?

35-40%

By the year 2050, the world needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by ____% in order to prevent the planet from heating up by more than 3.6o F (2o C).

50-85%

According to a 2015 EPA report, between 1980 and 2014, the combined emissions of the six major outdoor air pollutants decreased by ___%.

70%

Urban populations consume about ____% of the earth's resources.

75%

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ____ people face health problems because of undernutrition and another ____ people face health problems because of overnutrition.

795 million; 2.1 billion

What percentage of all antibiotics used in the United States are added to animal feed?

80%

What percentage of the U.S. population strongly supports environmental laws and regulations, and does not want them weakened?

80%

What percentage of the food products currently on U.S. supermarket shelves contains some form of genetically modified food or ingredients?

80%

Who stated "that land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics?

Aldo Leopold

Which statement about indoor air pollution in the United States is false?

Exposure to outdoor air pollution presents a higher cancer risk than with indoor air pollution.

Most of the world's cities have huge ecological footprints and are not self-sustaining systems

False

T/F Full-cost pricing would discourage producers from inventing more resource-efficient methods of production, thereby cutting production costs

False

T/F Greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere because they absorb incoming solar energy before it reaches the earth's surface

False

T/F Recycling is less economically feasible in urban areas because of the high concentrations of recyclable materials.

False

T/F Technological fixes, such as using resources more efficiently, have been able to keep up with expansion of global resource use.

False

Which statement about ozone thinning is true?

Ozone levels fluctuate seasonally, with the lowest levels occurring in September and October.

Markets do well in the production and distribution of private goods, but are not so good at ____.

Public Services

Which strategy would be least effective for industry and communities in their efforts to reduce resource use, waste, and pollution?

Redesign landfills.

The ____ is used in the United States to regulate hazardous waste

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Green plans are now being employed in several nations, including Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and ____.

The Netherlands

Which statement about the difficulty of addressing climate change is false?

The benefits and harmful impacts are spread evenly

Which statement about higher gasoline taxes is true?

They are more acceptable when fast, efficient, reliable, and affordable mass-transit options, bike lanes, and sidewalks are available.

T/F A discount rate is the estimate of a resource's future economic value compared to its present value.

True

T/F Applying the Environmental Justice Principle would mean no group of people would bear an unfair share of environmental pollution or degradation

True

T/F Businesses facing environmental regulations often try to have people from their industry appointed to high positions within the corresponding regulatory agencies

True

T/F Covering land with buildings, asphalt, and concrete causes precipitation to run off quickly and overload storm drains.

True

T/F Government subsidies to farmers and fishing fleets can promote unsustainable practices.

True

T/F Per molecule, methane is 25 times more effective at warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

True

T/F Research by psychologists have found that a growing number of people want more of a sense of community as opposed to more material goods.

True

T/F The ultimate success of any emissions trading approach to pollution reduction depends on how low the initial cap is set and how often it is lowered.

True

What is true of water and water supplies associated with urban areas?

Urban development often destroys or degrades wetlands

What was the major point learned in the 1991 Biosphere 2 experiment?

We cannot engineer life-supporting systems as well as those provided by nature.

The oceans absorb CO2 from the lower atmosphere, which in turn creates carbonic acid. Should humans be concerned about this ocean acidification?

Yes, because ocean acidification inhibits the growth of shelled organisms and decreases phytoplankton populations.

How much of the nation's land is under the control of the federal agencies?

about one-third

The concept of ____ recognizes that some climate change is unavoidable because we have waited too long to act and people have to react to some of its harmful effects.

adaptation

Which action would be an ineffective preventive measure for acid deposition?

adding lime to neutralize acidified lakes

The grasshopper effect is a result of ____.

air pollutants being transferred from warmer areas to polar areas by evaporation and wind

The National Environmental Policy Act requires that ____.

an environmental impact statement (EIS) must be developed for every major federal project likely to have an effect on environmental quality

Studying the earth's living systems to find out what works and what lasts, and then looking at how we might copy such earth wisdom, is a pioneering science called ____.

biomimicry

The central characteristic of a high-throughput economy is that it ____

boosts economic growth by increasing the flow of matter and energy resources through the economic system

Research by Thomas Homer-Dixon, director of Canada's Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, has revealed a strong correlation between growing scarcities of resources and ____.

civil unrest and violence

One advantage of materials recovery facilities (MRFs) is that ____.

combustible wastes can be burned to generate electricity

One characteristic of waste-to-energy incineration is that it ____.

concentrates hazardous substances into ash

The difference between industrial and photochemical smog is that photochemical smog ____.

contains secondary pollutants formed under the influence of UV radiation from the sun

The life cycle of a product that begins when it is manufactured and ends when it is discarded as solid waste, typically in a landfill or as litter, is called ____.

cradle-to-grave

Since 1980, Arctic Sea Ice has ____.

decreased in volume and surface area

Which school of economics contends that conventional economic growth eventually will become unsustainable because it can deplete or degrade various irreplaceable forms of natural capital?

ecological

A second green revolution has been taking place since 1967, based on ____.

fast-growing rice and wheat

An urban area where people have little or no easy access to nutritious food without traveling long distances is called a(n) ____.

food desert

Outputs of hazardous waste can be reduced by relying less on ____ and more on ____.

fossil fuels; renewable energy

Which environmental worldview is seen by critics as focused on short-term economic benefits with little regard for long term harmful consequences?

free-market school

History shows that significant changes to environmental policy usually come from ____.

grassroots levels

The "No-Regrets strategy" calls for ____.

implementing preventative measures immediately that will benefit society regardless of climate change

Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) are ____.

international environmental treaties designed to address environmental issues

Although temperatures have fluctuated throughout Earth's history, scientists are greatly concerned about the current warming because ____.

it is occurring at a more rapid rate than was typical in the past

What is the most common method of hazardous waste storage in most countries of the world?

land burial

Part of the environmental wisdom worldview proposes that success involves ____.

learning how nature sustains itself and integrating this into our actions

Which action is characteristic of voluntary simplicity?

learning to live with much less

What is a disadvantage of using aquaculture to produce fish?

makes dense fish populations more vulnerable to disease

The point at which the supplier's price matches what buyers are willing to pay for some quantity of a good or service is called the ____.

market price equilibrium point

As part of their digestion process, cattle and dairy cows release ____, a greenhouse gas with about 25 times the warming potential of CO2.

methane

The largest contributor to industrial solid waste in the United States is the ____ industry

mining

Which item is a nonuse value?

monetary cost

A drawback to implementing environmental taxes and fees is that it ____.

penalizes low-income groups unless safety nets are provided

In sustainable community development, the "triple bottom line" refers to ____.

people, the planet, and profits

What is an indirect cost of car ownership?

pollution from production and use

The predicted rise in sea levels during the 21st century is least likely to cause ____.

replenishment of many coastal fisheries

Much of the e-waste in the United States not buried or burned is ____.

shipped to Asia or Africa

Which worldview understands the earth to be a complex machine that we can understand, dominate, change, and manage for everyone's good without overloading natural systems?

spaceship-earth school

Which worldview is exemplified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the management of refuges protecting habitats and breeding areas for waterfowl and big game?

stewardship

Outdoor air pollution is increased when ____.

temperature inversions form over cities surrounded by mountains

The 1997 Kyoto Protocol went into effect in 2005 with only seven of the world's 194 nations not ratifying the agreement. Which country did not ratify it?

the United States

The optimum level of pollution control is reached when ____

the marginal cost of pollution control intersects with the marginal cost of pollution

According to the EPA, what are the three most dangerous indoor air pollutants?

tobacco smoke, formaldehyde, and radon-222

Sanitary landfills typically have problems with ____.

traffic, noise, and dust

Approximately what proportion of the world's CO2 emissions comes from motor vehicles and industrial facilities in urban areas?

two-thirds

Cities generate large amounts of heat because of factories, cars, lights, air conditioning, and dark roofs. This creates a phenomenon called ____.

urban heat island

The most widely used land-use planning approach is ____, in which parcels of land are designated for certain uses such as residential, commercial, or mixed use.

zoning