Deck 6: Ethics,economics,and Sustainable Development

Question 1

Modern market economies generally do NOT address _____________.

A)market value of goods
B)cost -benefit analysis
C)GDP
D)cost of production
E)aesthetic and cultural value

Answer 1

aesthetic and cultural value

Question 2

Use the accompanying figure to answer the following question
The graph illustrates _____________.

A)how price falls when demand is high
B)marginal benefit and cost curves
C)how price is determined by supply and demand
D)internal and external costs associated with market economies
E)the costs of resource use and pollution reduction

Answer 2

how price is determined by supply and demand

Question 3

_____________ encourages more sustainable business practices.

A)Increased economic growth
B)Abolishing permit trading
C)The government providing all goods and services to citizens
D)Ecolabeling
E)Greenwashing

Answer 3

Ecolabeling

Question 4

Use the accompanying figure to answer the following question
The intersection of the two lines (the middle of the "X")on the graph represents _____________.

A)market equilibrium
B)the maximum price buyers will pay for goods and services
C)the maximum quantity of goods and services that a company can produce
D)the minimum price buyers will pay for goods and services
E)the minimum quantity of goods and services that a company can produce

Question 5

A(n) _____________ is best defined as one who evaluates an action based on its impact on human health, economic costs and benefits,and aesthetic concerns.

A)ecocentrist
B)market economist
C)ethnocentrist
D)anthropocentrist
E)biocentrist

Question 6

Which of the following best illustrates the intrinsic value of an ecosystem?

A)Woodpeckers in the Black Hills eat mountain pine beetles that have been killing millions of acres of pine forests in the western U.S.,costing millions of dollars in lost timber sales and creating an extreme fire hazard.
B)A wetland filters runoff and detoxifies water before it percolates into drinking water aquifers.
C)An estuary is often a stopover location for millions of migrating shorebirds that need to stop and fuel up on the invertebrates living in the mudflats.
D)Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota provides jobs for loggers.
E)My professor's prairie provides flowers for her colony of honeybees to harvest pollen.

Question 7

Which of the following is an assumption of neoclassical economics?

A)Long -term effects and planning are important.
B)Resources are finite and should be conserved for the greater good of society.
C)External costs and benefits are valuable.
D)Economic growth is a means toward greater human well -being.
E)All citizens deserve just and equal economic and sociopolitical treatment.

Question 8

Aldo Leopold's "Land Ethic" essay _____________.

A)describes how American Navajos suffered from the adverse effects of uranium mining
B)describes how most toxic landfills are located in poorer communities
C)decries pesticide misuse
D)encourages actions that preserve biotic communities
E)describes the history of the EPA

Question 9

Which of the following is the most accurate definition of economics?

A)the study of how humans use potentially scarce resources to meet demand
B)the study of tax laws,banking,and monetary policy
C)the study of environmental systems and their monetary value
D)the study of conversion of monetary units between nations
E)the study of making money,goods,and services

Question 10

You spend the night at a hotel and notice a sign in the bathroom asking you to place dirty towels on the floor and to hang up towels that you wish to reuse.By doing so,the hotel chain can help "save the planet" by conserving water and detergent.You recognize that the hotel chain would also save a lot of money by not having to launder so many towels,and you begin to wonder cynically whether the hotel isn't just practicing _____________.

A)greenwashing
B)discounting
C)the externalizing of costs
D)ecolabeling
E)environmental justice

Question 11

_____________ advocate for steady -state economies because they believe that Earth's natural systems generally operate in self -renewing cycles that can be "tapped" sustainably.

A)Socialists
B)Cornucopians
C)Capitalists
D)Ecological economists
E)Malthusians

Question 12

You have two friends who are ethicists.One is a universalist,and the other is a relativist.You listen as they discuss many issues,during which all of the following statements are made.Which statement is most likely to have been spoken by the relativist?

A)Environmentally harmful actions such as logging and overfishing are selfish and should be punished.
B)Killing people is wrong.
C)Lying is wrong because it can affect another person negatively.
D)People always have a right to take whatever measures they see fit to defend their life and property.
E)Slavery is not ethically wrong in societies where slaves are otherwise at risk of starvation and misery.

Question 13

Which of the following includes volunteer work and damage from pollution in a country's goods and services?

A)GDP
B)GAP
C)GPI
D)GNP
E)ATP

Question 14

Contingent valuation _____________.

A)measures how much people would pay to restore a resource after it is damaged
B)involves buying and selling "rights to pollute"
C)measures how much time,effort,and money people spend to travel for natural recreation
D)says we should treat others as we wish to be treated
E)says all individuals deserve just and equal treatment

Question 15

External costs include _____________.

A)environmental damage
B)raw materials
C)worker's compensation and insurance
D)utilities
E)wages

Question 16

In general,environmentalists believe that governments should _____________.

A)discourage ecolabeling
B)nationalize all Earth's natural resources
C)promote social and environmental justice
D)deregulate corporations
E)lower corporate taxes

Question 17

Who is best known as the founder of the Sierra Club?

A)Ralph Waldo Emerson
B)Walter Sierra
C)John Ruskin
D)Aldo Leopold
E)John Muir

Question 18

_____________ is best defined as the knowledge,beliefs,values,and learned ways of life shared by a group of people.

A)Habitat
B)Worldview
C)Niche
D)Culture
E)Economics

Question 19

The philosophy of classical economics developed by Adam Smith _____________.

A)was adopted by the Aborigines in the Kakadu region of Australia
B)argues that individuals acting in their own self -interest harm society
C)assures equality between rich and poor
D)proposes maintenance of economies through government restraint and regulation
E)advocates free -market policies that many credit for the tremendous gains in material prosperity of industrial nations

Question 20

Use the accompanying figure to answer the following question
If a nonrenewable resource such as oil suddenly became scarce while demand remained constant, the price of the resource would ____________.

A)increase
B)decrease
C)remain unchanged
D)move down the demand line
E)move down the supply line

Question 21

Leaders striving for sustainable development aim to satisfy a triple bottom line,which involves what three goals?

A)economic advancement,environmental protection,and social equity
B)economic development,making money,and depleting resources slowly
C)making money,lowering taxes,and protecting the environment
D)racial equality,social equality,and political equality
E)protecting animals,protecting ecosystems,and protecting the biosphere

Question 22

Compare and contrast the philosophies of John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.

Question 23

A subsistence economy is one that _____________

A)meets its needs by overfishing lakes and rivers
B)purchases goods and services from others
C)purchases resources for immediate use
D)meets its needs without working for wages and purchasing necessities
E)meets is needs while causing ecosystem destruction

Question 24

Describe the ways in which a nation's attitude toward environmental issues might be shaped by economics,culture and religion,political ideology,and laws.

Question 25

Which of the following describes changes in forest cover in Costa Rica since 1940?

A)Costa Rica has lost virtually all of its forests to agriculture since 1940.
B)Costa Rica's forests have changed dramatically in composition since 1940 because the forests have been invaded by European buckthorn and other invasive species.
C)Costa Rica has been regaining lost forest land since 1940,when strict forest regulations were passed and the country began serious reforestation efforts.
D)Costa Rica rapidly lost forests from 1940 until the 1980s,but its forests have more than doubled in size since then.
E)Costa Rica's forests increased in size slightly from 1940 until 1985,after which Costa Rica began rapidly losing forests because multinational coffee companies began cutting down rainforest to create coffee plantations.

Question 26

_____________ involves the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color,national origin,or income,with respect to the development,implementation,and enforcement of environmental laws,regulations,and policies.

A)Ecological justice
B)Environmental justice
C)Land ethics
D)Conservation
E)Socialism

Question 27

In neoclassical economics,the practice of "discounting" is used to ________________.

A)price goods that are in low demand
B)price goods that are in low supply
C)dismiss viewpoints that run counter to the main tenets of neoclassical economics
D)decrease the importance and value of future people and goods
E)encourage sustainable practices by making it more economically feasible to update sewage treatment plants and municipal landfills

Question 28

Which of the following is a similarity between the two projections shown?

A)Industrial output drops off in both scenarios.
B)Human populations will inevitably crash in both projections.
C)Resources continue to be depleted in both scenarios.
D)Food resources crash in both scenarios.
E)Pollution will be a growing problem in both projections.

Question 29

The GPI for the United States _____________.

A)is far below that of the rest of the world
B)has increased dramatically since 1975
C)has leveled off since 1975
D)increases when resources extraction increases
E)increases when resource consumption increases

Question 30

How is global climate change expected to affect global per capita GDP by the year 2200?

A)GDP is supposed to increase slightly by the year 2200,but the GPI is expected to decrease precipitously as people struggle emotionally and socioeconomically from the effects of climate change.
B)Climate change is expected to boost GDP by greater than 5% annually by the year 2200 as economies flourish because of extra spending on flooding,hurricanes,droughts,and other impacts of climate change.
C)GDP is expected to increase because all projections indicate that human populations will crash by the year 2200,so per capita GDP will increase.
D)Climate change is expected to decrease GDP by greater than 5% annually by the year 2200 as economies struggle because of the economic effects of flooding,hurricanes,droughts,and other impacts of climate change.
E)GDP is expected to increase by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius by the year 2200.

Question 31

_____________ is the sociological term for discontentment brought on by consumerism and materialism.

A)Dysentery
B)Influenza
C)Systemic materialism
D)Consumption
E)Affluenza

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of greenwashing?

A)using biodegradable paints
B)ecolabeling
C)covering up environmental injustices
D)discounting future effects
E)creating the illusion of green or sustainable practices

Question 33

A major study of the effectiveness of the PSA (Payment for Environmental Services)program in
Costa Rica determined that ________________.

A)the program was counterproductive because deforestation continued unchecked even after landowners signed up for the program
B)deforestation rates had already been dropping before the program was started
C)the program was extremely effective,and deforestation rates began to decline as soon as the program was instituted
D)the program was initiated too late for the forests of Costa Rica to recover
E)deforestation rates began to decline as an immediate result of the program,but farmers quickly removed their land from the program and reverted to their prior deforestation practices once they were paid

Question 34

Robert Costanza's research on ecosystem services found that _____________

A)ecosystem services provided by Earth's biosphere are worth more than goods and services created and provided by people
B)the value of ecosystem services has been overstated in the literature and should be valued at only 1/10 of the value generally accepted by economists
C)most ecosystem services can be replicated by humans,but materials like wood cannot be manufactured
D)actions taken from a conservation viewpoint actually serve ecosystems more efficiently than those from a preservation viewpoint
E)wetlands detoxify and purify water

Question 35

_____________ involves meeting the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

A)Sustainable subsistence
B)Sustainable development
C)Social justice
D)Ecological development
E)Economic development

Question 36

Briefly describe the Cornucopian and Cassandran economic positions relative to their environmental views.

Question 37

_____________ is the philosophical movement espoused by Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman which saw natural entities as symbols or messengers of deeper spiritual truth.

A)Ecofeminism
B)Preservationism
C)Transcendentalism
D)Environmental justice movement
E)Pantheism

Question 38

Accounting for nonmarket values of ecosystem services may help us make better environmental and economic decisions.Identify,briefly describe,and give examples of these nonmarket values.

Question 39

Which one of the following is an ecosystem service?

A)pollination of crop plants
B)genetically modifying food
C)global warming
D)creation of pollution
E)erosion

Question 40

Gross domestic product is _____________

A)the willingness of consumers to pay for ecosystem services
B)all the resources necessary to produce ecosystem services
C)the total economic value of goods and services produced by a country
D)a measure of conventional economic activity,with positive nonmonetary influences added and negative nonmonetary impacts subtracted
E)the cost of services minus the economic value of enhancements or degradation to the environment