Ethics Environmental Exam

"Eco-" comes from the Greek word ___________________.

"oikos," which means "house."

According to NASA

"some [climate simulation] models predict that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in the summer in ______________.", just a few decades

Why does Al Gore present Figure 2 (Annual Average Temperature during the last 1

000 years) in his film?, It is evidence that the annual average temperature on earth was stable the last 1,000 years but suddenly rose the last 100 years.

Why does Al Gore present Figure 1 (Changes in Carbon Dioxide in the last 400

000 years) in his film?, It is evidence that there is a strong correlation between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and the annual average temperature.

Americans produce 236 million tons of garbage per year. What percentage of America's waste stream is recycled or composted?

30%

"For years

Americans have been dumping millions of tons of household garbage into overflowing landfills without blinking, but today we are having to face facts: the capacity of landfills is finite, and the costs of maintaining them—economic, social, environmental—are growing. Landfills are filling up at an alarming rate

Some environmental activists say that the earth is overpopulated. Should governments make a law that says parents may only have one child...or perhaps two children? This is a highly controversial issue. What country has already enacted a "one-child policy."

China

What is deep ecology? [Short Answer Question]

Deep ecology is, first of all, the study of the environment from an eco-centric perspective, that is, a perspective that does not privilege the human's welfare over the welfare of plants and animals. Secondly, deep ecology is the study of Western Culture's relation to the environment and the ways the Zeitgeist would have to change in order for there to be harmony between mankind and the natural world.

What is sustainable development?

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Imagine there was a celebrity named "Donny." Imagine that someone said, "Donny is Donny-centric." What would that mean?

Donny thinks the world revolves around him.

Anthropocentrists value nature for its own sake. True or false?

False

The Native Americans did not make any animals go extinct.

False

The Native Americans never cut down trees.

False

The Native Americans were vegetarians.

False

True or False. The evidence that hurricanes have been getting bigger and badder the last 20 years is PROOF that global warming is occurring.

False

According to David Suzuki, what is immoral about current Bluefin tuna fishing?

Fishing companies push their fisherman to catch as many Bluefin tuna as possible even though such overfishing has brought them to the brink of extinction. Fishing companies are tempted by the large amounts of money they can make from catching this type of fish and then selling it in Japan...where the demand is so high that one carcass sells for around $30,000. But catching, selling, or eating this endangered fish is now immoral because this fish probably plays an important role in the circle of life and, secondly, we shouldn't deprive future generations of the opportunity of admiring and enjoying all the different life-forms on earth.

From whom did Al Gore first hear of the theory of climate change?

From Professor Roger Revelle—when he was a college student at Stanford

The quote has many meanings. Which of the following is one of the meanings of the quote, "In wildness is the preservation of the world"?

From wilderness comes the rejuvenation of farmland.

Who was the author of the famous quote, "In wildness is the preservation of the world"?

Henry David Thoreau

According to anthropocentrism, what has intrinsic value?

Humans only

There is a group of islands off the western coast of Canada. It is called Haida Gwaii. Some Native Americans still live there. In the 1980s, Canadian logging companies wanted to cut down the trees there and believed they had a right to do so. The Haida people opposed this. How did the story end?

In 1985 the Haida took a stand on the logging road at Sedgwick Bay. Their peaceful protest worked. Their protest ultimately led to the protection of the area and the creation of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.

A modern field of corn is something natural, right?

It's an artificial ecosystem involving natural objects. Therefore it might turn to barren wasteland if humans stopped assisting the corn's growth.

If a fisherman catches a Bluefin tuna fish, what country will he probably sell it to in order to make the most money?

Japan

Global warming could make some mountain glaciers completely melt away. This would be a problem because....

Many people around the world get their drinking water from glacier melt water.

The word compost comes from two Latin roots....

One meaning "together," the other meaning "to bring."

What is the Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch?

Plastic, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre (miles and miles of plastic soup floating in the ocean like oil does)

What evidence has the strongest logical force for the theory that the arctic ice cap is shrinking each year?

Since 1957 the U.S. military has been measuring the thickness of the arctic ice cap so that it knows when and where submarines can surface through the ice. When this information is plotted on a graph it reveals that, since 1970, the annual average thickness has been decreasing dramatically.

The word "environment" comes from an Old French word meaning what?

Surrounding, encircling

Why is Ireland normally warmer than New York?

The Gulf Stream

In the town of Ísafjörður in Iceland they built a high-tech incinerator with lots of safety measures. How did the story go?

The filter in the chimney of the incinerator broke. The town spent tons of money to repair it. Nevertheless, years later they discovered the chimney was letting lots of dioxins get through, which wafted into the surrounding fields

What are the five gyres?

The five huge spirals of seawater formed by colliding currents. "One of the largest is the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, filling most of the space between Japan and California. The upper part of this gyre, a few hundred miles north of Hawaii, is where warm water from the South Pacific crashes into cooler water from the north." These five gyres are where the plastic garbage of the world gathers.

According to David Suzuki in the movie, "Force of Nature," the human population on earth has been growing at an exponential rate since the early 1900s. What conclusion does he draw from this?

The human population could double in size much sooner than one would expect. (It might double in a mere 50 years.)

The Native Americans seemed to have had an eco-centric perspective on life.

True

The Native Americans seemed to have more respect than we do for animals, plants, and rivers.

True

The Native Americans seemed to live in harmony with the natural world to greater extent than we do.

True

True or false? Ozone depletion is no longer an imminent danger.

True. Concerned citizens spread the word. Industry stopped using CFC refrigerants. The ozone layer is now healing.

What does Al Gore propose we do to stop global warming?

Use solar panels and wind turbines for electricity, heat, and transportation, instead of burning fossil fuels.

What is an environmental refugee?

a person who is forced to migrate or flee from his or her home region due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment

The documentary Trashed begins with Jeremy Irons walking around a landfill in Lebanon. What problems does this landfill present? There are three answers.

a.) It's right on the coastline, so much trash gets into the sea. b.) It lets off methane, a greenhouse gas. c.) It's an eye-sore: an epic Mediterranean beach is now a gloomy mountain of rotting stuff.

Ethics is the search for good rules and good attitudes. The Native Americans came up with some good rules and mottos for environmental ethics. Which five of the following rules are such?

a.) Respect for all life is the foundation. b.) In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. c.) A frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. d.) All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One. e.) Native Americans will tell you that if you cut down a tree, you ask its forgiveness, tell it what you will use its wood for, and thank it for the gift of its life.

Which are differences between the arctic ice cap and the Antarctic ice cap? (There are four answers.)

a.) The arctic ice cap floats in the ocean. The Antarctic ice cap sits on land. b.) The arctic ice cap is only 10 feet thick. The Antarctic ice cap is over a mile thick. c.) The Antarctic ice cap is 8.5 times larger in surface area. d.) The arctic ice cap is drastically melting and shrinking. The Antarctic ice cap is not drastically melting and shrinking.

True or false? Plastic isn't usually biodegradable.

a.) True

Scientists say that the planet's weather system is a non-linear system

and that the ocean currents and winds act like an engine always driving heat away from the equator. This is their explanation of a surprising relation they have discovered: If some factor made the annual average temperature go up 1 degree around the equator, one should infer that the annual average temperature at the Polar Regions has gone up ___________, 12 degrees

According to the documentary Trashed

are incinerators a good alternative to landfills?, No. If the filtration system malfunctions, and it often does, then dioxins waft into the surrounding environment.

Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa said, speaking through one of his characters, "The most important thing for man is _________________________."

clean air and clean water

Two billion people are living in regions where there is a scarcity of...

freshwater

What is the meaning of this old proverb from Thomas Tusser in 1557: "One aker well compast

is worth akers three.", If you grew crops on an acre of land and composted all the plant stocks, leaves, husks, corn cobs, etc., and then spread this compost back on the soil, then year by year your acre would produce three times as many pounds of produce as a person who also farms one acre of land but did not compost.

What would be the danger if every wilderness was converted to farmland?

oxygen shortage, lack of biodiversity, and if humans lost their ability or motivation to keep cultivating the land and the crops then all the farmland might turn into barren wasteland.

Every citizen and visitor to San Francisco is legally obligated to _____________________.

participate in the city's three-stream recycling program

According to the textbook

the topic of environmental ethics consists of four sub-topics. What are they?, a.) Climate change b.) Ozone depletion c.) Waste disposal and pollution d.) Wilderness preservation

Some people claim that unusual weather patterns have been occurring in recent decades. Not all these cases were cases of the weather warming up

thus some people have suggested that we call these weather phenomena not "global warming" but...., global weirding

In class we read a handout from Dave Foreman that presented a new idea related to wilderness preservation. The idea was that conservationists should not only try to preserve large chunks of wilderness, they should also.....

try to establish "wilderness corridors" that connect these large areas and create a wilderness network that allows wild animals to migrate freely from wilderness area to the next.

David Suzuki criticizes the way people today talk and feel about the economy, for it seems....

we fear the economy more than God. We care about the economy more than the environment.

many will soon be full. But when we look at our ordinary household waste

we see that about three-quarters of it is composed of organic materials that can easily be composted instead" (Stu Campbell). What does "composting" mean?, Bringing-together biodegradable garbage, adding an activator (like dried manure) so that it rots faster than it would otherwise, letting the material rot, then spreading the crumbly end product material into the soil at a garden or farm to improve soil health.

According to Al Gore

what is the main driver of climate change?, Burning fossil fuels for electricity, heat and transportation

According to Al Gore

what will be some of the consequences of global warming?, Heat waves, severe droughts in some regions, severe rainfall and flooding in other regions.

"The city of San Francisco has been leading the way in recycling for years

with 75% of its homes and businesses participating in the city's zero waste initiative" (Trashed). What is a "zero waste initiative"?, "Zero waste means that we send zero discards to the landfill or high-temperature destruction. Instead, products are designed and used according to the principle of highest and best use and the waste reduction hierarchy: 1. Prevent waste. 2. Reduce and reuse first. 3. Recycle and compost" (sfenvironment.org).