Exam 25: Environmental Worldviews, ethics, and Sustainability

Some analysts have suggested that the environmental movement has focused too much on laying blame,which has then led people to feel guilty,fearful,and apathetic.They suggest that we move beyond these immobilizing feelings by recognizing and avoiding two common mental traps that lead to denial,indifference,and inaction.What are these two common mental traps?

In the planetary management worldview,the potential for economic growth is ____________________.

What does a sense of place mean? Do you have such a place,and if so,where is it? Do you think a sense of place is important? What would you do to protect that place?

Consider the section "We Can Live More Simply and Lightly on the Earth." Do you agree that many of the things we now feel are necessities,are actually luxuries? Could you do without them,or are they now part of your necessities? How does your worldview affect your sense of what is necessary?

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

Technological fixes,such as being more efficient in resource use,have been able to keep up with expansion of global resource use.

The environmental wisdom worldview believes we should talk about saving the earth because the earth is in need of saving.

A characteristic of exponential growth is that the growth ____.

The no-problem school worldview is part of the environmental wisdom worldview.

The textbook lists five steps that some psychologists have advised people to take to help them withdraw from an addiction to buying more and more stuff.List three of these steps.

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

Those who adhere to the free-market worldview suggest that all public property resources should be converted to private property resources.

Environmental leaders say it is time for a(n)____________________ revolution to change the way we treat the earth.

Beginning with self at the lowest level and biosphere at the highest level,identify the levels of ethical concern.

According to the environmental wisdom worldview,"all efforts to promote sustainability are local and personal." How do you look at this concept? Do you think all sustainability efforts are local and personal,or national/global and impersonal? Explain.

Which worldview is based on a belief that the best way to manage the planet for human benefit involves minimal government interference and regulation?

The concept that we have an ethical responsibility to be caring and responsible managers of the earth is associated with the ____________________ worldview.

The Biosphere 2 experiment could be seen as a failure,or it could be seen as an affirmation that nature is exceedingly complex and should not be degraded or destroyed. In which way do you view Biosphere 2? Explain your answer.

An environmental worldview is determined partly by a person's ____________________ -what one believes about what is right and what is wrong in our behavior toward the environment.

People with earth-centered worldviews believe that humans are in charge of the world and that the earth's life support systems are subservient to human demands.