Deck 25: Environmental Worldviews, ethics, and Sustainability

Question 1

Studying the earth's living systems to find out what works and what lasts,and then looking at how we might copy such earth wisdom,is a pioneering science called ____.

A) biosimulation
B) bioimitation
C) biomimicry
D) biofascimile
E) bioreplication

Answer 1

biomimicry

Question 2

Which worldview proposes that when we use the earth's natural capital,we are borrowing from the earth and from future generations?

A) planetary management
B) stewardship
C) free-market school
D) spaceship-earth school
E) environmental wisdom

Answer 2

stewardship

Question 3

What is one of the components of a sustainability revolution?

A) population stabilization
B) consume and throw away
C) fossil fuels as a primary energy source
D) high resource utilization
E) reduced biodiversity

Answer 3

population stabilization

Question 4

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

A) no-problem school
B) free-market school
C) spaceship-earth school
D) stewardship
E) ecocentrism

Question 5

Which statement most supports the ethical guidelines for living more sustainably?

A) Reducing the earth's natural capital will be offset by new technologies.
B) The earth's capacity for self-repair is without bounds.
C) Resources are available for man's ultimate needs.
D) Increasing energy needs can be met through innovation.
E) Climate-disrupting activities should be minimized.

Question 6

Which term is synonymous with an anthropocentric worldview?

A) self-centered
B) life-centered
C) human-centered
D) ecosystem-centered
E) earth-centered

Question 7

Part of the environmental wisdom worldview proposes that success involves ____.

A) managing the earth's systems for ourselves
B) managing the earth by dominating,changing,and managing the earth for everyone
C) economic growth,development,better management,and technology
D) learning how nature sustains itself and integrating this into our actions
E) understanding nature to dominate,change,and manage it

Question 8

Which worldview is exemplified by the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service in the management of refuges protecting habitats and breeding areas for waterfowl and big game?

A) no-problem school
B) free-market school
C) planetary management
D) environmental wisdom
E) stewardship

Question 9

What is an example of reducing our ecological footprints?

A) buying inorganic foods
B) decreasing mass transit use
C) increasing meat consumption
D) incorporating adequate ventilation in houses
E) sharing tools and other consumer goods

Question 10

What idea aligns most with the earth-centered worldview?

A) Federal lands should be opened for greater commercial development.
B) Humans are in charge of the world.
C) Preventing the depletion natural capital is a key to promoting sustainability.
D) Human economies and systems are dependent on human innovation.
E) Natural resources can be considered unlimited.

Question 11

What are the three major environmental worldviews?

A) planetary management,biosphere management,and environmental wisdom
B) natural capital,biosphere management,and stewardship
C) stewardship,federal management,and environmental wisdom
D) environmental wisdom,ethical sustainability,natural capital
E) planetary management,stewardship,and environmental wisdom

Question 12

Which of the following could be an agent of change that contributes to more sustainable living?

A) increased product consumption
B) environmental literacy
C) proliferate use of natural capital
D) less stringent pollution controls
E) diminished dependency on wind energy

Question 13

What statement best describes a major assumption of the planetary management worldview?

A) Human economies and other systems are subsystems of the earth's life-support systems.
B) Humans are the most important and dominant species.
C) Resources are limited and should not be wasted.
D) We have an ethical responsibility to be stewards of the earth.
E) We must discourage earth-degrading forms of economic growth.

Question 14

Which statement aligns most with the environmental wisdom worldview?

A) Our success depends on learning how nature sustains itself.
B) Humans can manage nature to meet our increasing needs and wants.
C) Resources are essentially unlimited.
D) Sustaining nature depends on the ingenuity of humans.
E) Human inventiveness and technology will prevent depletion of resources.

Question 15

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

A) We should focus on recycling waste and wastewater.
B) We should learn how to grow a rainforest in an enclosed area to life-support.
C) We must be aware that CO₂ recycling is really difficult.
D) We cannot engineer life-supporting systems as well as those provided by nature.
E) We must admit that extinction is inevitable.

Question 16

Which worldview understands the earth to be a complex machine that we can understand,dominate,change,and manage for everyone's good without overloading natural systems?

A) spaceship-earth school
B) free-market school
C) deep ecology school
D) biocentric philosophy
E) stewardship principle

Question 17

Which approach proposes that we can solve any environmental,population,or resource problem with more economic growth and development,better management,and better technology?

A) no-problem school
B) human centered school
C) environmental wisdom
D) free-market school
E) planetary management

Question 18

Which action is characteristic of voluntary simplicity?

A) learning to live with much less
B) working more to provide for more family wants
C) using products with greater environmental impact
D) adding more possessions that last longer
E) increasing adoption in underdeveloped societies

Question 19

A characteristic of exponential growth is that the growth ____.

A) increases at a steady rate over time
B) increases very rapidly at first and then slowly continues to climb
C) increases very rapidly at first and then plateaus
D) starts off slowly,but at some point,increases at a very rapid rate
E) starts at a very high rate and gradually declines over time

Question 20

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

A) no-problem school
B) human centered school
C) environmental wisdom
D) free-market school
E) planetary management

Question 21

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

Question 22

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

Question 23

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

Question 24

About three-fourths of the United States federal public land is in Alaska.

Question 25

The Biosphere 2 experiment was a complete success.

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

Question 28

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.

Question 29

The spaceship-earth worldview understands the earth as a complex machine that we can dominate,change,and manage.

Question 30

The stewardship worldview holds that as we use natural capital we are ____________________ from future generations.

Question 31

Most people with a life-centered worldview believe we have an ethical responsibility to avoid causing the premature extinction of species.

Question 32

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

Question 33

Devotion to preserving the earth's biodiversity and life systems for now and in the future is part of the ____________________ worldview.

Question 34

Ways of thinking about how the world works and beliefs that people hold about their roles in the natural world is referred to as a(n)____________________.

Question 35

Humans are seen as separate from the rest of nature,and they can manage nature to meet increasing needs and wants according to the ____________________ worldview.

Question 36

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.

Question 37

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

Question 38

Some analysts suggest that for some people,acquiring more and more goods should be treated as a(n)____________________ .

Question 39

Some affluent people in more-developed countries have adopted a lifestyle of ____________________,in which they seek to live with much less than they are accustomed to having.

Question 40

Research by psychologists have found that a growing number of people want more of a sense of community as opposed to more stuff.

Question 41

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.

Question 42

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

Question 43

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.

Question 44

Some analysts suggest the need to continually acquire "more and more goods" should be treated as an addiction.Do you agree? What difference would it make if we did treat it as an addiction? Is this an addiction that we would be willing to work on?

Question 45

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?

Question 46

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?

Question 47

According to the text,what four human activities have the greatest harmful impacts on the environment?

Question 48

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.

Question 49

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?