Exam 16: Technology and the Environment

The title of Rachel Carson's book about growing environmental problems due to the widespread use of chemicals was

Knowledge that people apply to the task of living in a physical environment is

According to which political point of view is the natural environment in serious danger due to capitalism's appetite for ever-increasing growth and profits?

Which thesis states that humanity must constrain the growth of population and our use of finite resources to avoid eventual environmental collapse?

Which term refers to regions of dense forestation, most of which circle the globe near to the equator?

In all, the world's rain forests cover what percentage of Earth's total land surface?

The earth naturally recycles water and refreshes the land in a process scientists call

Sociology's most important contribution to our understanding of environmental issues is

Helen is an environmentalist. When she says that the goal of this movement is establishing an ecologically sustainable culture, she means

A social-conflict theorist who takes a Marxist class-conflict position is likely to agree with which of the following statements?

The world's rain forests are

How do the conservative, liberal, and radical left points of view define environmental problems? Which view is most optimistic? Which is the most pessimistic? How does each point of view define solutions to many of the environmental problems discussed in the chapter?

Experts estimate that the current atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is how much higher than it was 250 years ago?

Which of the following terms refers to serious, long-term harm to the environment caused by humanity's focus on short-term material affluence?

Which of the following terms refers to the study of how living organisms interact with the natural environment?

The outlook environmentalists call the "logic of growth" follows from the fact that our way of life in the United States is based on

What insights do we gain about our relationship with the natural environment from the structural-functional and social-conflict theoretical approaches? How might this knowledge lead to a more environmentally sustainable way of life?

Herman, a social-conflict theorist, blames capitalism for the world's environmental problems. His colleague Max points out that when Europe was divided between the capitalist west and the socialist east, the strongest complaints about environmental quality were directed at

The designers at a manufacturing company are coming out with a new product but they want to sell more units, so they deliberately engineer the products to have a limited useful life. This illustrates the concept of

According to conservative analyst Julian Simon, the fact that the planet supports six times as many people as it did when Malthus was alive is cause for