CEE 1610
It has been estimated that 139.2 x 106 m2 of rainforest is destroyed each day. Assume that the initial area of tropical rainforest is 20 x 1012 m2. What is the exponential rate of rainforest destruction in units of 1/days?
-6.96 x 10-6
What would be Algeria's Education Index using Equations 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 as well as data from the year 1980 (life expectancy at birth of 58.2 years, 9.4 expected years of schooling, 1.8 mean years of schooling, and a GNI per capita of 10,215 (2011 $PPP))?
.262
Algeria's Human Development Index (HDI), when calculated using Equation 1.6 and data from the year 1980, is _________ (life expectancy at birth of 58.2 years, 9.4 expected years of schooling, 1.8 mean years of schooling, and a GNI per capita of 10,215 (2011 $PPP)).
.472
In the year 1980, Algeria had a life expectancy at birth of 58.2 years, 9.4 expected years of schooling, 1.8 mean years of schooling, and a GNI per capita of 10,215 (2011 $PPP). Using these figures now in Equation 1.1, what would be Algeria's life expectancy index?
0.604
Among the US EPA's four major categories of indicator outcomes, ________ indicates destruction of value due to impacts on individuals, communities, business enterprises, or the natural environment.
Adverse Outcomes Indicator (AOI)
In the waste management hierarchy, which of the following approaches does not belong among the most preferred options?
Efficient treatment and disposal of wastes.
Which of the following are listed among the eight UN Millennium Development Goals?
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Develop a global partnership for development, Reduce childhood mortality, and Ensure environmental sustainability
According to most professional ethics codes, engineers must hold paramount in their designs the welfare of the environment and all living things
False
According to the constrained growth model, environmental dynamics represent a defining limit on economic and social activity.
False
Algeria's Income Index, when calculated using Equation 1.5 and data from the year 1980, is 4.4 (life expectancy at birth of 58.2 years, 9.4 expected years of schooling, 1.8 mean years of schooling, and a GNI per capita of 10,215 (2011 $PPP)
False
The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is based on three dimensions: life expectancy, environmental footprint, and income.
False
The term efficiency refers to a range of measures, from simple human behaviors such as taking a bus instead of driving a car, to complex building automation systems that dynamically adjust building temperatures, lighting levels and air flow based on time of day, building occupancy, and changes in weather.
False, curtailment
When societies industrialize, their energy intensity (measured as energy consumed per monetary unit of gross domestic product) decreases as the industrialization process increases household income through the dynamics of economic development.
False, energy intensity increases
The IPAT Equation helps to illustrate which of the following:
Higher levels of development will lead to greater human impacts on the environment, Population growth will lead to greater human impacts on the environment, New, more efficient technologies can help lead to more sustainable outcomes.
Constrained growth model
In the Venn diagram on the left, sustainable solutions are those that acceptably integrate environmental, societal, and economic goals.
Which of the following explanations support why water is a challenging resource to characterize in terms of being renewable and regenerative?
In the case of aquifer fossil water, over-abstraction will result in a permanent loss of groundwater, and At the local scale, water in aquifers, groundwater, and surface lakes, rivers, and streams can be either a regenerative renewable or nonrenewable resource depending on climatic and geological conditions.
Which of the following are among common basic strategies followed by developed countries in pursuit of energy security?
Reduce dependence on fossil fuels, particularly imported fuels and Control the growth in demand for energy
Which of the following are sub-categories of combined heat and power (CHP) systems?
Topping cycle plants and Bottoming cycle plants
Elemental metals are considered to be infinitely recyclable because they can be continuously recovered and reused.
True
The concept of energy security generally refers to the ability of a nation to protect itself from the economic, political, and social disruptions of an interrupted supply of a critical energy resource, of the failure of important energy infrastructure, or of rapid and steep changes in energy prices. generally refers to the ability of a nation to protect itself from the economic,
True
Under conditions of energy poverty, families are unable to access or afford commercially provided energy, such as electricity or liquid petroleum gas. Instead, households are low on the energy ladder and may rely on biomass that they gather themselves or on limited purchases of kerosene, charcoal, and batteries.
True
In evaluating the relationships between humankind and nature, the deep ecology ethic lies at the opposite side of the spectrum from _____________.
an anthropocentric ethic
______, is compatible "with local, cultural, and economic conditions (i.e., the human, material and cultural resources of the economy), and utilizes locally available materials and energy resources, with tools and processes maintained and operationally controlled by the local population."
appropriate technology
Peri-Urban
areas are rapidly growing fringe zones with very high population densities which typically have inadequate infrastructure to distribute energy, water and sanitation services.
_________________ are communities of living organisms, where the dynamics represent the flow of nutrients and energy between living entities and their abiotic physical environment (water, soil minerals, air, and climate).
ecosystems
_________________ provides a framework for making difficult choices when we face a problem involving moral conflict.
ethics
In the waste management hierarchy, energy recovery is typically preferred over recycling.
false, source reduction, recycling, energy recovery, treatment and disposal
A resource is the physical presence of a substance in a form that we would recognize, and occurrences are a subset of resources that reflect deposits of sufficient quantity that may be recovered, although we may not be able to do so profitably.
false, switch occurence and resources
The Brundtland Commission
introduced the concept of intergenerational equity in Our Common Future (1987), with its definition of sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The concept of _________________ _________________ can be illustrated by viewing natural resources and ecosystem services as the Earth's "money in the bank" and acknowledging that humankind lives off of this money. Ideally, we would protect this investment and its ability to generate interest
natural capital
Valuation of ecosystem services can become complicated, and often must rely on methods of _________________ , assigning monetary value that is not based on the price of actually buying and selling the good or service in question.
nonmarket valuation
Which of the following are the three major components of US energy policy?
promoting energy efficiency and conservation, promotes the development and use of alternatives to fossil fuels, including renewable energy, alternative fuels, and emerging technologies, with energy security and a reliable supply of energy.
The concept that the Brundtland Report put forward was that of _________________ _________________, which the report defined as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
sustainable development
resource maintenance model
the nested concentric circles suggest that environmental dynamics represent a defining limit on economic and social activity
Efficiency
the performance of a piece of equipment that uses energy or transforms it from one state to another
Infrastructure durability, community educational equity, and housing density are all community scale examples of System Condition Indicators
true