Q1-133

We currently have 15 strategies available that can be used to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 billion per year or one wedge. If you think any of the strategies listed below belong to the current 15 wedge strategies mark them as the correct answer (more than one answer choice may be correct)

-Increasing building efficiency -Increase transportation efficiency -Fuel switching (coal to gas) -Forest storage

Each wedge strategy can be applied to one or more sectors. The following are the sectors these strategies can be applied to:

1) Electricity production 2) Heating and direct fuel use 3) transportation 4) Biostorage

The 15 wedge strategies are grouped in the following categories:

1)Energy & Conservation 2)Nuclear Energy 3)Fossil-fuel based strategies 4)Renewables and Biostorage

One study estimated that the United States has enough wind power potential to produce ____ times its current electricity needs.

16-22

Coal is formed from ____.

300 to 400 million year old plant remains

Use the graphs below to answer the two questions that follow. Calculate the percent of solid waste that could potentially be recycled into a soil enriching compost. (Add wood, yard trimmings, and food)

34.3%

A(n) ____ heating system, which is usually mounted on a roof or on special racks that face the sun, captures energy from the sun by pumping a heat-absorbing fluid such as water or an antifreeze solution through special collectors.

Active solar

Which organism is least likely to cause disease?

Algae

The UV filtering effect of the ozone layer is beneficial because it ____.

Allows humans and other forms of life to exist on land

The geological layer, consisting of underground caverns or porous layers of sand, gravel, or bedrock, where groundwater flows, is called ____.

An aquifer

Since 1975, atmospheric temperatures on earth have ____.

Been increasing

What is the idea of wedge analysis?

Breaking down a large problem into smaller pieces.

Which statement is NOT a disadvantage of burning coal?

Burning coal has led to very limited reserves.

In an integrated waste management approach to solid waste, which action would be given last priority?

Bury

The Stabilizing Wedges approach main objective is the reduction of:

CO2 emissions

The self-sustaining cascade of nuclear fission is called a(n) ____ reaction.

Chain

Many of the world's poor only have access to a low-protein, high-carbohydrate, vegetarian diet and suffer from ____.

Chronic malnutrition

The technology called ____ involves removing CO2 from the smokestacks of coal-burning and industrial power plants in order to isolate it from the environment.

Coal capture and sequestration

What is an advantage of using coal as an energy resource?

Coal mining and burning is inexpensive when environmental costs are not included

A good indicator of water quality is a low quantity of ____ present in a water sample.

Coilform bacteria

The earth's ____ is composed primarily of iron.

Core

This diagram is representative of (On the left is a biological cycle connected to a technical cycle)

Cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing

The black, gooey liquid, which contains a mixture of combustible hydrocarbons along with small amounts of sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen impurities and enters the refining process, is called ____ oil.

Crude

What is one advantage of dam and reservoir systems?

Dams and reservoirs decrease downstream flooding.

Which hazard is considered a biological hazard?

Disease-carrying pathogens

Surface mining, when compared to subsurface mining, ____.

Disturbs more land

In the stabilizing wedges concept, what does each wedge represent?

Each wedge represents a carbon-cutting strategy that has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tons per year by 2060.

Which hazard is considered a natural hazard?

Earthquakes

Ecologists warn that human population growth, economic development, and poverty are exerting increasing pressure on the earth's ecosystems and on the ____ it provides.

Ecosystem services

Improving ____ means using less energy to provide the same amount of work.

Energy efficiency

The term overnutrition refers to ____.

Energy intake exceeding energy use

One way of increasing our supplies of rare earth minerals is to ____.

Extract and recycle them from discarded electronics

A severe shortage of food leading to mass starvation, many deaths, economic chaos, and social disruption is called ____.

Famine

A ____ requires utilities to buy electricity produced by homeowners and businesses from renewable energy sources at a price that guarantees a good return.

Feed-in-tariff

What is the largest cause of soil erosion?

Flowing water

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

Food desert

A second-growth forest is a(n) ____.

Forest resulting from secondary succession

The use of a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure to free oil and natural gas trapped between layers of shale rock formations is known as ____.

Fracking

Scientists have attempted to measure historical temperatures by collecting data from various sources. Four of these five answers are examples of such sources; select the exception.

Gold veins

Water in the spaces between soil, rock, and gravel is called ____.

Groundwater

Protected areas linking isolated reserves is a design called ____.

Habitat corridors

The biggest problem with invasive species is that in the new location, they ____.

Have no population controls such as predators

Dry cell batteries and household pesticides are classified as ____ waste.

Hazardous

The sudden increase in oil and gas production by fracking in the United States was enabled by two technologies: hydraulic fracturing and ____.

Horizontal drilling

Which of the following is a reason that children and infants are more susceptible to damage by toxins? I. They tend to ingest more per unit of body weight II. They have less developed immune systems than adults III. They are exposed to more actual toxins due to their lifestyles

I, II, and III

With traditional intensive agriculture, farmers increase their crop yields by ____.

Increasing their inputs of human and draft-animal labor

This diagram is representative a strategy known as (flow chart of strategies to handle waste)

Integrated waste management

Which country is a member of OPEC?

Iraq

Withdrawing too much water from an aquifer can cause several issues, including ____.

Land subsidence

Heavy metal water pollution includes ____.

Lead, mercury, and arsenic

Natural gas is transported across oceans as ____.

Liquefied natural gas

Which is not characteristic of heating a house with passive or active solar energy?

Low installation and maintenance costs for active systems

The severity of an earthquake, referred to as its ____, is a measure of its seismic waves.

Magnitude

Since 1970, the occurrence of malaria has increased. Why?

Malaria-carrying species of mosquitoes have become resistant to insecticides.

The extinction of many species in a relatively short period of geologic time is called ____.

Mass extinction

A naturally occurring chemical element or inorganic compound that exists as a solid with a regular repeating internal arrangement of its atoms or ions is called a(n) ____.

Mineral

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

Mining

The West Nile virus is transmitted to humans by ____.

Mosquitoes

Waste that includes paper, food wastes, cans, bottles, yard waste, glass, wood, and similar items is called ____ waste.

Municipal solid

Which of the following is an ecological advantage of using nuclear power to produce electricity?

No carbon dioxide or methane is emitted during operation

Which potential source of water pollution is a point source?

Oil wells

A house that absorbs and stores heat from the sun directly within a well-insulated, airtight structure is taking advantage of a(n) ____system.

Passive solar heating

Forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in organic compounds as part of the process of ____.

Photosynthesis

The root cause of food insecurity is ____.

Poverty

Materials that are recycled into products of the same type are undergoing ____.

Primary recycling

Most aquifers are ____ naturally by precipitation that sinks downward through exposed soil and rock.

Recharged

Four of the following are important ecological services provided by forests; one is not. Choose the one that is not

Releases atmospheric carbon

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

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Taking a refillable coffee cup to the office and using it instead of throwaway cups is an example of ____.

Reusing

One method of desalination uses high pressure to force saltwater through a membrane filter. This method is called ____.

Reverse osmosis

The probability of suffering harm from a hazard that can cause injury, disease, death, economic loss, or damage is referred to as ____.

Risk

The slowest of the earth's cyclic processes is the ____ cycle.

Rock

Precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or evaporate is called ____.

Run off

In the United States, drinking water quality is primarily regulated under the ____.

Safe Drinking Water Act

Repeated irrigation in dry climates leads to accumulation of salts in the upper layers of the soil, a process called ____.

Salinization

What type of rock is formed from the weathered and eroded remains of other rocks?

Sedimentary

What is the world's fastest growing way to produce electricity?

Solar cells

According to some critics, why doesn't an emphasis on improving energy efficiency succeed in reducing energy consumption?

Some people tend to use more energy when they buy energy-efficient devices.

Groundwater flows out of the ground onto land or onto lake bottoms through exit points called ____.

Springs

Which substance is a secondary pollutant?

Sulfuric acid

Which method is the least feasible strategy for industries to cut energy waste?

Switching from coal-burning power plants to nuclear power plants.

Large sections of the earth's crust, called ____, slowly separate, collide, or grind along against each other at the earth's surface.

Tectonic plates

About 72% of the world's reserves of oil shale are found in ____.

The United States

The world's largest producer of municipal solid waste (MSW) is ____.

The United States

In 1995-1996, gray wolves were re-introduced to Yellowstone National Park. Since then, which of the following has occurred?

The elk population has decreased.

What is the most efficient means of water delivery to crops?

Trickle or drip irrigation

Climate data shows that the last 30 years have been the warmest in over 1000 years.

True

Recycling discarded items into a form that is more useful than the recycled item was is known as ____.

Upcycling

Burning coal, along with removing pollutants from the emissions, results in the accumulation of several substances. Which substance is not one of those pollutants?

Uranium

Contaminated groundwater cannot cleanse itself for which of the following reasons?

Usually, cold temperatures of the groundwater slow down chemical reactions that decompose waste.

Each year, at least 250,000 children under 6 years of age go blind from a lack of ____.

Vitamin A

One way to deal with the creation of solid wastes begins with the question "How can we avoid producing so much solid waste?" This approach is called ____.

Waste reduction

The land from which surface water drains into a particular lake, river, or other body of water is known as ____.

Watershed

According to the Stabilizing Wedges concept in order to achieve stabilization of CO2

We need to reduce our annual carbon emmisions by 8 billion tons per year within 50 years. (B)

The world's second-fastest-growing energy resource is ____.

Wind power

Major climate models predict ____.

a 2.5-4.5C° rise in the earth's mean surface temperature between 2013 and 2100

The Clean Water Act could be strengthened by ____.

allowing citizens to bring lawsuits to ensure that water pollution laws are enforced

It would be ineffective to attempt to prevent lead poisoning by ____.

banning the use of lead pencils in schools

One way to increase the fuel efficiency of cars is to ____.

build cars from ultralight composite materials

Nuclear power advocates contend that increased use of nuclear power decreases what type of emission that contributes to climate change?

carbon dioxide

Which substance is a colorless, odorless, and highly toxic gas that forms during the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing materials

carbon monoxide (CO)

Coal can be converted to liquid fuels such as methanol and synthetic gasoline through a process called ____.

coal liquefaction

The act of producing two useful forms of energy (such as electricity and heat) from the same fuel source is called ____.

cogeneration

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

combustible wastes can be burned to generate electricity

In the United States, ethanol is mostly made from ____.

corn

Costa Rica is considered a superpower of biodiversity, with an estimated 500,000 plant and animal species. This biodiversity is chiefly a result of the ____.

country's geographic location and its government's strong conservation efforts

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

The temporary or permanent removal of large expanses of forest for agriculture, or other uses, is called ____.

deforestation

One way of increasing our supplies of rare earth minerals is to ____.

extract and recycle them from discarded electronics

What is the largest cause of soil erosion?

flowing water

A second-growth Forest is a(n) ____.

forest resulting from secondary succession

Nuclear energy is only available to consumers throughout the world at an affordable cost because ____.

governments provide subsidies

Which phenomenon cannot currently be used to generate electricity directly?

heavy rains

What is the world's leading renewable energy source used to produce electricity?

hydropower

In many less-developed countries, much of the municipal solid waste ends up ____.

in open dumps

Which of the following is a harmful effect of even carefully designed logging roads?

increased erosion

With traditional intensive agriculture, farmers increase their crop yields by ____

increasing their inputs of human and draft-animal labor

Which phrase best describes the earth's average surface temperature for the past 900,000 years?

long periods of cooling and warming

The earth's climate will not change in response to ____.

magnetic pole reversals

Chemicals or forms of radiation that cause or increase the frequency of DNA mutations are called ____.

mutagens

The majority of recyclable wastes are ____.

preconsumer, and generated in the manufacturing process

What term refers to harmful chemicals emitted directly into the air from natural processes and human activities at concentrations high enough to cause harm?

primary pollutants

The generation of nuclear powered electricity ____.

provides fuel that produces low CO2 emissions

Acid mine drainage occurs when ____.

rainwater seeps through an underground mine spoils pile and produces sulfuric acid

In the sewage treatment process, the purpose of chlorination involves ____.

removing discoloration and killing bacteria

About two thirds of the world's human population survives primarily by eating one or more of the three grain crops. What are these three grains?

rice, wheat, corn

Which of the following is a method of grassland restoration?

rotational grazing

An energy resource with a low or negative net energy yield cannot compete in the open marketplace with other energy alternatives that have high net energy yields unless it is ____.

subsidized by the government or other outside sources

What is not an effective means of saving energy in transportation?

switching from electrified rail systems to diesel powered systems

CITES is a(n) ____.

treaty controlling the international trade in endangered species

Plantation agriculture is a form of high-input agriculture that involves growing cash crops and is primarily used in ____.

tropical, less-developed countries

What are the series of large waves generated in the ocean by an earthquake, landslide, or volcanic eruptions?

tsunamis

Which of the following is considered a cultural hazard?

unsafe working conditions

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United States and Canada improved water quality by ____.

upgrading sewage treatment plants

Our ____ is a rough measure of the volume of freshwater that we use or pollute, directly and indirectly, to stay alive, and to support our lifestyles.

water footprint