Deck 6: Human Population

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

E

Question 2

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

Answer 2

D

Question 3

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

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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 5

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 6

External costs include .

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

Question 7

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 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

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 12

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 13

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 14

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

Question 15

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 16

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 17

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 18

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 19

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 20

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

Question 21

would oppose fuel efficiency standards because they believe that we will either find more oil or find an alternative solution to the fossil fuel crisis.

A) Conservationists
B) Cassandras
C) Transcendentalists
D) Preservationists
E) Cornucopians

Question 22

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

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

Question 23

Why would the consumption of fossils fuels remain high, despite high prices?

A) bad weather
B) political unrest in the Middle East
C) excessive supplies of fossil fuels
D) cultural preferences and resistance to change
E) nonrenewability of fossil fuels

Question 24

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 25

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 26

What factor might lead to more political support for higher fuel -efficiency standards?

A) release of oil from the national petroleum reserves
B) lower oil prices
C) an end to political instability in the Middle East
D) a greater supply of oil
E) even higher oil prices

Question 27

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 28

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 29

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 30

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 31

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 32

What measure(s) might consumers take to aid in the fossil fuel crisis?

A) lobby the government to stop industry permit trading
B) purchase only imported fuel
C) protest high taxes on fossil fuels
D) use public transportation and demand fuel -efficient vehicles
E) purchase only domestic fuel

Question 33

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 34

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 35

Which of the items in the figure would be viewed as having ethical standing by a person who espouses a biocentric ethical perspective?

A) the group of people and the whale
B) the group of people
C) the group of people, the whale, the ocean, and the mountains
D) the group of people, the whale, and the ocean
E) the whale

Question 36

What alternative measure might the government take to aid in the fossil fuel crisis?

A) abolish green taxes
B) approve legislation to provide more funding to develop renewable energy
C) reopen closed coal mines
D) drill for oil off the Florida coast
E) build more oil refineries

Question 37

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